[matthey]

Originally Posted by Overdoc

@Dungeon Master:
I can't remember why I gave up, I think it became somehow tedious because we had to go back to level 3 from level 7 or something ?

Was that where the purple worms were? Did you not see the short cut? I didn't find Dungeon Master tedious at all. It is very well balanced and playable even if completely unrealistic in some areas.

Originally Posted by Overdoc

But, I might try Dungeon Master II Legend of Skullkeep, if it does not need DM 1 to have finished before to understand the plot of the game or something ?
Do you think DM II is easier than DM I for someone who has not played any of them before ?

Both Chaos Strikes Back and Legend of Skullkeep can be referred to as DM2. IMO,

Dungeon Master - Starts out very easy and gets moderately difficult.
Chaos Strikes Back - Starts out very difficult and I didn't play it long enough to figure out how difficult it gets.
Legend of Skullkeep - Starts out easy and gets mildly difficult.

Much of Legend of Skullkeep is outside but with limits on travel.

Originally Posted by Thorham

DM2 has the same rune based spell system as DM. If you don't like that, then don't play DM2 or Chaos Strikes Back. Also, if you don't like food and water (characters can die of starvation and dehydration), then don't play the DM series games.

Water is not a problem unless forgetting to refill supplies. Food is not a problem at the beginning or after finding regenerating monsters but it may require going back for more if having trouble with puzzles. The character food and water burn rate is ridiculous if there wasn't plenty of it available. Leave it to Meynaf to show how ridiculous and annoying they can be though .

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

The runes are supremely easy to learn if you read the manual (or online guides) and it takes only about 10-20 minutes to memorize their meaning. They forms a very coherent (overall) system and you can actually find spells yourself if you take the time to analyze how it works.

For my brain, it is easier to remember numbers with the first symbol being the power. For example,

power, 4 = magic torch
power, 4, 4 = fireball
power, 3, 3, 5 = lightning bolt
power, 5, 2 = weaken non-material beings
power, 3, 1 = poison cloud

These are off the top of my head and I haven't played for awhile so there could be mistakes. It would have been better if the spell recipes would have been randomized at the start of each game (the symbol which represents fire, cold, poison, etc. could have changed). Also, 6x6 or 7x7 symbols would have made it much more difficult to discover spell recipes by experimenting which is a joke once a character has enough mana. Some kind of short cut system for known recipes may have helped playability though. I wouldn't say the spell casting system of DM is one of its strengths but some people like it.

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

Also I must second the DM recommendation, it is the richest of the dungeon crawlers, although EOB and BlackCrypt (which I like too) are more beautiful they are much less well designed both UI wise and quest wise.

IMO, the UI of BlackCrypt is its strength and greatly surpasses DM. The UI of EOB is about on par, beating in some ways and losing in others. Maybe my ratings would go something like this:

Dungeon Master
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 10/10
Music: -
User Interface: 6/10
Character Building: 6/10
Level design and puzzles: 9/10 (only knock is too linear)
Playability: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10

Black Crypt
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 5/10
Music: 10/10
User Interface: 10/10
Character Building: 4/10
Level design and puzzles: 3/10
Playability: 7/10
Atmosphere: 5/10

EOB 1
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6/10
Music: -
User Interface: 5/10
Character Building: 6/10
Level design and puzzles: 7/10
Playability: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10

EOB 2
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 7/10
Music: 8/10
User Interface: 6/10
Character Building: 6/10
Level design and puzzles: 6/10
Playability: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10