Eye of the Beholder: Sewers, sewers, sewers

Dungeon Level 1: Sewers

The way out is blocked.

After creating our party, we start the game on Level 1 of the dungeon, right in front of the rubble that crashed and sealed the only exit. If only we needed more motivation! Since the heroes do not start fully equipped, anything we find in these upper levels can be of use, from rocks to use as missile weapons, to leather boots and leather armors. Near the entrance I also found the body (represented by bones) of a long-dead adventurer, halfling in this case, along with a set of lockpicks, suggesting that the poor halfling was a thief.

Mous is fighting some kobolds.

The first level is really small and easy to navigate, and it acts as an introduction to the mechanics of the game. The enemies are fairly simple (although mous did die once here) and they do not respawn. I faced kobolds, which usually come in packs of 4, and giant leeches, which are so slow-moving that I hit them and backed down without giving them the chance to reciprocate.

Besides the enemies, the first dungeon level introduces also some easy puzzles, like finding a hidden button on a wall or placing an item on a pressure plate in order for a door to open a bit later. At some point, there is a niche in the wall containing some scrolls. If we put a specific item there, we complete the special quest of this level. And yes, every level has its own special quest, without nobody telling us so. The way I found out about this (back in 1993) was totally accidental. I completed the special quest of a level below that was very easy to do, and then retraced my steps to the upper levels to try and complete the rest. Since this is my fourth playthrough of the game, I was aware of the concept of special quests. I even remember some of them from 20 years ago, when I last played Eye of the Beholder. 

Completing the special quest for level 4
(unfortunately no screenshot for other levels)

Dungeon Level 2: Sewers

The second level of the dungeon is still a sewers level. The environment is similar, but the level is much larger than the previous one, especially if you count the "elevator" that exists and transports our party to different sublevels.

I kind of crumpled my level 2 map :)

Here was the first opportunity for my cleric to turn undead, as the enemies for this level are skeletons and zombies. The zombies are very slow, so I applied the "hit and get back" tactic. With the skeletons, I had to be more creative and "dance" around them hitting them and changing direction. Practicing this "dance of death" was really helpful, as my characters rarely got wounded.

Mous fighting some skeletons.
He seems to have a soft spot for redheads!

The puzzles in this level are a bit more advanced. I found the first door that required a key to open. I tried to open the lock using the lockpicks, but utterly failed and my set of lockpicks broke. Good thing that I had another set found in the level above. There are also spinners, teleporters, and more pressure plates than before. There are a lot of illusory walls as well and the special quest for this level has to do with daggers. Lots of them!

Throwing a stone across a pit.
Don't mind the dead dwarf.

Dungeon Level 3: Sewers

The third dungeon level is similar in size to the second one. So probably only the first level was so small and introductory. This level is filled with gnolls (although they are called "flinds" according to the manual) and kuo-toas, walking frogs that hurl spells. 

And here we had our first drop out. According to Cartoonist, the whole game seemed really old, with repetitive wall textures, that actually gave him the feeling that wherever he turned, he thought he was on the same spot. He got a feeling of depression, like not being able to escape from all this, so he decided to quit the game. He promised to return to the challenge when we moved to the next game on our list. Let's see if he'll hold that promise.

Another complaint from Spartacus was that after finding different weapons and armor, there is not an in-game way to learn how good each piece of equipment is. That is true. There is no indication as to how likely your character is to hit with a specific weapon, nor how much damage he will inflict to the enemy if he connects. Searching through the manual, there was no "weapons table", so I turned to the AD&D 2nd edition Player's Handbook and shared the weapons table from there. It seems like Westwood Studios realized this oversight since there is a weapons table in the manual for Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon.

My Player's Handbook has seen better days...

The difficulty of this level is way higher than the previous. Especially the part where you have to traverse a cluster of corridors with spinners and teleporters at the same time took me a while to figure out. But this was the only way forward since the stairs leading to level 4 are hidden somewhere inside these corridors. The special quest for this level is also difficult to imagine, so I kind of did it by accident. Well, I am 3/3 on special quests, so it doesn't matter so much.

Lots of pits. I suggest you fall into them! At least some...
(just to check what lies below.. no hard feelings)

Regarding the battle's difficulty, I am finding it very simple for now. I always use the "dance of death" approach, and I rarely get wounded, let alone dead. I hope this continues because I intend to play this in true ironman mode (never load a previous position). 

Time so far: 2.5 hours

Reloads: 0