1993 Dungeon
Hack Dungeon Hack was both a departure from and a return to SSI's role-playing game roots. It was based on Eye of the Beholder's first-person pseudo-real-time engine, and had absolutely nothing in the way of an underlying story, outside of your character being required to reach the bottom of a dungeon to retrieve an artifact. It allowed players to generate distinctive dungeons to explore and conquer on the fly. By means of a couple of on/off switches and sliding bars, players could adjust the number, and to some degree the type (undead creatures on/off) of monsters, amount of treasure, number of hints, number of locked doors and number of traps present in each dungeon. Players who craved real excitement could also toggle the "player death real" switch on or off. This switch, when on, would make dying in a particular dungeon a permanent affair, as that character would be immediately deleted, along with all saved games.
Dungeon Hack truly lived up to its title: It was a no-nonsense dungeon romp that was as hard or as easy as the player decided to make it. It featured better graphics, a boatload of different magical weapons, treasures and goodies, and nearly infinite replayability, since every dungeon was generated randomly. However, its Eye of the Beholder heritage did give rise to a problem or two, like the inability to cast spells while wearing armor (you had to remove it, cast, then put it back on), which was really a specific case of the cumbersome and awkward click-and-drag inventory system. In spite of its minor flaws, Dungeon Hack managed to be an enjoyable and addictive little hack-and-slasher. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
