Every Dungeons & Dragons Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST

Right, everyone, it's time to assemble around  the dining table with your character sheets   and dice trays, because we're entering into  the magical, shadowy, goblin-infested world   of Dungeons & Dragons, and making a valiant  attempt at appraising each and every video   game based on Gary Gygax's venerable creation.  Robes, cowls, and wizard hats are optional,   but Gods help me, you'd better have brought  snacks. We're going to be here for a while. TheDungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing  game has come a long way since its emergence   back in 1974. Where once it was  seen as a venture purely for lonely,   basement-dwelling males that sparked panic  about devil worship in the hearts and minds   of concerned, misinformed parents across  America, the pastime has since grown into   something of a wholesome phenomenon. Untold  millions are playing all over the world,   and multiple respected celebrities have confessed  to throwing the odd d20 every now and then too. Ever since video games were a  thing, intrepid programmers were   inspired by Dungeons & Dragons to create  expansive adventures in digital form,   and pretty much every game  with any kind of RPG mechanic,   from Final Fantasy VIIto Cyberpunk 2077, owes  its existence to this dice-rolling institution. Of course, many of these digital adventures  have carried the official D&D license,   and for this list, we've amassed a small army of  them. Multiple campaign settings are represented,   too; from Eberron to Spelljammer, and  Al-Qadim to Planescape, we've got the lot,   and if you know what all of those words mean,  then you've definitely come to the right place. We won't be including mobile-only games on  our list, and we're also omitting collections,   re-releases and enhanced editions, instead judging  each game on its original version. When deciding   the rankings, we'll be looking at factors  like critical score, player enjoyment, impact,   and legacy, paying particular attention to how  well-received the game was at the time of release. Right, with all that official stuff out  of the way, it's time to don a suit of   studded leather armour and pray for those  natural 20s, because we're venturing forth   into the vast and hazardous catacomb  that is Dungeons & Dragons video games,   and we're not sure what we're going to run  into down there. Does anyone have darkvision? Let's rank 'em! I'm Dungeon Master, Ben, and I'm  murder hobo, Peter, from TripleJump,   and here is Every Dungeons & Dragons  Video Game Ranked from Worst to Best. 69. (Nice) Iron & Blood: Warriors  of Ravenloft – PC/PS1 – 1997 We’re getting the dice rolling with this unlikely  fusion of Dungeons & Dragons and one-on-one,   3D fighting games. Iron & Blood: Warriors of  Ravenloft was developed by Take-Two Interactive,   and draws from the spooky, Gothic  horror-themed Ravenloft campaign setting. Although Saturn and 3DO versions were  reportedly planned, Iron & Blood:   Warriors of Ravenloft was released only for  the PC and PS1, with the PS1 version going up   against other weapon-based fighters like Battle  Arena Toshinden and Soul Edge. Spoiler alert;   it absolutely does not stand up to any of them. Some reviewers did note that the graphics  were nice and detailed for the time,   it had a chunky roster of eight  heroes and eight villains to play as,   and there existed an innovative mechanic  where characters could learn magical   abilities as they fought, but every other  aspect of the game was critically panned. Jerky controls, dodgy animations, and unhelpful  camera angles all conspired to spoil the   sword-slinging experience. The sound and voice  effects were grating, and the fast-paced techno   soundtrack often juxtaposed hilariously with  the medieval fantasy action. Some reviewers even   claimed that they were able to beat the game by  using only one button, handily illustrating that   Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft wasn’t exactly  rich in the technical and strategic departments. The idea of throwing down  as various goblins, wizards,   and other such D&D mainstays is an  interesting one, but Iron & Blood:   Warriors of Ravenloft squanders this idea like  a misaimed fireball spell. A critical miss. 68. Descent to Undermountain – PC – 1998 There are a few things about Descent to  Undermountain that are remarkable. One is   that a fellow called Chris Avellone was on the  development team, which is a name I want you to   try and remember as it will come up again. Another  is that it was created using the game engine from   1995 FPS game, Descent, which is apparently where  its name partially comes from. The third thing to   note is that it is undoubtedly one of the worst  Dungeons & Dragons video games of all time. The adventure kicks-off in Waterdeep,  where the high wizard, Blackstaff,   tasks the player with assembling a party and  exploring the infamous dungeon of Undermountain,   which seems to be the cause of disappearances  and other such suspicious activities. This all   leads to a first-person dungeon delve  filled with combat, loot, puzzles,   and a gradually unravelling  mystery to pick through. Alas, Descent to Undermountain was  afflicted with multiple problems.   Descent’s engine proved to be entirely  unsuitable for a dungeon-crawling RPG,   and technical issues caused the developers no  end of woes when getting it ready for retail.   Shoddy graphics, poor AI, numerous bugs,  and uninteresting gameplay all conspired   to make this particular descent a trip  that very few people wanted to make. Developers, Interplay, even referenced  how bad Descent to Undermountain was in   their very own Fallout 2, which released  a couple of years later. A magic 8-ball   item could randomly state; “Yes, we KNOW  Descent to Undermountain was crap.” Ouch. 67. Hillsfar – Amiga/Atari ST/C64/NES/PC – 1989 Right, we’re delving into the SSI Dungeons &  Dragons games now, and there are a lot of them.   SSI, or Strategic Simulations, Incorporated,  ran from 1979 until 1994, and in that time,   they released enough Dungeons & Dragons video  games to fill a bag of holding. These games   are difficult to rank, as they all use the  same engine, work off of the then-current   edition of the D&D rules, and are very similar  visually. Hillsfar came out at the bottom though,   and that’s because most observers  agreed that it was just plain boring. Players can choose between fighter,  cleric, mage, and thief classes,   and then visit the various guilds in the  town of Hillsfar, accepting fetch-type   quests, completing them, earning gold and  experience, and then eventually retiring. It was as riveting as it sounds, with  reviewers of the NES version especially   bemoaning the fact that it felt more like  a series of chores than an adventure,   and that the game consisted of accumulating gold  whilst providing very little to spend it on. Hillsfar also features a certain equine interlude  that drops it down our list another few places.   Players are repeatedly forced to partake in an  aggravating and unresponsive horse-riding section,   where dangerous obstacles like  errant haystacks, narrow streams,   or passing birds must be avoided lest ol’ Chestnut  goes bolting off into the wilderness. Suffer   through this infuriating mini-game enough  times, and you’ll be ready to do the same. 66. Pool of Radiance: Ruins  of Myth Drannor – PC – 2001 By the time 2001 rolled around, Dungeons  & Dragons-based video games had really   taken a step up in quality and scope,  and the pressure was on for dungeon   delving adventures released during  this time to keep up with the new   wave of Infinity Engine titles that  brought D&D to a whole new audience. For Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor,  developers, Stormfront Studios, tapped into the   historical significance of the Pool of Radiance  name to create something both old and new,   making their game the last in a series of  formerly SSI-developed titles that began in 1988. The story concerns a scary and powerful dracolich,  which is an undead dragon with necromantic powers,   moving into the ruined Elven city of Myth  Drannor, and using it as a base to expand   an empire. The player’s party have been  tasked by famous D&D wizard, Elminster,   to head into the ruins and deal with the  insidious threat, one skeleton at a time. Unfortunately, said activity was deemed  dull by most who took up the sword,   with confusing and seemingly endless dungeons  packed with barely distinguishable rooms,   and an over-reliance on mindless  hack-and-slash gameplay turning   off those used to more variety  and spice in their adventures. The game also had a bug problem, and we don’t  mean giant spiders and ankhegs. The graphical   glitches and save game issues were one thing, but  when players are uninstalling your game and it’s   also wiping their PC’s system files, things have  gone a little too far. Yes, it really did do that. 65. Spelljammer:Pirates of Realmspace – PC – 1992 What happens when you take D&D staples like  heroes and wizards, gnomes and beholders,   and other such fantasy fare, and blast them  off into space? No, not the terrifying and   visceral effects of decompression, this is a  fantasy realm, remember? You get Spelljammer,   the setting for the next title on our  list; Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace. In this intergalactic adventure, the  player takes on the role of the captain   of an interstellar ship, and spends much of the  early game running errands, delivering goods,   defending space lanes and taking out pirates,  all while earning currency and reputation,   before eventually being sent on an important  mission that kicks off the game's simple plot. Players can use spells and  abilities in ship-to-ship combat,   where rival vessels will bombard each other  with space catapults and space ballistae,   and can also oversee boarding actions,  which result in more traditional D&D   combat as the opposing crews come  face-to-face in the ship's halls. It's an interesting premise, but  it was handled somewhat clumsily,   with clunky mechanics and lots of bugs and  technical issues causing most publications   to state that this particular  space odyssey was one to miss. Developed by Cybertech but published by SSI,  Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace was one of the   first so-called “Gold Box” titles (so named after  their signature golden boxes) that threatened   the veteran studio's long-standing reputation for  quality output. It's not quite a black hole level   catastrophe, but it was a planet-sized  misstep for the once-venerated series. 