DeathKeep has serious flaws, but, in my opinion, it is not as bad as some reviews suggest, as long as you don't mind playing games from the 90's and the end of the 80's in general. It is also usually deemed worse than the 3DO original, however some improvements make it, I think, better in several aspects. DeathKeep's ancestry could be described as Dungeon Master (party-based 3D dungeon crawler with real-time combat, 4 directions movement) -> Eye of the Beholder (its clone by SSI) -> Dungeon Hack (a single-hero, randomly generated dungeons) -> Slayer (smooth 360° movement, illusion of different floor levels) -> DeathKeep (actual 3D multi-level dungeons, however, not randomly generated), and the game has retained some of the aspects that made those games fun. The first thing you encounter, though, is the bad aspects: 1) controls, 2) platforming, 3) the first dungeon designed as if to showcase them. Controlling movement with mouse is awful, better not to try it. However, using exclusively keyboard controls seemed OK to me, I could easily adapt to it, mostly tapping the keys to move or turn in bursts. The dungeons being 3D, some platforming is introduced in the game. Though not completely bad, it is somewhat awkward. Especially when you have to execute a series of jumps at precise moments (when platforms are rising or falling), you can get frustrated backtracking after each failure (at least falls do not hurt in DeathKeep). However, in this PC version of the game you can save at any point, so if you dislike the platforming aspect, you can alleviate it with saving and restoring until you succeed. Platforming was the only part of the game where I did use also mouse, since it allows a fine turn by small angle, while often it is hard to get the exact desired angle by tapping the keys. The first level has slippery ice (with you bouncing off the walls like a billiard ball after enemy hits you) and platforming (optional, though, leading to some goodies), plus you are weak yet -- one of the worst first levels in gaming history. One can deal with it though doing it by portions: killing some enemies, returning to the rest area to regain health, venturing to kill some more, etc. Plus saving and restoring if nothing else helps. There is no slippery ice in any of the subsequent levels, plus gradually you get quite strong. Combat seems to be easier than in 3DO version, due to the weapon cooldown period being considerably shorter. Boss fights are not much fun, being mostly too easy. The fun part to me besides combat with the enemies was "solving" the level, i.e. finding the way to the exit which typically wasn't quite trivial (but not too hard either), plus -- except for the first levels when I concentrated on survival -- the completionist's approach of finding all enemies and all secrets with goodies. Several of the levels employ the 3D-potential of building intricate mazes. Here the PC version is, in my opinion, considerably better than the 3DO original: it has compass and automap. Youtube has 3DO playthroughs where the players get lost in a maze for an hour or two, while PC version's automap and compass essentially takes away the frustration from finding a way in a maze. The game has quite good music, a variety of monsters (mostly 2-3 new monsters per level), interesting and quite variated level design, it is quite generous with loot (e.g. you usually don't have to rely on the limited spell amount, you can instead use all the orbs and wands lying around when magic is needed), including unique items (usually found within secrets) such as Flame Tongue +3, Bow of Neverending Arrows, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Sustenance, Boots of Flying, etc. The secret doors usually (though not in all levels) are noticeable due to slightly different texture than the normal walls. If you wish to find all enemies, you may need to fly (e.g. with Boots of Flying) on some levels, due to them being hidden on seemingly otherwise inaccessible ledges. Overall, I had quite some fun from this game, despite the flaws.
