Together Retro: First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[MrPopo]

My plan is to start something when I'm done with Pillars II, which will probably be mid month. I went deep into FPDCs earlier this year, so here's my options:

The Bard's Tale
Betrayal at Krondor
Dragon Wars
TES: Arena
Eye of the Beholder
Lands of Lore II
Menzoberranzan
Might and Magic VII
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession
Realms of Arkania: Star Trail
Ultima Underworld

Any votes?

[Exhuminator]

Yup, that sums up my experiences with the original Wizardry trilogy / And they're rat bastards!

Yeah I wouldn't recommend the original incarnations as the way to go with the initial Wizardry trilogy. Successive remakes improved things considerably.

Any votes?

I think Ultima Underworld is the best in your list (UU2 is even better). Followed by Eye of the Beholder and Menzoberranzan.

I really hope somebody plays Anvil of Dawn for this TR.

[MrPopo]

Those graphics are something else.

[marurun]

Might and Magic I think has a Grimrock-ish gridded dungeon crawler, doesn't it? Or am I thinking Wizardry? Probably M&M.

[MrPopo]

Might and Magic I think has a Grimrock-ish gridded dungeon crawler, doesn't it? Or am I thinking Wizardry? Probably M&M.

Lesson time.

Initially you have games like Wizardry and Bard's Tale, which is first person, on a grid, and combat happens randomly and switches to a turn based system like Dragon Quest. Might and Magic I & II fit into that vein. Next came Dungeon Master, which is on a grid but in real time; enemies can be seen at all times and move around as they choose (as do you). Actions now all have cooldowns; you can only swing your sword once every few seconds. This led to Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, and much later Grimrock. Might and Magic III-V are a weird hybrid between the two. You can see enemies on the map, but they act like roguelike enemies in that they only take an action after you do. When enemies are not in your square you can used ranged attacks or magic on them. Once they reach your square you switch to turn based melee battles again. However, this turn also allows enemies around you to keep moving (though they can't attack you). Since a square can only hold three enemies at a time, this lets enemies pile up and if you're in the middle of a large horde they will keep filing in as you kill others.

So my question would be what part of Grimrock did you find clunky? That will guide what might be good suggestions that don't fall into those same issues, but at a guess I'd suspect that you want to either do something Wizardry style or go for fully real time like the Elder Scrolls games.

[Exhuminator]

What's a good dungeon crawler with more modern mechanics and interface? I tried Grimrock 1 a while back but found it pretty clunky.

You might like Vaporum or 7 Mages or The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians or The Quest. But those aren't legitimately retro (as in old games, they're retro in spirit).

Maybe check out the original Etrian Odyssey series? The first two on DS are ten years old now.

[samsonlonghair]

Um... I want to participate, but... (how can I say this without thread crapping?)... I need something more action-oriented. Is there such a thing as a fast-paced, arcade-style first person dungeon runner?

[Exhuminator]

I didn't like the lack of hotkeys and the stiff tile-based movement in grimrock (how if you hold down forward after having moved a tile the party will automatically move two more tiles forward, how you can't move back while halfway between tiles and how it could be annoying when trying to pick stuff up lying between two tiles).

I need something more action-oriented. Is there such a thing as a fast-paced, arcade-style first person dungeon runner?

Sounds to me like both of you would enjoy non-node based FPDCs, with real time free movement (kinda FPS style). Plus combat that's not turn-based. Check out Arx Fatalis, or any King's Field game. Shadow Tower Abyss fits that bill. You can play it in English. Also Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. There are others, I just have to remember them. Maybe someone else will have some suggestions in this regard.

[Sarge]

Um... I want to participate, but... (how can I say this without thread crapping?)... I need something more action-oriented. Is there such a thing as a fast-paced, arcade-style first person dungeon runner?

The aforementioned Orcs & Elves totally fits in this category. It's not straight action-oriented, but it's so fast with the turns that it might as well be. I'm currently having a ton of fun with the game.

Also, agreed with Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. It's got some great, visceral combat from what I've read. I thought about this one for this month as well; I've had a boxed copy I haven't played for years now!

[Exhuminator]

I beat Dark Messiah of Might & Magic years ago and loved it. Very visceral combat with lightweight dungeon crawling (you're not always in dungeons though). I recommend it.