64. The Dark Queen of Krynn – Amiga/PC – 1992 Set primarily on the world of Krynn, the  Dragonlance setting is a D&D offshoot with an even   more dragon-centric flavour and an emphasis on  moon-powered magic. Popular in the '80s and early   '90s, it spawned a number of digital adaptations,  and The Dark Queen of Krynn is probably the least   compelling, not necessarily because it's the  absolute worst, but because by the time this   conclusion to the Gold Box Dragonlance series  was released, gamers were expecting much more. In an attempt to portray the epic conclusion  to the Krynn saga, developers, MicroMagic,   Inc, focused strongly on combat,  with the player's party eventually   facing off against the dark goddess  behind the planet's troubles. This,   however, meant that less time and effort  was put into exploration and role-playing,   which disappointed many, and made  the game feel like a bit of a grind. With numerous bugs and glitches, a lack  of balance in the combat leading to an   unfair difficulty level, and its insistence on  stripping back exploration and NPC interaction,   The Dark Queen of Krynn proved to be a  less-than-stellar climax to one of the   less-celebrated Gold Box series, and observers  almost unanimously agreed that this was one   to miss, with only the most dedicated D&D fans  managing to battle their way through to the end. I guess that by this point,  this particular Dragonlance   video game series was beginning  to get a bit long in the fang. 63. Dungeons & Dragons: Eye  of the Beholder – GBA– 2002 I've never really understood why people say  “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” because   looking into the eyes of these things,  there's really not much beauty there. Unfortunately, there's not much beauty in  this GBA dungeon-crawling experience either,   with Pronto Games' Dungeons & Dragons:   Eye of the Beholder failing to live up to  past titles that it borrowed so heavily from. Following a very similar plot to the far-older  home computer Eye of the Beholder games,   Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder's story  concerns the city of Waterdeep being threatened   by the denizens of Undermountain. What this means  for the player-controlled party is a trip into   the sewers and tunnels beneath Waterdeep  to root out the threat that builds there,   and much sword-swinging and spell-slinging ensues. Played from a first-person perspective during  exploration, the game switches to an isometric   display for combat, similar to the SSI Gold Box  titles. Here, players can use spells and abilities   from the four playable classes to fend off bad  guys and continue the quest to save the city. While the idea of whipping your GBA  out of your pocket and embarking on   a bit of dungeon-diving on the move might  be an intriguing one, Dungeons & Dragons:   Eye of the Beholder does not live up  to such promise, with the already-dated   nature of its gameplay compounded by  an annoying and frustrating interface. Unfortunately, you'll be eyeing  up one of your better GBA games   within minutes of getting started with this one. 62. Eye of the Beholder III:  Assault on Myth Drannor – PC – 1993 Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on  Myth Drannor, like the previous two   games in the trilogy, offered something a  little different to SSI's previous fare,   presenting its entire adventure  from a first-person viewpoint,   be that exploration, combat, or  receiving exposition from beardy NPCs. It picked up the storyline directly after the  series' second instalment, with the victorious   party relaxing in a local tavern, extolling  the patrons with stories of their heroism,   and attracting the attention of a mysterious  strangerwith an even more dangerous quest   in store. Said quest is to investigate  the ruins of the city of Myth Drannor,   and swipe an ancient artefact from  a powerful and dangerous lich. This third Eye of the Beholder title used an  updated version of the previous games' engine,   and added some quality-of-life enhancements like  an “all attack” button and the ability to use   certain weapons in the second rank. What's  it doing all the way down here, then? Well,   unfortunately, the game just failed to live up to  the promising framework built by its predecessors. Reviewers reported a downgrade in  graphics and awful sound design,   and declared that this was no  way to end an epic trilogy. One factor that may have impacted this is the  fact that SSI chose to develop the game in-house,   while the previous two titles were created by  beloved developer, Westwood, who would go on to   define an entire genre with Dune II and Command  & Conquer. SSI should've beheld onto them... 61. Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance – PC – 1996 We're embarking on a journey to yet  another D&D setting now, with Birthright,   an adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons rule-set  where player characters are rulers of the land and   gameplay is focused on political manoeuvring  and acts of governance. As such, Birthright:   The Gorgon's Alliance takes on the guise  of a strategy game with RPG elements,   where players oversee the rise and fall  of nations from a position of sovereignty,   rather than skulking around in dingy dungeons  with all the kobolds and gelatinous cubes. Sounds like an interesting diversion compared to  all the usual dungeon delving, but Birthright:   The Gorgon's Alliance was poorly received  by all but the most dedicated strategists. Taking on the role of a divinely-appointed  regent, the player's goal is to unite a continent,   beating various third-parties with their  own machinations toward the throne to   the punch. This can be achieved through war,  diplomacy, trade, and even by magical means. That's not to say adventuring is  completely done away with, because   occasionally the regent will be forced to get  their royal hands dirty with a bit of questing,   presented in first-person 3D, and there are  even some basic battlefields to conquer. All these ingredients didn't add up to much,   though, with poorly explained mechanics,  ropey visuals, and overwhelmingly fiddly   micro-management souring most observers on  what was undoubtedly an ambitious title. Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance made  its play for the throne but came up short,   and it now lies on the pile of forgotten,  licensed D&D games with the rest of the peasantry. 60. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale  – PC/PS3/Xbox 360 – 2011 If I had to sum up Dungeons & Dragons:  Daggerdale, I'd say that it is the epitome   of that PS3/360-era boring-grey-and-brown-ness  that often reared its ugly head back then,   but you could probably tell that yourself from  taking one look at it, so allow me to elaborate. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale  was developed by Bedlam Games,   and features single player and  multiplayer cooperative modes with   a focus on action-based RPG gameplay. Players  had four character classes to choose from,   and these characters could be customised during  setup and by acquiring and equipping loot. The plot sticks the player in the various  environs around Daggerdale, and puts them   at loggerheads with the unscrupulous mercenary  organisation known as the Zhentarim. These rascals   are trying to lay claim to the Daggerdale area  using a structure known as the Tower of Void,   and it’s the player’s job to stop them.  Unfortunately, the Zhentarim are probably going to   succeed in their nefarious plans, because very few  players are likely to want to take up the call. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale  was deemed a waste of the license,   and was called out for its boring quests,  uninteresting combat, and dreary environments.   Some reviewers did state that the game could  be okay if you were able to play with friends,   but I honestly wouldn't want to subject my  friends to it. All that repetitive combat,   boring dialogue and dismal visual design;  it's like being hit by a sleep spell. 59. Dungeons & Dragons Tactics – PSP – 2007 With a name like Dungeons & Dragons Tactics,  and with its home being Sony's PSP, you might   expect this Kuju Entertainment-developed title  to be something akin to Final Fantasy Tactics:   War of the Lions or Tactics Ogre:  Let Us Cling Together. However,   while it does share aspects like turn-based  combat and grid-based maps with those titles,   Dungeons & Dragons Tactics  kind of does its own thing. In the game, players assemble a party of  adventurers and become embroiled in a clash   between two mighty dragons who are vying for  godhood, and gameplay switches between a simple   overworld map, where players can accept  quests and choose their next destination,   and dungeon exploration, where the game makes  use of a somewhat zoomed-in, overhead view. When monsters are encountered, the gameplay  switches once more into a traditional,   turn-based take on the D&D rules, where  characters and enemies act in initiative order,   casting spells and using abilities  to affect the course of battle. It was a nice idea, and the story hook of  a pair of opposed, divinity-craving dragons   was sure to turn a few heads, but Dungeons  & Dragons Tactics was executed so poorly   that most adventurers who entered its dungeon  turned around and walked right back out again. Just like the world that the game depicts,  Dungeons & Dragons Tactics was beset by two   terrifying god-dragons, the dragon of frustrating  interface design, and the dragon of unhelpful   camera angles. Between them, they laid waste to  any enjoyment that might have been found within. 58. Shadow Sorcerer – Amiga/Atari ST/PC – 1991 Another game in the Dragonlance series,   Shadow Sorcerer was developed by U.S. Gold  and presented most of its action in neat,   isometric squares, which gives the title  an odd, pixelated appeal even to this day. Simplified somewhat compared to the usual  SSI-published fare, Shadow Sorcerer still offered   a complex party mechanic and tough battles,  with enemy encounters throughout the game's   expansive world being generated randomly. The  role-playing and plot elements were stripped back,   with the focus firmly on guiding your party  of four through squares of brightly-coloured   dungeon or wilderness, with little to no  NPC interaction to break things up a bit. It sounds alright if you just want  to wade through hordes of hobgoblins,   but even with the combat focus these  encounters still suffered from quirks   that often made them annoying. Party AI would  consistently mess up your best laid plans,   and walking through doors in a dungeon into a pack  of monsters would be fine, if not for the fact   that your squishy magic users had decided to take  up the vanguard between this room and the last. Shadow Sorcerer also had a refugee mechanic,  where the party were forced to guide a host   of refugees to the fortress of Skullcap,  and many players found this addition to   be problematic. The refugees moved  infuriatingly slowly across the map,   and leaving them behind would see  them wander off and get killed. An aggravating escort quest that lasts an entire  game? I'll use my action to disengage, thanks. 57. DragonStrike – NES – 1992 We're staying with Dragonlance for our next  entry, and this time, instead of wizards,   warriors, rogues, and clerics, we get to play  as the big, winged scaly boys themselves. The   chance to play as a dragon in a Dungeons &  Dragons setting is undoubtedly a cool idea,   but the NES version of DragonStrike,  which is a completely different game   to the home computer titles of the  same name, is a little bit dull. Players can choose between bronze, silver and  gold dragons, with each one having its own   strengths and weaknesses. Those familiar with  D&D will know that the metallic dragons are   the friendly ones, and in DragonStrike,  the bronze dragon has the best armour,   the silver dragon excels at speed, and  the gold dragon possesses the strongest   attacks. As the game progresses, the player  engages in missions throughout the realm,   facing off against rampaging chromatic  dragons and eventually swooping down into   a dangerous chasm where the Queen of Darkness  waits in her multi-headed, draconic form. It all sounds very epic, and looks decent for  a NES shooter, but the actual gameplay rides   a disagreeable line between frustrating  difficulty and snooze-inducing boredom.   The ability to change altitude adds a  somewhat interesting gameplay wrinkle,   and some boss battles can bring the  excitement up a couple of notches,   but in all, DragonStrike for the NES manages  to make flapping around as a massive dragon   and blasting anything that moves with devastating  breath attacks kind of forgettable. What a drag. 56. Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb  of Annihilation – PC – 2017 Candlekeep? I've been there before...  