Dungeon Master

Dungeon Master is a first person dungeon adventure from developer FTL (Faster than Light). Your quest is to descend through 14 levels of the eponymous Dungeon to retrieve the Fire Staff the only weapon capable of defeating the evil Lord Chaos.

Your quest begins in the hall of champions. Portraits of fallen warriors line the hallways and as you view these you are able to resurrect them to join your party. Champions must be selected carefully to complement each other as each have different skills and equipment that you'll need on your journey.

The game featured a sophisticated experience system for the time. Each character was able to progress in four classes; Fighter, Ninja, Priest and Wizard. Advancement in each being being dependent on using the attributes relevant to the profession. For example you would put a character to the front of your party and let them attack with melee weapons to advance in the fighter class.

As well as the experience system dungeon master gave each character a number of additional attributes that needed to be carefully managed throughout the quest. Characters would need food, drink and rest. These would be satisfied by items found around the dungeon, Dragon steaks were particularly nutritious and you had to remember that sleeping when there were enemies near was always a mistake.

The magic system in Dungeon Master was more than simple selection of spells. You would need to group selections of runes from a list. If combined correctly the spell would result. If not, nothing. The basic spells would be given to you via scrolls but many were left to trial and error meaning you could discover them on your own.

All these features combined with a series of challenging puzzle filled levels and a strong cast of memorable enemies made Dungeon Master a truely memorable and influential game.