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Classic dungeon crawling awesomeness!

Anvil of Dawn, a classic DOS-era dungeon crawler with first-person perspective, sprite graphics, a vast and rich world to explore, and dozens of hours of great and motivating gameplay, is available on GOG.com for only $5.99

Every fantasy land needs a hero, it seems. There's always an evil entity of some sort that menaces the realm and its people. Surprisingly, the people never stand up to it. They prefer to wait for a group of adventurers, or even just one champion who knows the importance of wearing leg armor around archers. Inevitably someone comes to the rescue and saves the realm one spider-infested cellar at a time. Schematic as it may sound, we love to relive those adventures over and over again. Even if one dungeon looks pretty much the same as any other, you still get this rush of excitement when making your first steps on its dusty floor. It's not about originality of the concept. It's about the involving gameplay, that lets you forget about the world around you. Here's a perfect game to do just that!

Anvil of Dawn has everything you ever loved about 1990s role-playing games. It presents you with a large and diverse gameworld, full of monsters and enemies to slay, riches and powerful items to loot, quests to carry out, weapons to wield, spells to cast, and an evil overlord to challenge. It was praised for its great pacing allowing to keep the gamer entertained and intrigued, always presenting him with something new to do and achieve. The imaginative sprite-based graphics, solid gameplay mechanics, and many classic gameplay ideas make this title a shining example of well executed cRPG design that makes us call its period "the good old times". Highly recommended!

If a true old-school cRPG experience is what you're looking for, you simply can't afford to miss Anvil of Dawn, for only $5.99 on GOG.com!
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jpolastre: and uhm, this is poking fun at dragon age or there's an even worse offender?
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G-Doc: Not picking on any particular title here. The offender here, is the FPP dungeon-crawling, tile-based RPG genre in general. I always thought that most of these games follow pretty much the same dungeon design. However, I never thought that was a bad thing. Give me any dungeon, any day! :-)
It's okay when the design of some dungeons has some similarities. It's not so good when you enter a dungeon absolutely identical to the one you have just been in. That's why I mentioned Dragon Age

Mass Effect (at least the first, which I played as opposed to the later installments) is guilty of that too. Except for the main plot's planets every time you entered a building you could just look at the minimap and you'd immediately know how many rooms there would be and where the important stuff would be placed.
Never got around to Lands of Lore and Might and Magic 5+, so this one would be on my shelf. Wishlisted for now. Exactly the kind of game I love seeing pop up on GOG though, good work guys.
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jpolastre: It's okay when the design of some dungeons has some similarities. It's not so good when you enter a dungeon absolutely identical to the one you have just been in. That's why I mentioned Dragon Age

Mass Effect (at least the first, which I played as opposed to the later installments) is guilty of that too. Except for the main plot's planets every time you entered a building you could just look at the minimap and you'd immediately know how many rooms there would be and where the important stuff would be placed.
Oh, yes. Agreed to that. I have nothing against one classic game resembling another in level-design (or even enemy-design), but repetitive gameplay pushing you through a series of cloned locations with only a sprinkle of diversity is a serious offense in my book. I like the fact that when I enter a dungeon in an old-school game I get the feeling of familiarity, because other games I played before felt a lot like it. When it happens over the course of one game, it's not familiarity anymore--it's just boredom and lazy design. Although that is a necessary evil when it comes to proceduraly generated content, which in turn may provide more playtime. It's really hard to find the sweet spot here :-/
Not familiar with this one, but at least it's an oldie, so yay! June better be 'classic point'n'click adventure month' though, or else!
I remember playing the demo back in the day and being impressed by the graphics :)
It's a classical one. I recalled reading a walkthrough on a magazine 10 years ago and was amazed to find a game so complicated and never found the courage to play the game. Guess it's time to pick up the game?
Looks interesting. Wishlisted for now.
This is an awesome game! I love it!
I still have my original box, manual and CD for this one. I never got into it, back in the day... Too many other games vying for my attention at the time.... M&M3, MoO, MoM, Civ, MoO2, Civ2, Genesia (Ultimate Domain), Populous, War Monger, and so many others.

Truly, 1993-1995 was a golden age for computer games... until Doom came along and ruined everything.

Wishlisted for now...
This looks awesome. Wishlisted until I get my game queue to a slightly more manageable level. (too many games bought, not enough time to play them all, im sure you all know the story)

I really wish they would work on getting the classics of this genre though. I know the rights issues can be a bitch, but if you can get System Shock 2, you should be able to get the Wizardry series and Eye of the Beholder. Those would be instant buys by me at almost any price.
Post edited May 14, 2013 by jeffreydean1
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jeffreydean1: I really wish they would work on getting the classics of this genre though. I know the rights issues can be a bitch, but if you can get System Shock 2, you should be able to get the Wizardry series and Eye of the Beholder. Those would be instant buys by me at almost any price.
And Dungeon Master 1 & 2.

Many years ago Raven Software ported the first two levels of Black Crypt to the PC. The plan was to port the entire, but they never did. It would be great if they finished it, or open sourced it.
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jeffreydean1: I really wish they would work on getting the classics of this genre though. I know the rights issues can be a bitch, but if you can get System Shock 2, you should be able to get the Wizardry series and Eye of the Beholder. Those would be instant buys by me at almost any price.
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jalister: And Dungeon Master 1 & 2.
Agreed. Those I would also love to buy, just not as much as Wizardry series and Eye of Beholder (nostalgia factor :) )
Aww man I just found out that when Dreamforge shut down in 2000 they were working on an RPG based on the White Wolf Werewolf pen and paper RPG
Dreamforge were a proven RPG maker and the 2 Vampire games prove that the Whitewolf settings and system can translate well so it seems a shame it didn't get finished...
http://www.mobygames.com/company/dreamforge-intertainment-inc
Post edited May 14, 2013 by Fever_Discordia
Wizardry 1 is the first one I played, but it was Dungeon Master on the Amiga 500 that really impressed. Plus Chaos Strikes Back which was never officially released in PC. I loved the EoB series also, and Wizardy 8 is one of my all time favorites.

I have the Wizardy Collection on disk, which is 1 thru 7. I believe it's DRM and copy protection free. So I'd really love to see Wizardy 8 first.
Nice. :) I bought this game about two years after it had come out, found it in a bargain bin. It looked better than it played, but it was still a pretty decent dungeon crawler. Won't buy it for full price since I already own it, but might be getting it as a digital backup copy when it's on sale.