That'll come up much later in this list,   though. For now, we're talking about BKOM  Studio's board game-inspired turn-based RPG,   Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation. It's a decent-looking board game adaptation,  with its detailed land and dungeon tiles   suspended in a bizarre void providing an  interesting visual effect, and if you've   played the Tomb of Annihilation  board game upon which it's based,   you'll be instantly familiar with it. However,  Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation,   doesn't really offer much beyond this  vaguely interesting initial impression. The game completely does away with  certain role-playing aspects that   you'd expect from a D&D game, like  character creation and, you know,   any semblance of role-playing. If you're playing  Tomb of Annihilation around a table with a group   of friends you have the social aspect and  the ability for stories to emerge naturally,   but if you're playing it alone at your  PC, the whole thing just feels empty. Observers also pointed out needlessly  difficult mechanics, like starting   combat with the party at a disadvantage  for no reason based on the roll of a die,   as well as ineffectual levelling and  a poorly-realised crafting mechanic. Some enjoyed the game for what  it is, but Tales from Candlekeep:   Tomb of Annihilation has too many problems  to be considered over countless similar,   more capable offerings, and the fact that  the game was abandoned in an incomplete   state left a foul taste in the mouth,  too. This tomb isn't really worth raiding. 55. Dungeon! – Apple II – 1982 I love a name that gets straight to the point,  but with this entry, we're doing anything but.   The Apple II game, Dungeon!, is based on a 1975  board game of the same name. Said board game was   created by a fellow called David R. Megarry,  but subsequent editions were worked on by   Dungeons & Dragons alumni like Steve Winter and  Mr. Gygax himself. The game also borrowed heavily   from the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons,  so we'll call it a Dungeons & Dragons game,   meaning that, by extension, the Apple  II game, Dungeons!, is a D&D game too. That's our excuse for including  a 40+ year old game on this list,   anyway, and we're sticking to it. Dungeon!, while looking to our modern eyes like  a series of misplaced, garishly-coloured squares   and rectangles, was a digital adaptation of  the aforementioned D&D-adjacent board game. Players used the keyboard to move the square that  represents their intrepid adventurer around the   rectangles that represent dungeon rooms. The  aim of the game was to win battles and unearth   treasure, and when enemies are encountered,  the game switched from top-down geometry to   impressive-for-the-time static imagesof epic  confrontations as menu-driven conflict ensues. Dungeon! is undoubtedly archaic, but it received  a very warm critical reception at the time,   and it's nice to look back on the history  of digital dungeon-diving and see how much   things have progressed since those days  of basic shapes arranged on a grid. Yep,   things have certainly moved on. 54. Heroes of the Lance – Amiga/Amstrad CPC/Atari  ST/C64/Master System/NES/PC/ZX Spectrum – 1988 Hold tight, because we’ve got more  dragons for you now, with an extra   helping of lances. That’s right, we’re back in  the Dragonlance setting with Heroes of the Lance,   which puts players in control of eight heroes  as they delve into a ruined city in search of   an ancient relic guarded by a villainous  dragon, and shakes the usual SSI recipe up   a bit by offering a side-scrolling action game  with D&D rules running things behind the scenes. The eight heroes mostly act as lives for the  player, with only three of them having any   specific, unique abilities like healing, offensive  magic, or traversal spells. Some publications at   the time were positive about this change of pace,  and Heroes of the Lance sold pretty well too,   but taken as a title on its own merits,  the game isn’t exactly a D&D highlight. Heroes of the Lance was notoriously difficult, and  if a player were to approach it in the same way as   an average side-scrolling action game, they would  be immediately and severely punished. A lack of   careful forward planning could result in a lot of  heroes slain in a very short period of time, and a   strategic approach was required. To add to this  notorious difficulty level, players were unable   to save their progress, which was something they  had become used to in previous SSI D&D titles. Basically, if you managed to get through this one,   you either had a lot of time on your hands,  or you truly were a hero of the lance. 53. Dragons of Flame – Amiga/Amstrad  CPC/Atari ST/C64/NES/PC/ZX Spectrum – 1989 Another game that explores the Dragonlance  setting is Dragons of Flame. This title was   also developed by U.S. Gold, and also eschewed  traditional D&D RPG mechanics for a more arcadey,   side-scrolling style. Its storyline follows  on directly from Heroes of the Lance,   and the previously-mentioned Shadow  Sorcerer completes the trilogy. The story of Dragons of Flame picks up with the  party racing to beat a horde of evil dragon men   to the fortress of Pax Tharkas, and was a mild  improvement over the original, with slightly   updated visuals and certain quality of life  improvements, like characters being restored   to full strength before a transition into the  side-scrolling dungeon-crawling. The developers   also worked to provide more intuitive menus, but  this did little to solve the problem of crushing   difficulty, and neither did the addition of two  extra lives … I mean, two additional heroes. The world of Dragons of Flame was  also very difficult to navigate,   demanding expert orientation skills from the  player. The top-down exploration sections   offered very little in the way of recognisable  landmarks, and many wayward adventures never   reached the aforementioned Pax Tharkas  thanks to the confusing map mechanics. Basically, if you were already a fan of the  way Heroes of the Lance approached digital   D&D adventuring, then Dragons of Flame offered  more of the same with some minor improvements.   If you like a bit more role-playing and a  somewhat less sadistic difficulty level,   however, then you should probably make  your investigation check elsewhere. 52. Idle Champions of the Forgotten  Realms – PC/PS4/Xbox One – 2018 Wait, I thought we weren't  doing mobile games? What,   it came out on PC and consoles,  too? Fine, let's get it over with. To be fair, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms  is apparently a very decent example of the idle   RPG genre. First releasing on Android and iOS, and  appearing on consoles and PC soon after, it allows   players to set up their party of adventurers and  take on wave after wave of enemies. Players can   slay gnolls, dire wolves, banditsand the like by  clicking on them, and can acquire loot through   the act of click-slaying, which can then be spent  on new champions or upgrading the existing party. Everything in the game references the D&D  tabletop universe in one way or another,   with adventures like Curse of Strahd  and Tomb of Annihilation referenced,   and a faithful map of the Sword Coast  to explore. The game also seems to   have a thing about cursed cows.  Whatever mooves you, I suppose... At the end of the day, Idle Champions  of the Forgotten Realms is an idle game,   and as such, it can barely be  described as a game at all. It's   more of a … thing that you click on.  Like a fidget toy, in digital form. As we've already mentioned, though, Idle  Champions of the Forgotten Realms is   regarded quite highly in the realm  of idle games, so if you like D&D,   and you like clicking on things, then  this is probably a good thing to click on. 51. Menzoberranzan – PC – 1994 “Menzoberranzan” is a really  fun word to say. Go on,   give it a try. Why not roll  the 'r' a bit? Live a little. It's the name of a city located in the Underdark,  inhabited by a cruel race of subterranean elves   known as the drow, and is also known as the City  of Spiders. More fun to say than to visit, then. The 1994 video game, Menzoberranzan,  is another SSI-published adventure,   this one developed by DreamForge Entertainment,  who would go on to develop successful point   and click horror game, Sanitarium, and sci-fi  strategy title, Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War. The story kicks off when an assortment of peaceful  villagers are snatched by a drow raiding party,   and a pair of intrepid heroes set off to  track them down and bring them back. Playing   similarly to the Eye of the Beholder titles,  Menzoberranzan offers an interesting visual style   and some satisfactory dungeoneering gameplay, but  ultimately falls short of its promise. Reviewers   pointed out that the narrative took a long time to  get going, that many of the game's dungeons felt   empty and lifeless, and that gameplay ultimately  boiled down to repetitive hack-and-slash. As well as the two player-created characters,  additional allies could be encountered throughout   the game, including the world-famous and  unusually-heroic drow fighter/ranger,   Drizzt Do'Urden, whose name  his creator, R.A. Salvatore,   purposefully pronounces differently  depending on the day of the week. “Drizzt” is kind of fun to say, but  not as much as “Menzoberranzan”. 50. Sword Coast Legends – PC/PS4/Xbox One – 2015 One of the more recent games on our  list, this action role-playing title   puts players in the adventuring boots of  a member of the Order of the Burning Dawn,   a once-powerful guild with a shady  past. The story of Sword Coast Legends   casts players as a new recruit in  this somewhat disreputable group,   and kicks off when its members all start to  experience strange and portentous nightmares. The actual gameplay is very straightforward, with  the player controlling their group of adventurers   from an overhead viewpoint, exploring  buildings, dungeons and wilderness areas,   slaying monsters, and interacting with NPCs.  It all looks fine, but a little unremarkable,   and observers were pretty much unanimous  in declaring Sword Coast Legends to be a   somewhat generic RPG that stands apart  only for its Dungeon Master mode. Said mode allows players to digitally mimic  the tabletop dynamic, with one player taking   the role of the omnipotent and omniscient  overlord and the others living and dying   according to their whims. Depending on the  trustworthiness of the person in charge,   Sword Coast Legends does have the potential to  offer a great time for all involved, but even   then, would-be Dungeon Masters expressed a desire  for more depth to the tools available to them. If you're willing to work at it a bit, and  have some buddies to go adventuring with,   there's fun to be had with Sword Coast Legends,   but when it comes the single player campaign,  this one just feels like it's coasting. 49. Stronghold – PC – 1993 Another D&D game developed by  the prolific Stormfront Studios,   this one offered something a bit different  to the usual adventuring fare by tasking   players with building and managing a  thriving town in a fantastical kingdom. Unrelated to the 2001 Firefly Studios title of  the same name, Stronghold has an old-school,   wireframe, 3D visual style, beneath which hides  layers and layers of complex strategy and resource   management. In keeping with the D&D theme,  players can recruit mages, clerics, fighters,   and the like to act as leaders of various  districts within the town, and these can be   used to construct certain buildings, or train  the local militia to fend off monster attacks. Depending on your chosen alignment, the game will  set different victory requirements, with lawful   rulers required to reach the seat of Emperor to  finish the game, while chaotic rulers need to rid   the land of competitors by force. This can be done  by amassing trained troops and sending them off on   missions to remove hostile forces. The management  side is just as involved however, with food supply   needing to be overseen, and available buildings  including markets, castles, and magic schools. While many players who became proficient in  this complex fantasy kingdom simulator were   quick to heap praise upon it, the fact  of the matter is that Stronghold closed   its gates to most players by demanding  speedy mastery of its overwhelmingly   complex set of mechanics and strategies  in the face of mercilessly effective and   efficient enemy forces. Ever heard of  “accessibility”, Stormfront Studios? 