1. Jungle Book (SNES)(Platformer)2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)14. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - Capcom Version (NGPC)(Card Game)15. Toonstruck (PC)(Point and Click)16. Riven (PC)(Point and Click)17. Dragon Wars (PC)(RPG)18. Dungeon Hack (PC)(RPG)Dungeon Hack is quite possibly the ultimate dungeon crawler approach to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It features a setup similar to Eye of the Beholder, but with a few quality of life improvements like an easily accessible map and "radar" feature. It offers billions of potential dungeon designs, with an array of traps, layouts, hidden doors, teleporters, spinners, monsters, and of course treasure. It also has some nasty designs thrown in for good measure, such as the potential for an entire level underwater, sections of dungeon that are pitch black, and "boss" monsters on various floors which may well require gear you simply do not have. Factor in the ability to play it as a roguelike with permadeath if you so desire, and the ability to set whatever options you want in the dungeon (such as turning on pits, making monsters tougher or easier, removing the underwater level, etc.), and you have a lot of potential gameplay however you want to approach it.
Unfortunately, Dungeon Hack also highlights some of the problems with AD&D video games, such as required class abilities necessary to progress in case you don't get lucky with gear (and you might but probably won't) and the ever problematic starvation system. The game acts as a race against the clock, as you try to delve through however many floors you can manage before running out of rations...or you come as a Cleric and get to level 5 so you can cast a spell which completely negates the need for food. You might also not have the gear necessary to get through the underwater level, which means a slow death from drowning...or you come as a Cleric with the Water Breathing spell. Healing takes forever...or you come as a Cleric. And guess who gets a spell to see invisible monsters? Mages do. Mages can also get the spell to turn invisible, which causes most enemies to be unable to hit you. But Mages and Clerics aren't frontline fighters and tend to be squishier, which is why you want a Fighter who can take the brunt of attacks. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Each of the core classes from Dungeons and Dragons fills a key role and offers much needed abilities to help deal with whatever threat or challenge you're facing. But Dungeon Hack only lets you play as a single character, so what's the solution? Either play a Cleric and hope for the best or cross-class like a mother, which is what I did. Only Half-Elf characters can reach the holy trinity of Fighter/Cleric/Mage, which is absolutely ridiculous and what I ended up doing. It took a long time to level, but by the end of the game I was untouchable. This happens when you buff yourself with Protection from Evil, Bless, Aid, Prayer, Magical Vestment, Shield, Detect Magic, See Invisibility, and Improved Invisibility while also sporting a -10 AC and a morning star that was at least +3.
The dungeon can also drag on too long. I read in reviews of Dungeon Hack that a dungeon of about 12-13 levels was the ideal, and having just run one with 18 levels, I agree. Level 12 was the last floor where I had a problem; by then, I'd seen nearly every monster in the rotation and had the weapons, armor, and spells to breeze through the next five. I was so leveled up that by the time I got to the final boss, some nasty critter that looked like a demon (it may have been a Balor), it couldn't touch me. I sat back and slowly beat it to death with my morning star while watching to see if it would ever actually damage me. It didn't, and I beat the game.
Hey, I planned ahead knowing what AD&D could be like and having the experience of having best two Eye of the Beholder games ahead of time, so I did know what to expect. Even with an idea of tactics and gameplay, I still found certain areas and monsters challenging, so don't think that Dungeon Hack is a cakewalk. It isn't. Plan ahead. It does offer a lot of variety, and it's a game you can go back to again and again regardless of whether you win or lose. I recommend it to dungeon crawler fans. But know that you're going to experience some of the same problems as EotB, and some of those issues will be magnified due to the party of 1. I don't think I'd ever attempt this while not playing either a Cleric or something cross-classed into one, because Clerics are simply too important to pass up.
