The third installment of the popular Eye of the Beholder series starts with the heroes of Waterdeep entertaining patrons at a local tavern. To the crowds pleasure they are telling tales of past heroic deeds. Suddenly, a cloaked figure brings news of a growing new evil centered amongst the ruins of fabled Myth Drannor that only they can destroy.
Sound fun? Well fans of the first two EOB games might wish to stay clear of this poor climax of what was, (with Westwoods help), a delightful series.
Strategic Simulations Inc. took full control of this project after Westwood decided to go off and do their own thing, namely the Lands of Lore games. Needless to say SSI dropped the ball on this one. Now to be fair EOB3 has great graphics (for its time, 1993) and the controls are basically the same but does add a convenient all attack button that would have been nice in the first two games. You do have more spells to aid you through your quest such as true seeing and haste. There is also the nice ability to import your EOB 2 characters in case you don't feel like creating a new one or if you just have a personal favorite from the previous game.
I
personally thought the cinematic intermissions, (which there are more of this time around), were nice as well as the 5 new music scores and sounds, although at times I wanted to tell the speakers to shut up but still, overall they were nice.
Despite all the improvements however, EOB3 failed to deliver the needed punch to finish the series. First off the combats are way too easy, not to mention dull after the way too numerous skeletal warriors and ghost battles. Secondly, the puzzles are too simple, find the right combo type which fans of the series will consider disappointing. Also if you are a rpg'er who enjoys a good, solid story in your game then shun this one because it lacks it. There also seems to be a few elements of the game that were dropped in as a vain attempt to make this game more substantial than it was. I might seem overly harsh and critical but considering how much fun I had with the first two EOB games I had expected a lot more. I guess I'll go pout and drown my sorrows by loading up EOB 1 in an attempt to recapture the glory that once was.