48. Dungeons & Dragons: Order of  the Griffon – TurboGrafx-16 – 1992 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the PC Engine outside  of North America, was originally released in 1987,   and had one Dungeons & Dragons game to its name.  Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon uses the   Mystara setting, and sits fairly highly in the  estimations of TurboGrafx-16 owners who wanted a   good D&D adventure, although this may have been  mainly because it was their only choice. Taking   inspiration from earlier SSI games like Pool  of Radiance, Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the   Griffon provided a decent step up in graphics and  spectacle, but, honestly, not all that much else. The plot, which concerns the return of an  ancient vampire, undead popping up everywhere,   and assassination attempts on local leaders,  was considered to be somewhat overblown, and the   same old, Gold Box-inspired gameplay was becoming  very dated by the early '90s. Dungeons & Dragons:   Order of the Griffon did have some stand  out moments, but for the most part it was   a generic fantasy RPG that is remarkable only  for being the single D&D game on the console. Like a couple of other games on this list,  it was developed by Westwood Studios,   and the music was composed by legendary Command  & Conquer composer, Frank Klepacki. He has,   however, stated in interviews that  this was a low-point in his career,   due to the limited capabilities of the  hardware's sound engine, so you probably   shouldn't expect classics like Hell March  and Act on Instinct from this one, okay? 47. War of the Lance – Apple II/C64/PC – 1989 SSI’s War of the Lance is another trip into the  Dragonlance saga, but this time things are a lot   more strategic, with the action playing out on  a continental scale, and the fate of kingdoms   at stake. Players face off against the evil  Highlord and his armies of rogues and monsters,   and the campaign can either start at the very  beginning of the conflict, with the players’   task being to form the Whitestone Alliance and  capture the enemy capital, or in medias res,   with certain territories already occupied, and  various sieges and events already playing out. The action unfolds from a top-down viewpoint,  with esteemed commanders presiding over an   archaic-but-charming map and commanding their  forces to march across land, voyage across oceans,   and engage the enemy. It’s not exactly a  visual feast, but when you’re agonising   over political and military decisions that  could swing the tide of a continent-spanning   conflict, who wants to be distracted by  dazzling effects and sparkly animations? War of the Lance, while unsuccessful  commercially, reviewed well at the time,   and those who adopted the game sang its strategic  praises, with many still claiming to boot it up   once in a while today. A few things hold it back,  however, including a lack of replayability and   longevity compared to the SSI RPGs, and the  simple fact that more recent grand strategy   games completely eclipse it in both scale and  spectacle. It’s not exactly Total War, after all. Hmm, Total War: D&D; now there’s an idea. 46. Forgotten Realms: Unlimited  Adventures – PC – 1993 If you’ve ever been a tabletop Dungeon Master,  you’ll know that sometimes the most enjoyable   aspect of Dungeons & Dragons is creating  interesting adventures for your friends,   and seeing how they interact with them. It  can be a fascinating and rewarding experience,   but just be careful when you’re  talking about it in public. The   term “Dungeon Master” can mean different  things to different people, after all. Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures offers  digital DMs the chance to shake their creative   dice, being an SSI-published toolkit for  players to create their own adventures   in the vein of the “Gold Box” SSI RPGs. We say  “in the vein of”, because Unlimited Adventures   doesn’t use the Gold Box engine, thanks to  some contractual complications with TSR,   meaning users could almost make their  own Gold Box games, but not quite. Unlimited Adventures enabled the creation of  dungeon modules, and the importing of custom   sprites and artwork. There were limitations,  such as the inability to change walls,   backdrops and title screens, but these were  more or less addressed by a healthy modding   community, making Unlimited Adventures an  expansive system for budding Matt Mercers. However, it wasn’t all creative sunshine and  dungeon mastery rainbows. Some observers claimed   that the game’s tools were overly-complicated,  and not everyone was impressed with the visuals,   but Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures  was about the best dungeon creation tool   available at the time, and at least  provided an interesting alternative   to sketching out treasure rooms and  trap-filled corridors on grid paper. 45. Eye of the Beholder –  Amiga/Mega-CD/PC/SNES – 1991 Back to those floating,  ocularly-endowed fellows now,   as we explore the first game in the Eye of the  Beholder trilogy. Developed by Westwood Studios,   Eye of the Beholder riffed heavily on 1987's  Dungeon Master, which is, confusingly,   not D&D-related, but also represented  a new direction for Dungeons & Dragons   titles and impressed reviewers at the  time with its visuals and atmosphere. The adventure kicks off in the city of Waterdeep,  where the player's party are hired to investigate   an evil that seems to be lurking underground. When  the party first enter the sewer tunnels beneath   the cobblestones, their exit is blocked by a  cave-in caused by the beholder known as Xanathar,   who still maintains a significant presence  in D&D to this day, and the adventurers are   forced to journey deeper, past untold dangers,  to a confrontation with 'ol Eyeballs himself. Despite offering gameplay as deep as its dungeons  and some welcome variety in locations to explore,   Eye of the Beholder had its detractors.  Interface problems, brutal difficulty,   occasionally awkward combat, and an abrupt ending  were all identified as issues that held the game   back, and some reviewers even claimed that it was  too similar to the aforementioned Dungeon Master. Of special interest is the 1994 Mega-CD version,  that used an anime art-style for the character   portraits, and had a unique soundtrack  co-composed by Yuzo Koshiro, of Streets   of Rage fame. Not many dungeon adventures are  backed by hardcore, '90s techno, let me tell you. 44. Secret of the Silver  Blades – Amiga/C64/PC – 1990 Some proper, classic, Gold Box gaming  now, with Secret of the Silver Blades,   which was a follow-up to SSI originals, Pool  of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds.   Observant viewers will notice that neither of  those games have been mentioned yet, and after   congratulating you on your successful perception  check, I shall explain why this is the case. Firstly, by the time 1990 rolled around, fans and  critics were expecting a little more evolution   from the franchise, which Secret of the Silver  Blades simply did not provide. Secondly, for this   game SSI decided to cut down on the role-playing  and exploration aspects, instead focusing more on   combat, which resulted in a lack of variety and  made the whole thing feel like a bit of a grind. That said, a few upgrades were squeezed in; Secret  of the Silver Blades provided players with the   largest world to explore in a Gold Box game to  date, and some minor graphical improvements were   welcomed. The title also gave players the  option to alter the encounter difficulty,   and in the brutal world of low-level  D&D, this was definitely a good idea. Secret of the Silver Blades was  enjoyed by most who played it,   and it doesn't exactly embarrass the  franchise or drag it screaming into Avernus,   but it does mark a time when the Gold Box  games were starting to become a little   stale, and certain reviewers began  throwing the word “boring” around. Oh well, I suppose I never will find out  what was so secret about those blades. 43. Dungeons & Dragons: Dark  Alliance – PC/PS4/Xbox – 2021 Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a recent  title that clearly wanted to ignite the interest   of fans of the classic D&D adaptations with  its Dark Alliance subtitle and its Icewind Dale   setting, but also wanted to entice modern gamers  with its accessible, action-focused approach. Allowing single player or cooperative gameplay,  Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance offers four   playable characters to choose from, and sets  adventurers off on a quest in the frigid   tundra of Icewind Dale. Selectable characters  include the previously-mentioned drow hero,   Drizzt, and other R.A. Salvatore-created  characters like the archer, Cattie-brie,   and the barbarian, Wulfgar. However. while the  involvement of Mr. Salvatore might indicate a   focus on epic storytelling, Dungeons & Dragons:  Dark Alliance's premise fails to conjure much   interest, and this isn't the only way in  which it doesn't live up to the D&D name. Reviews were generally mixed, leaning towards the  low 50s, and issues like mindlessly repetitious   gameplay, an abundance of bugs and glitches, and  bad AI compounded the title's averageness. Being   a recent game, it's obviously a lot easier to  pick up and play than a lot of the difficult   and esoteric titles from D&D's past, but when the  gameplay loop is so mind-numbing and repetitive,   it's tough to recommend it with so  many great alternatives out there. It's fun for a few hours of absent-minded  goblin-slaying and loot-grabbing,   but Dungeons & Dragons: Dark  Alliance ultimately falls short   of its more hallowed and venerated  predecessors in almost every way. 42. Slayer – 3DO – 1994 We've called out a few of the games on this list  so far for taking the focus away from role-playing   and concentrating entirely on combat, but this  doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Lion   Entertainment-developed, 3DO-exclusive D&D title,  Slayer, makes no claims of providing opportunities   for fancy role-playing; no romancing of  winged elves or hobnobbing with the lords   and ladies of Waterdeep here, just running  around a dungeon really fast, slaying stuff. Throwing concepts like storyline and party  mechanics out of a fifth floor castle window,   Slayer encourages its players to explore  generated dungeons from a first-person   viewpoint, with a feel that has more in  common with Wolfenstein 3D than Dungeon   Master. Much faster-paced than the majority  of dungeon crawlers, Slayer still uses the   D&D ruleset behind the scenes, but feels a  lot more action-packed, and the generated   dungeons and variety of classes to play as  offered some decent scope for repeated play. While sorely lacking in the audio  department, and not offering anything   too unique or spectacular to fans  of either the FPS or RPG genres,   Slayer was seen as a reasonable attempt  at a more action-focused D&D adventure,   and stands as a surprisingly decent addition to  the 3DO's comparatively limited game library. You know, with its frenetic pace, unapologetic  tone, and dark imagery, Slayer kind of reminds   me of that one heavy metal band. You know the  one. What are they called? Starts with an “S”. Oh yeah … Sum 41. 