Dungeon Master II

Your quest in Dungeon Master 2 is to prevent Dragoth's minions from creating the 'Zo gate', which would allow him to enter Skullkeep. However, there are lots of foes to slay in order to reach that goal! The beginning of the game is just like it was in the first one; you get to assemble your party consisting of four heroes, except this time you can only choose three of them. The game starts in a dungeon, filled with coffin-like statues crafted on the soil. You wake up as the main character, and the choosing of your fellow warriors can be done by opening the coffins of the chosen characters. All the characters differ in class, attributes and starting items. Your party members gain levels as you kill monsters. After gathering your party, you go up a ladder and end up in a small house. You must find the key in order to get out of the house. Regrettably, many of the riddles and problems involve finding a key which opens a door, allowing you to venture forward. After getting out of the house you find yourself in the middle of a dark forest, where there are some slime-like creatures crawling around. This is where you find the shops. They all sell different items; there's a food store, a weaponsmith, an armoury and a general store. Going wild inside the shops (like throwing apples or other random objects at the shopkeeper) will cause the guards go berserk on you, beating you into a pulp with bare fists no matter how tough your armour is. Skullkeep still differs from the original Dungeon Master pretty much; the graphics have improved a lot. Music, which wasn't even present in the first part, gives the game a fine atmosphere. The major factor that weakens the quality of Skullkeep is the lack of puzzles, which have sadly been replaced with more combat. And, unlike in Dungeon Master, there are outdoor areas. The game itself looks pretty much like Dungeon Master. You have small portraits of your characters' weapons above the main screen, and their status bars next to them. There are six buttons for moving around; four directions plus turning left and right. You also have to choose the formation of your party. Of course you should place the strongest ones in the front, as they are able to smash the monsters and take all the damage, but also keep in mind that if you get attacked from behind, the weaker ones are in danger. The battle system is as simple as it was back in Dungeon Master; you just click on a character's weapon icon next to the group formation bar, popping out a menu with all the attack types. The attack types have differing recovery times and damage amounts. This makes the flaw due to the lack of puzzles even greater, since all the fighting can get pretty boring after killing the same monsters a hundred times. Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep is a fine game, but it would be much better without the significant flaws. Still, it shouldn't be missed by anyone who likes the roleplaying genre or the first Dungeon Master.