Eye of the Beholder (video game)

Eye of the Beholder is a computer role-playing game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1990 for the DOS operating system, later ported to the Amiga, the Sega CD and the SNES. The Sega CD version features an exclusive soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro, which compelled a lot of Genesis fans to get the game, if not for the music alone.

It had two sequels, Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon, released in 1991, and Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor, released in 1993. The third game, however, was not written by Westwood, who had split with SSI over artistic differences and created the Lands of Lore series.

The game was quite similar to Dungeon Master, released in 1987 by FTL Games, and was one of the early games in its genre. It won a number of awards for its gameplay, difficult puzzles and story line.

There was also a Dungeons & Dragons game for the Game Boy Advance called Eye of the Beholder. However in gameplay terms it was quite different, bearing much more resemblance to the Gold Box games, such as the original Pool of Radiance.

Story
The lords of the city of Waterdeep hire a team of adventurers to investigate an evil coming from beneath the city. The adventurers start in the city's sewer, whose entrance gets blocked by a collapse caused by Xanathar, the eponymous beholder. The team descends further beneath the city, going through Dwarf and Drow communities, to Xanathar's lair, where the final confrontation takes place. Many players felt disappointed with the game ending, which is considered by many to be one of the worst game endings ever. Once the eponymous beholder was killed, the player would be treated to a small blue window describing that the beholder was killed and that the adventurers ventured into the surface where they were treated as heroes. Nothing else is mentioned in the ending and there were no accompanying graphics. This was changed in the later released Amiga version, which featured an animated ending.

Related Games
Several remakes of the original game have been created as modules for Neverwinter Nights.

There were also two official sequels to Eye of the Beholder : Eye of the Beholder II - The Legend of Darkmoon and Eye of the Beholder III - Assault on Myth Drannor.

Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon used a modified version of the first games engine, added outdoor areas and greatly increased the amount of interaction the player had with their environment, along with a substantial amount more 'roleplaying' aspects to the game. The Legend of Darkmoon is generally considered the crowning success of the trilogy, compared to the (considered by many) disappointing sequel, Assault on Myth Drannor.

Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor
Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor was developed by a different company to Eye of the Beholder and The Legend of Darkmoon. Despite employing a brand new game engine, updated graphics, interesting and oft-unique NPC selection and good gameplay tweaks, many felt that the storyline of Eye of the Beholder III: Assault of Myth Drannor was weak and that the game had lost the 'feel' of the previous editions.