41. DeathKeep – 3DO/PC – 1995 We're sticking with the 3DO for the moment,  as the next title on our list is DeathKeep,   a 3D dungeon-'em-up in a similar vein to  Slayer. Also developed by Lion Entertainment,   DeathKeep kept that Wolfenstein-like  gameplay while expanding on the overall   experience with a graphical upgrade and  a larger world than its predecessor. Reviews of the 3DO version  were generally very positive,   with commentators enjoying the step  up in scope offered by DeathKeep,   as well as the graphical leap and the  atmospheric sound design. The plot,   which concerns a dangerous necromancer taking  up residency in an unreasonably large castle,   was considered fit for purpose and entertaining  enough, and the three playable characters,   a dwarven fighter, a half-elven fighter/mage, and  an elven mage, all provided a distinct experience. Positivity aside, DeathKeep did have a  few structural weaknesses. While some   players enjoyed the challenge it offered,  others found it objectionably difficult,   and many found the controls to be  imprecise and fiddly, though the   game's size and interesting dungeon design did  go some way to making up for these missteps. The game's overall placing is also brought down  somewhat by the 1996 PC port. Sorely lacking   compared to the 3DO original, the PC version  of DeathKeep suffered from blocky graphics,   poorly-implemented controls, and inferior  sound quality, putting the game well behind   the likes of first-person dark fantasy title,  Hexen, which was released a year earlier. When it came to DeathKeep,   most PC owners would have been happier  if the 3DO crowd had death-kept it. 40. Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse – PC – 1994 It's time for the video to take on a tone of  exotic mystery now, as we examine the one and   only game on our list based on the Arabian  Nights-inspired, Al-Qadim campaign setting. Whisking players off to Zakhara, also  known as the Land of Fate, Al-Qadim:   The Genie's Curse puts players in the role of a  young corsair in a land of sand and scimitars,   and represents a welcome oasis of variety for  those used to SSI's standard fantasy fare. The driving force behind the storyline is  a mysterious plot to free genies from their   masters across Zakhara, and events kick  off when a hurricane causes the player   character’s bride-to-be to be washed  overboard in a shipwreck. The young   corsair is blamed for the disaster, and  must clear his name while also working   out who’s been liberating the genies  from their itty-bitty living spaces. In an attempt to make the game more  accessible, SSI, and developer,   Cyberlore Studios, decided to simplify many of  the mechanics, heavily streamlining character   creation and making use of context-sensitive icon  commands. This approach achieved mixed results,   with many reviewers claiming that Al-Qadim: The  Genie’s Curse cleverly and effectively blended   RPG and adventure game mechanics, while others  claimed that the game ended up lacking in both   departments, and that it was unlikely to appeal  to either hardcore RPG fans or causal gamers. So, is Al-Qadim: The Genie’s  Curse an Arabian fright,   or a stroke of genie-us? Only  the wisest vizier can decide. 39. Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of  the Eternal Sun – Mega Drive – 1992 The only D&D game to be released on the  Mega Drive, Westwood’s Dungeons & Dragons:   Warriors of the Eternal Sun attempted to  combine exploration, turn-based battles,   real-time combat, and first-person dungeon  crawling into one big, sun-baked package. The adventure has a tantalising set-up  that’s worthy of any tabletop D&D session;   a fortress town and all of its inhabitants are  mysteriously transported to a bizarre otherworld   surrounded by impossibly high cliffs and  bathed in the odd glow of a throbbing,   red sun. This new land is home to beastman and  lizardman tribes, and other, stranger things (pun   very much intended), and it’s the player’s job to  amass a party and explore this uncanny new world. The story remains interesting throughout,  and when the people of the kingdom start   being slowly driven mad by the titular  sun and begin to turn against the party,   things really get juicy, but the game's  difficulty and inaccessibility to new   players means that very few people  will ever see it through to the end. With an unintuitive interface, esoteric mechanics,  and punishing early encounters, Dungeons &   Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun proved to be  a tough nut to crack, but those willing to put the   time and effort in did report some satisfactory  and enjoyable adventuring once things got moving.   Alas, with more accessible RPG favourites like  Phantasy Star IV and Shining Force II available on   the Mega Drive, this particularly sunny adventure  ended up spending most of its time in the shade. 38. Blood & Magic – PC – 1996 Released during a boom period  for the real-time strategy genre,   Blood & Magic was an attempt  by developers, Tachyon Studios,   to get in on the strategy craze with  some Dungeons & Dragons-licensed action. The gameplay revolves around  Bloodforges, which are magical,   wavy squares capable of creating vast  armies. These Bloodforges are used to   generate something called a basal golem, and  these basal golems can then be used to fight   or explore the map and gather resources, or can  be changed into buildings or more powerful units. The game’s single player content  consists of five campaigns and a final,   mega-campaign in which the player must  conquer all fifteen of the game’s maps.   The main campaigns all allow the player  to choose from two opposing forces,   like the armies of a barbarian lord who has just  usurped a kingdom, or the necromancer who is   coming to avenge the death of said kingdom's  fallen king. This approach added longevity,   and players who were enjoying this top-down  take on D&D had lots to keep them occupied. Blood & Magic was fine in the gameplay  department, with reviewers failing to find   much to nit-pick about when it came  to controls and mechanics. However,   while the likes of Warcraft II and Command  & Conquerwere dominating the RTS landscape,   it was doing very little to stand out, and proved  to be an adequate RTS when the gaming world was   full of great ones. There was plenty of bloodshed,  but it just lacked that little bit of magic. 37. Champions of Krynn –  Amiga/Apple II/C64/PC – 1990 Champions of Krynn is the first in a three-part  series of Gold Box RPGs based on the Dragonlance   campaign setting, and we already talked  about series finale, The Dark Queen of Krynn,   earlier in this video. Honestly, Champions  of Krynn isn’t massively superior on paper,   but it was the first in the Dragonlance  trilogy, so offered something new,   and it also had more adventuring and role-playing  opportunities, which The Dark Queen of Krynn   stripped back in favour of combat. As such, it’s  a pretty well-regarded title for the most part,   and represents the SSI Gold  Box games in a decent light. The story kicks off in an  outpost near a hobgoblin city,   and concerns a sinister Draconian  called Martini … wait, sorry, Myrtani,   who steals an ancient and powerful tome. At  the behest of an important fellow named Sir   Karl (who is presumably always accompanied by  his companion, Sir Lenny), the player-created   party go off to investigate this dragon man  and bring him and his forces to justice. Reviewers praised the game’s  story and adventuring aspects,   and the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons-guided  combat and character creation were still   nicely doing the job at this point,  but the visuals were seen as dated,   even with the newly-tapped Dragonlance setting  allowing SSI to put a different spin on things. Champions of Krynn is an example of a good SSI  D&D RPG, but not an example of a great one.   There are plenty of better Gold Box experiences  out there, making this one hard to champion. 36. Death Knights of Krynn – Amiga/C64/PC – 1991 Time to complete the SSI Dragonlance trilogy  now, with Death Knights of Krynn. Often,   the second entry into a trilogy  can be the most run-of-the-mill,   without a bombastic opening or a  climactic finale to keep things exciting,   but Death Knights of Krynn appears to be an  exception to this rule. It’s not a massive   step-up over the other games in its series,  but it does just about pip them to the post. Combat and character creation are almost exactly  the same, with a couple of minor quality of life   improvements and the introduction of the  paladin character class, but according to   reviewers and fans of the Dragonlance setting,  Death Knights of Krynn feels much more a part of   that world than its predecessor, thanks in part  to the inclusion of some familiar characters. The story picks up after the defeat of Myrtani,  and this time focuses on some worryingly frequent   attacks by hordes of undead led by reanimated  heroes. The undead ranks are even bolstered by   a reanimated Sir Karl of Champions of Krynn  fame. Sir Lenny is going to be devastated… Eventually, the party will face the villain  behind all of these grave problems, the evil   Lord Soth, whose goal is to possess the body of  legendary Dragonlance hero, Sturm Brightblade. It’s decent, fantastical stuff, and Death  Knights of Krynn does just about enough   to stand out as the best of its trilogy,  but in the wider world of D&D adaptions,   it remains entombed in the crypt of mediocrity. 35. Pools of Darkness – Amiga/PC – 1991 As the fourth and final game in the first Gold Box  RPG series, Pools of Darkness made some important   steps in advancing the state of SSI's output. The  graphics took a jump in quality from predecessor,   Secret of the Silver Blades, from a  measly 16 colours to a whopping 256,   but it was also far larger in scope,  with high-level skills and equipment   opening up expanded possibilities, and a  journey that took players beyond Faerun. The story is suitably epic, with Bane,  the evil god of terror, hate, and tyranny,   sending his lieutenants to cause trouble, destroy  things, and plunge the land into darkness,   and the heroes of the piece tasked with  seeking out and defeating these lieutenants   before going after Bane's most powerful  servants in the plane of Acheron itself. It is truly a quest suitable only for  experienced and celebrated heroes,   so it's a good thing that players can bring  their party across from the previous games,   complete with all of their gear and weapons.  Although, the game does force the party to abandon   said weapons whenever they go plane-hopping,  which was seen as a bit of a kick in the teeth. Still, despite its issues, Pools of Darkness  is another example of a perfectly adequate Gold   Box RPG that impressed at the time while not being  all that memorable today, but classic D&D fanatics   may well find that those murky pools are still  worthy of a dip. Just remember to bring a towel. 