Eye of the Beholder II
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Played through this. Compared to the first one, they really tried to make it much more varied. The cellar, the different towers… they don’t just look differently, but each area comes with its own challenges etc. I also liked how much less they relied on the pure obscurity of making the levels confusing.
What got borderline annoying was those respawning enemies. The non-linear structure needed me to go back through several areas repeatedly. Every time you change level, all enemies are back!
What I’m wondering about is how some of the areas are really supposed to be played. For instance, that level which is full of beholders, or shortly thereafter the one full of bullettes. Surviving that is just a pure game of luck. Saved/reloaded so many times, but that can’t be how they intended it…?
Yeah, there are a few annoying bits as you mentioned. I’m a bit over halfway through myself. So far I had real trouble dealing with the giant horde of skeletons (I decided to go for a very magic-user heavy party this time and, whoops, the skeletons are highly resistant to magic!)
I also found the light beam room with the mantises beyond it very annoying, but it didn’t take me long to get past it. I’m just on the level with the beholders now. You just have to use guerilla tactics on them and they’re not too hard (hit and run). Not sure about the bullettes yet…
But a few little annoyances like that aside, I’m really enjoying this game. I love the art and the atmosphere, and a lot of the puzzles are fun and interesting. Most of the locations feel a lot more believable than the first one as well. In EOB1 all the levels just felt like abstract mazes, and I never felt like I was in dwarven ruins or a drow city or whatever. But in EOB2, even with basic grid-based maps, they managed to make the locations feel alive and believable.
When you look at it, the story isn’t really any more complex than in EOB1, but it feels more involved and intricate, with more and better interactions with NPCs.
I have been waiting about 25 years to play this game, and despite all the buildup I’m definitely not disappointed.
Well, if you think those beholders were not so bad, then just wait for the mindflares towards the end. Happened to me several times that they just paralyzed my whole party with one single spell 😉
I wholeheartedly agree about the world feeling much more alive. I also really appreciated how my party was much more talkative, regularly remarking on the current situation, the dungeon etc. Even if it rarely had much of a real relevance, it felt very satisfying to explore. Likewise, I appreciated the baddie popping up semi-regularly in the course of the game. Made it feel much more targetted and actually building up to something.
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