34. Gateway to the Savage  Frontier – Amiga/C64/PC – 1991 Look, the mid-part of this list is going  to consist of a lot of similar-looking,   SSI-published, Gold Box-style RPGs, and you're  just going to have to deal with it. We said we   were going to rank every single Dungeons & Dragons  video game, and by crikey that means all of them. Next on the list is the Beyond Software-developed,   Gateway to the Savage Frontier, which brings in  that villainous mercenary organisation known as   the Zhentarim again, and this time they're trying  to conquer the titular Savage Frontier, and take   it for themselves by opening a route for their  armies through an otherwise impassable desert. The game starts, as with many  great adventures, in a tavern,   where a nefarious evildoer slips something  into the party's food and drink and then   steals all of their stuff while they're  incapacitated. Left with nothing but the   emergency gold they kept under their pillows,  the party must purchase basic equipment,   and then head off on an adventure filled with  wizards, clerics, and magical statues that   hold the key to travelling safely across  the aforementioned impassable desert. It was another decent Gold Box RPG. The  formula was getting stale, even back then,   but it did add some welcome polish to  the mechanics, and the new setting,   the barely-civilised but resource-rich frontier,   offered somewhere new to explore. Gateway to  the Savage Frontier didn't exactly push out   into new frontiers of gameplay, but was another  safe bet for fans who wanted more of the same. 33. Treasures of the Savage  Frontier – Amiga/PC – 1992 Nope, we're not letting you head back to  civilised lands, yet, as it turns out that   the Savage Frontier has more adventure to  offer. Again developed by Beyond Software,   and releasing only a year after its  predecessor, Treasures of the Savage   Frontier's story picks up just after the  conclusion to Gateway to the Savage Frontier,   and initially concerns the heroes mopping up  the last of the Zhentarim troops in the region. Of course, things don't go smoothly,  as the Zhentarim and their allies have   maintained a stronger foothold in  the frontier than was initially   evident. Capturing some high-ranking local  ambassadors and blaming it on the party,   the bad guys set into motion their plans to sow  discord among the alliance of local governments,   and weaken the region so that they  can try to conquer it once more. The player spends most of the game trying to clear  the party's name by doing quests for local lords,   and then there's a seemingly-unrelated quest at  the end where the party fight a dragon for its   treasure, presumably because someone remembered  that the word “treasure” was in the title. Like its predecessor, Treasures of the Savage  Frontier was seen as one of the more-polished   Gold Box games, and continued series traditions  while changing very little. The formula was good,   but getting stale, and people were moving on,  but Treasures of the Savage Frontier was a   decent way to end the Gold Box RPG series,  even if said ending was quite overdue. 32. Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager – PC – 1994 It's time to introduce you to a new  Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting now,   with Dark Sun. Set in the post-apocalyptic  world of Athas, the Dark Sun setting tasks   players with surviving in magic-ravaged  deserts with limited resources and dreary   living conditions. Try to imagine The Lord of  the Ringsif it was directed by George Miller   and its story was heavily influenced  by the effects of the 1973 oil crisis. The introduction of the Dark Sun setting to  SSI's D&D output was welcome, and Dark Sun:   Wake of the Ravager continued the  story of its 1993 predecessor,   with a mysterious dragon and its powerful second  in command planning to overthrow the city of Tyr. Looking visually distinct from  SSI's previous offerings, Dark Sun:   Wake of the Ravager successfully communicates its  post-apocalyptic setting, with desert shanties   and nomad settlements replacing mystical forests  and mighty fortresses. Gameplay was evolved too,   with a top-down view replacing first-person  dungeon-crawling and isometric combat,   and battles in this fantastical  wasteland unfolding at a quicker pace. You'll find this game's predecessor a little ways  up the list, so why did this follow-up end up   trailing behind? Unfortunately, Dark Sun: Wake of  the Ravager was itself ravaged by an abundance of   bugs, from the irritating to the game-breaking,  which somewhat soured the game's reception, and   locked many players out from ever discovering what  that dragon from the intro sequence was up to. I'll bet it had something to do with ravaging. 31. Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes – Xbox – 2003 Developed by Hunt Valley  Studio, Dungeons & Dragons:   Heroes is a co-op multiplayer, Xbox-exclusive  hack-and-slash with RPG elements. The story   follows four heroes who were killed 150 years  before the events of the game, by the wizard,   Kaedin, who managed to cast one last  deadly spell before being vanquished. The wizard returns in the present day,  and quickly resumes his evil ways,   and so the four heroes are revived to stop him  once again. Maybe try not to die this time, guys? The heroes, who can be named by the player,  make up the classic RPG party combination of   fighter/cleric/wizard/rogue, and each hero has an  ancestral weapon that can be improved throughout   the game. They also have unique abilities  that can be upgraded as the game progresses,   adding that aforementioned element of  role-playing to all the hacking and slashing. Similar in style to Dungeons & Dragons: Dark  Alliance and Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale,   Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes received comparable  comments from reviewers – lacking in depth and   role-playing opportunities, but good for a bit  of mindless hit-things-until-they-die gameplay. However, this Atari-published effort sits higher  than the other games in that list, because while   those games offered adequately distracting  hack-and-slash gameplay at best, this game,   by most accounts, offers actually  quite good hack-and-slash gameplay. One of the best D&D console hack-and-slash  games that doesn't have the name of a   certain bustling port city in its title,  then. That's worth celebrating, right? 30. The Temple of Elemental Evil – PC – 2003 In tabletop terms, The Temple of Elemental Evil  is an adventure designed by Gary Gygax for the   Greyhawk Dungeons & Dragons setting. Feared and  revered in equal measure, the adventure starts   off in the delightfully-named village of Hommlet,  and concludes with an epic dungeon crawl through   the titular temple, where players will eventually  face-off against fungus-faced demoness, Zuggtmoy. The Temple of Elemental Evil video  game, developed by Troika Games,   who are more well-known for Arcanum: Of  Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire:   The Masquerade – Bloodlines, is a digital version  of that self-same infamous tabletop adventure,   starting players off in the village of Hommlet,  the name of which is really making me crave a   fried, folded, eggy treat, and ultimately  sending them off into Zuggtmoy's domain. Played from a top-down viewpoint, the  game shares many similarities with   the Infinity Engine D&D games that  were enjoying success at the time,   but incorporates a radial menu system  for spell and ability selection. It was generally seen as a pleasingly  old-school RPG with a neat graphical style,   but a lack of multiplayer, a bug-ridden initial  release, and very few true, stand-out moments   meant that it failed to live up to either its  inspiration or the studio's previous work. The Temple of Elemental Evil should have been  an epic retelling of one of the most infamous   D&D adventures of all time, but ended up  being somewhat forgotten compared to many   of its contemporaries, its temple doors remaining  closed to all but the most fervent of adventurers. 29. Dungeon Hack – PC – 1993 Dungeon Hack is a first-person dungeon crawler  from Dreamforge that gives players only a single   adventurer to create and focuses almost entirely  on exploration and combat, with little attention   given to lore and role-playing. Inspired by the  Eye of the Beholder games, Dungeon Hack initially   appears to be a stripped-down version of those  titles, but in place of party mechanics and a   story hook, it offers Roguelike gameplay that’s  fairly unique among D&D video game adaptations. When a new game is started, Dungeon Hack will  generate a random dungeon, with publishers,   SSI, claiming around four billion possible  layouts, which is a heck of a lot of dungeon   crawling. Players could affect the difficulty  by influencing the number of traps, puzzles,   and powerful enemies generated, and proud dungeon  creators were also able to share seeds so that   specific dungeon layouts could be swapped among  friends and acquaintances … or maybe enemies,   if you managed to generate an  especially devious hell-hole. Dungeon Hack also allowed players to  go full Roguelike, with the addition   of an optional perma-death setting that  mercilessly erases all saves associated   with that character once they fall foul of  some sneaky trap or unexpected monster attack. The game was well-received at the  time, owing to the fact that it   delivered exactly what it promised,  a near-endless Utopia of content for   digital dungeon delvers more interested  in combat mechanics than role-playing,   but to anyone else, it just felt like  Eye of the Beholder with bits hacked off. 28. Fantasy Empires – PC – 1993 Another strategic take on the Dungeons  & Dragons theme, Fantasy Empires tasks   players with expanding their territory,  overseeing battles, and making truces,   in a bid to conquer the world of Mystara.  The game was created by Silicon Knights,   who are best known for beloved, Lovecraftian,  GameCube horror title, Eternal Darkness:   Sanity’s Requiem, and controversial  Xbox 360 action RPG, Too Human. Fantasy Empires was only  the studio’s second title,   but was well-received for its solid  gameplay and addictive strategy,   even if things did get a little drawn out  as campaigns reached their later stages. Players choose a traditional D&D  character at the start of the game,   but instead of heading off into dangerous  forests and trap-filled temples in search   of monsters to bash, the character  will instead lead the player’s armies,   affecting proceedings by using the skills  and spells provided by their class. In their efforts to claim the entire map,   players can invade neighbouring provinces, build  and upgrade infrastructure on their own lands,   or train various troop types if the  appropriate buildings are present,   including human, orc, dwarf, and shadow elf  units. Multiplayer campaigning is included,   but the AI is more than capable of stepping  in if no like-minded pals are available. Another aspect of Fantasy Empires that  received praise was the “Dungeon Master”,   the ever-present wizard who leans over  the screen and observes proceedings,   occasionally chiming in with wizardly  advice. I wish he wasn’t watching   all the time, though. That stern  expression gets me all flustered. 27. Eye of the Beholder II: The  Legend of Darkmoon – Amiga/PC – 1991 If old-school, 3D dungeon crawlers are your  thing, then Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend   of Darkmoon, is probably the highlight when it  comes to officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons   fare. While not quite the pinnacle of the genre,  the game still provides a hearty and varied   adventure backed up by charming presentation  and a decent story with a memorable conclusion. The premise of Eye of the Beholder II:  The Legend of Darkmoon has that musty,   undead scent about it, with the party tasked  by the Archmage of Waterdeep to investigate the   Temple of Darkmoon, where a shady high priest  with a very scaly secret is raising a legion   of skeletons to do his bidding and lay waste  to the land. In order to overcome this evil,   the party will need to defeat nefarious  clerics and their various monstrous underlings,   as well as overcoming trials to  access the temple’s inner sanctums. Eye of the Beholder II was praised for its  graphical style, its atmospheric music,   and its spooky sound effects, with  gameplay and interface design that   was easy to get to grips with and built  on the foundations set by the original. Don’t expect to have it all your way  in the depths of Darkmoon Temple,   though. The egregious difficulty level  meant that countless adventures ended   unceremoniously and prematurely in some  dark, monster-filled hallway, andgetting   attacked in real-time while frantically clicking  through spell books isn’t exactly the epitome of   carefree adventuring. Overcome these obstacles,  however, and an enjoyable adventure awaits. 26. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons:  Cloudy Mountain – Intellivision – 1982 Listen, we’re well aware that Advanced Dungeons  & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain doesn’t look like much   by today’s standards, what with the Intellivision  more-or-less incapable of rendering things like   clouds and mountains, but we’re all about  respecting our ancestors here at TripleJump,   and this right here is the first officially  licensed Dungeons & Dragons video game and,   for the time, it was regarded very highly indeed. Developed by Mattel, and released only  in North America, this pioneering title   gave Intellivision-owning adventurers the chance   to play as a bow and arrow-wielding hero  on a quest to restore a shattered crown,   exploring randomly-generated dungeons and filling  slinking enemies full of spiky arrowheads. Gameplay switches from a large, overhead  wilderness map, with the player’s starting   point on one side of a vast mountain  range and the titular cloudy mountain   standing majestically on the other, and  the aforementioned mazes that are created   whenever the player enters a mountain tile.  The speed of the creatures found in these   mazes increases depending on the selected  difficulty level, and arrows are finite,   so conserving and locating additional  ammunition is essential for progression. For the most part, Advanced Dungeons  & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain was heavily   praised by contemporary reviewers, with  many publications giving it top marks,   and only the game’s lack of a real ending  and tenuous links to its source material   garnering any negative comments. It’s  probably still pretty fun to play today,   as long as you’re prepared to let  your imagination do the rendering. 25. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure  of Tarmin – Intellivision/Aquarius – 1983 Mattel’s second dip into the Advanced Dungeons &  Dragons well resulted in an upgrade from top-down   maze-based stick-man adventures to first-person  dungeon-based, slightly-more-detailed stick-man   adventures. Mattel’s Advanced Dungeons  & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin was a very   different game to its predecessor, offering  faux-3D visuals and turn-based combat. This time, the player’s goal is to explore  the underground lair of a powerful Minotaur,   acquiring powers and defences throughout  the lair’s labyrinthine halls,   before finally facing the big, purple, horned  fellow himself and making off with his treasure. Matters are complicated somewhat with the  player having to manage two types of health,   “War” and “Spiritual”, with different enemies  affecting different health counts, and different   food-types having varying chances of regenerating  one or the other during rests. There are also   different weapons, armours and items to collect,  as well as points-boosting treasures to acquire. Like Cloudy Mountain before it, Advanced Dungeons  & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin impressed reviewers   with gameplay and visuals the likes of which  had never been seen before on the Intellivision,   and observers appreciated the added  complexity and variety of creatures   to encounter in the Minotaur’s halls. It  may not look like much today, but in 1983,   this was enough to whisk young adventurers  into a world of thrilling exploration and   challenging encounters in a deep and  intimidating dungeon environment. Deep, intimidating, and very, very  green. Maybe the Minotaur likes to   live in slime-covered corridors.  A Slime-otaur, if you will. 24. DragonStrike – Amiga/C64/PC – 1990 We've already spoken about the NES version of  DragonStrike, the top-down shoot-'em-up that   was released in 1992, but now it's time to turn  our reptilian gaze to the home computer version,   that is seen as something of a hidden  gem among dragon aficionados of the era,   and takes the form of a 3D,  first-person, dragon-piloting sim. Another Westwood-developed D&D experience,  DragonStrike used fractals to create a faux   3D landscape for players to pilot their  draconic mount around the skies of Krynn,   taking on airborne enemies like  manticores and other dragons,   and avoiding pesky archers on the ground.  Players could straddle a bronze, silver,   or gold dragon, affecting not only the powers  available to them, but also certain mission   parameters and even the ending. All of  the endings are good, though. After all,   metallic dragons are the good guy dragons,  any D&D player worth their salt knows that. DragonStrike won many fans in the gaming press  upon release, with commenters praising the   game's innovation and highlighting thoughtful  gameplay that rewarded strategic play, rather   than swooping into every situation and solving  every problem with overpowered breath attacks. Retrospective looks at DragonStrike have lamented  its lack of impact compared to its quality and,   while it's not going to hold up  against the flight sims of today,   the word “remake” has been thrown  around by some wishful thinkers. We wouldn't be against it; or at  least someone should make a dragon   mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator.  How is that not already a thing? 23. Neverwinter Nights – PC – 1991 Go on, admit it; some of you started  to seethe then, didn't you. Well,   don't worry, fans of early-2000's Bioware RPGs,   there are two games called Neverwinter  Nights, so you can relax … for now. This time we're discussing the Neverwinter  Nights that was released in 1991, and while   it may look very similar to the many, many  SSI RPGs you've already seen on this list,   this particular title has a very legitimate claim  to fame. It was the first MMO to have graphics. That's right; up until this point, massively  multiplayer online RPGs had been text-based MUDs,   or multi-user dungeons, and the developers  at Beyond Software were the first to bring   visual representations of environments  and characters into the fledgling medium. The gameplay was very much in the mould  of the existing SSI Gold Box games,   but the online element added that  human factor that made it unique,   and player-run guilds and events kept  things new and exciting for subscribers. Initially, Neverwinter Nights'  severs could support 50 players each,   but this number increased over the  game's six-year run, and by 1997,   it routinely hosted up to 2,000 players  during prime-time hours. Laughable figures   by today's standards, but Neverwinter Nights was  a trailblazer, and its legacy cannot be denied. Unfortunately, those interested in MMO  history can no longer play it online,   but if you know the necessary cantrips,  you can still get it running in offline   mode. It feels a bit lonely, though, so  maybe stick to one of the newer games, yeah? 22. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance – GBA – 2003 Well, here we are, 48 entries down and we've  finally arrived at the video gaming capital   of Faerun; Baldur's Gate. The prosperous and  influential merchant city's first appearance   on this list is somewhat compacted,  though, as it's the Game Boy Advance   version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance  that we’re looking at for the moment. This handheld adventure kicks off when  the protagonist is forced to evacuate   his family's farm due to repeated bandit  attacks, and heads to the titular city   to find protection within its walls. The city  offers just as many dangers as the wilderness,   however, and the hapless refugee is  soon ambushed by mysterious attackers.   Rescued by the city watch, he ends up in the  Elfsong Tavern, where he is quickly employed   in that most traditional of low-level  adventuring activities; killing rats. While offering more limited character  creation than its console brethren   (players can only choose from a human male  wizard, fighter, or archer), and stripping   back some gameplay and features so that the  adventure could fit onto Nintendo's handheld,   Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for  the GBA was still well-received. Players enjoyed the isometric  hack-and-slash combat and the   opportunity to explore a variety of  locations, and the GBA rendition of   the city itself was densely packed and  filled with characters to interact with. Simplistic but fun, Baldur's Gate:  Dark Alliance for the GBA offered an   entertaining handheld adventure that players  could easily fit into their explorer's packs,   in between the 50 feet of  hempen rope and the tinderbox. 21. Neverwinter – PC/PS4/Xbox One – 2013 It's time to head back to the city of Neverwinter,  so named because even though it resides in the   chilly north of Faerun, the river that  flows through it is kept in a constant   state of summery warmth thanks to a bunch of  fire elementals living under a nearby mountain. Cryptic Studios' 2013 game, Neverwinter, is an  MMORPG that was originally released on PC before   making the leap to consoles. In it, players create  their character, choose from one of eight playable   classes, and then jump into an online world where  they can party up with others or go it alone. Neverwinter has more of a story focus than  most MMOs, and the developers aimed for the   game to feel more like a multiplayer Dragon Age or  Oblivion, rather than a Guild Wars or a World of   Warcraft, and there's even a “Foundry” mode, where  users can create their own quests and stories. Neverwinter is not without its flaws, and uses  a free-to-play model with purchasable perks,   which won't appeal to everyone, but the overall  attitude held by reviewers is that it's free,   and it's good, so players have nothing to  lose by giving it a go. It should also be   noted that the title made a successful  transition to console platforms,   with Xbox and PlayStation-centric pundits  sharing similar levels of enthusiasm. You know, if I lived in Neverwinter, I think  I'd spend most of my time paddling in that   toasty river heated by fire elementals. I'll  leave the adventuring to someone else, thanks. 20. Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard – PC – 2005 It's time for another strategy game with a  D&D twist, now, but this one tries extra hard   to mix in those role-playing elements, with the  focus switching between a squad-based RTS while   above ground, and more of a party-based  RPG when the player ventures underground. Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard was  developed by Liquid Entertainment,   and is set in the world of Eberron, where multiple  factions clash for the titular Dragonshards;   powerful artefacts linked to three  legendary dragons. Two of these factions,   The Order of the Flame and the Lizardfolk,  have campaigns, with a third faction,   the underworld elves known as the  Umbragen, playable on skirmish maps. Players can choose from various champion  characters who offer unique abilities and   army bonuses, and will then be tasked  with exploring the map and overwhelming   enemies. Buildings are available, but can  only be built in predetermined locations,   and troops can be upgraded  using resources and experience. When transitioning underground,  gameplay swaps to a separate map,   the player is limited to only a few units, and  things switch up from battlefield control to   dungeon crawling. It's a pretty nifty  mechanic, and gave Dungeons & Dragons:   Dragonshard something unique to  single it out amongst the RTS masses. The game was enjoyed by players and reviewers,  who appreciated the artful blend of RTS and RPG,   although the disappointing lack of an  Umbragen campaign seemed more like the   result of time constraints than developer choice,   and the existing campaigns were seen as a little  too short. Still, at least it won't drag on... 19. Dungeons & Dragons Online – PC – 2006 Originally known as Dungeons & Dragons  Online: Stormreach, before later being   rebranded to Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron  Unlimited, and then finally changing its name to   just Dungeons & Dragons Online, this popular  MMORPG was originally developed by Turbine,   before responsibility was passed to Standing  Stone Games amidst some awkward legal action.   The game has also gone through a few publishers,  with Atari, Codemasters, and Warner Bros. all   getting involved, before current publisher,  Daybreak Games Company, took up the helm. Dungeons & Dragons Online has been enjoyed by  innumerable internet adventurers consistently   throughout this tumultuous past, with its eight  expansions adding hours and hours of content,   and the game moving over to  a free-to-play model in 2009. The gaming press has generally had good  things to say about the long-running MMO,   with the character customisation and the  quality of the game’s quests receiving praise,   as well as the massive variety in locations  to explore. Fans of Dungeons & Dragons lore   will be especially enamoured  with the wealth of content,   with settings like the dark and Gothic Ravenloft  and the technology-infused Eberron to explore,   and the game’s MMO status meaning that it can  all be enjoyed with friends, just like real D&D. Admittedly, it’s starting to creak a little in  the visuals department, and the occasional glitch   can still do more of a number on your party’s  progression than a sudden tarrasque attack,   but what’s an adventure without a little real-life  peril to keep on you on your toes … right? 18. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands – PC – 1993 As unlikely as it sounds, given the Dark  Sun setting's reputation for cloying heat   and choking sand, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands  represented a breath of fresh air for D&D   gamers who had been overexposed to the same old  SSI fantasy RPGs for most of the '80s and '90s. Playing very similarly to its aforementioned  follow-up title, Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager,   Dark Sun: Shattered Lands gets the rub because  it provided a new setting for gamers to explore   upon release, and was more or less free of all  those nasty bugs that plagued the second game. The story is an intriguing one, with  a powerful sorcerer-king of a mighty   city-state looking to make a massive blood  sacrifice by putting nearby free cities to   the sword. The player's party begins the  adventure as gladiatorial slaves, and must   fight to escape their bonds before attempting to  put a stop to the nefarious sorcerer-king's plans. Reviewers appreciated the game's detailed  graphics and user-friendly interface and   praised SSI for setting off into new  territory, and so a new series was born. While we're on the subject, now seems like  a good time to mention that there is another   Dark Sun video game, a secret 70th entry  to this list. 1996 MMO Dark Sun Online:   Crimson Sands was reportedly enjoyed by  those who explored its post-apocalyptic   world before its servers were shut down, but  very little concrete information is available,   and absolutely no footage of it appears to  exist anymore. As such, we were unable to   rank Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands, owing to  it being buried in the crimson sands of time. 17. Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone PC/PS2/Xbox 2004 Releasing in the same year as Baldur's  Gate: Dark Alliance II, Forgotten Realms:   Demon Stone tried to muscle in on some of that  D&D-licensed, hack-and-slash goodness and,   to be fair, it did a fairly decent job of  becoming a worthy adventure in its own right. Featuring an exciting storyline penned by none  other than R.A. Salvatore, Forgotten Realms:   Demon Stone initially puts players in  the shoes of a fighter called Rannek,   who soon picks up a pair of adventuring companions  before inadvertently freeing a couple of warlords   who had been imprisoned in a Demon Stone. Escaping  the warlords' wrath, the three decide to do the   right thing, and embark on a quest to stuff the  bad guys back inside their spherical, red prisons. The game is a fast-paced, action role-playing  affair with some great-looking graphics for   the time, enjoyable voice acting and dialogue,  a rousing musical score, and some cool cinematic   set-pieces. All of these factors combined to  make a surprisingly enjoyable adventure that   has fallen into relative obscurity next to the  more-treasured Dark Alliance titles from the era. That's not to say it was without its faults;  the game was hampered by a tendency to become   very repetitive, and could be soundly beaten in  a matter of hours, but it's still recommended for   a quick, D&D-themed, action-RPG blast,  and was perfect for adventurers who'd   finished the Dark Alliance games yet still  craved more action-packed dungeoneering. Despite its somewhat ominous  name, Forgotten Realms:   Demon Stone definitely deserves to be remembered. 16. Baldur's Gate: Dark  Alliance II – PS2/Xbox – 2004 The sequel to the game that first brought  Baldur's Gate to consoles, Baldur's Gate:   Dark Alliance II provided another dose of  the polished dungeon crawling offered by   its predecessor, allowing players to choose  from five playable characters with varying   classes and combat-styles, and focusing its  campaign in and around Baldur's Gate itself,   which is under threat from  our old foes, the Zhentarim. As the hacking, slashing, and questing  continues, the party and the Zhentarim   realise that they have a mutual enemy, the  powerful vampire, Mordoc, who actually comes   super close to realising his villainous plans,  transporting an evil tower to Baldur's Gate,   renaming the city to Mordoc's Gate, and turning  all of its citizens into mind-controlled zombies. With its exciting and impactful  storyline, entertaining co-op gameplay,   the varied play-styles offered  by its cast of protagonists,   and its preservation of all the positive aspects  that made its predecessor so well-regarded,   Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II pleased fans.  However, revered developers, Black Isle Studios,   didn't really add much new to the recipe, instead  content to focus on using the existing mechanics   to spin a new yarn, making the game seem  more like a continuation than an evolution. Still, this well-received sequel  was mostly considered a success,   offering existing fans a new and exciting campaign  with hours of addictive hack-and-slash gameplay,   not to mention a chance to once again visit  the mighty city of Mordoc's Gate … sorry,   Baldur's Gate. That teleporting zombie  tower is still having an effect on me... 15. Pool of Radiance  –Amiga/Apple II/C64/PC/NES – 1988 We're getting towards the business end of the  list, now, so it's time to take off our plumed   paladin helms and our stealthy rogue hoods, and  pay our respects to one of the games that started   it all. While Pool of Radiance was predated by  the two IntellivisionD&D titles, this venerable   adventure was the first entry into SSI's Gold  Box series of RPGs, and ushered in a new era   of computerised, D&D role-playing that helped  to shape decades of digital dungeon crawling. Obviously eclipsed by later role-playing  adventures, Pool of Radiance was something   of a revelation at the time, and a cause for  celebration for D&D players who were wishing   for a professionally-produced, single player  adventure to play on those long, 1980's nights. It was very well-received upon release, and  did huge numbers for SSI, with even the Pool   of Radiancehint guide reportedly outselling any  of the publisher's previous games. Reviewers   were throwing terms like “best RPG” around,  and review scores rarely dropped below 80%. Switching between first-person  exploration sections and top-down   battles, Pool of Radiance's quest tasks  players with aiding in the rebuilding of   a once-great trade city known as Phlan.  That's Phlan with a PH, by the way,   there won't be many custard-based  treats in this monster-infested ruin. Lack of tempting dessert dishes aside,  though, Pool of Radiance will forever   be the progenitor of the Gold Box series,  and will be remembered as an RPG with a   huge impact on the direction of the genre.  In my opinion, that makes it sweet enough. 14. Curse of the Azure Bonds –  Amiga/Apple II/Atari ST/C64/PC – 1989 The follow-up to Pool of Radiance, Curse  of the Azure Bonds expanded on the original   game's ideas and mechanics by providing  additional character classes and spells,   and adding an extra level of polish. The adventure kicks off with the party waking  from a magical sleep in the town of Tilverton,   with all of their belongings stolen and, in a  story beat that will resonate with anyone who's   ever gotten a drunken tattoo, the party also  discover that they have acquired some fetching,   sparkly blue markings on their arms. These are  the Azure Bonds, and much of the ensuing quest is   centred on getting these cursed symbols removed in  a world devoid of laser tattoo removal technology. The bonds are revealed to be the work of  a cabal of evil organisations who have   cooked up a scheme to mark the  local hero contingent with the   titular symbols, and said symbols give said evil  organisations control over the party's actions,   leading to some interesting  and unsavoury situations. The story hook was intriguing, and Curse of  the Azure Bonds improved upon its predecessor,   compelling fans to spend their money  just like the Azure Bonds compelled   the game's protagonists to  perform unspeakable deeds. As a top-notch Gold Box title from before the  series started showing signs of stagnation,   Curse of the Azure Bonds delighted press at  the time and is respected to this day. In fact,   I think I might take this design down to my local  tattoo place and ... no, probably a bad idea. 13. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance  – GameCube/PS2/Xbox – 2001 When the Baldur’s Gate series first debuted  on consoles in 2001, it was quite different   to the top-down, real-time-with-pause RPG  antics that PC gamers had been used to. Using   a three-quarter top-down rotatable  camera and presenting action-RPG,   hack-and-slash gameplay, Baldur’s Gate: Dark  Alliance was compared to the Diablo games by   many observers, but offered an enjoyable and  well-crafted experience in its own right. Kicking off the adventure in  Baldur’s Gate itself, Baldur’s Gate:   Dark Alliance tasked players with choosing  from the three premade characters and setting   off on a quest to defeat the ominously-named  Eldrith the Betrayer, a once-loyal general   who previously served Baldur’s Gate and now  plans to take wrathful vengeance on the city. Developed by Snowblind Studios, Baldur’s Gate:  Dark Alliance was praised for its high-quality,   hack-and-slash gameplay and tight  controls. Seemingly a labour of love,   the title offered a wide range of enemies  to defeat, weaponry to defeat them with,   and a general high standard of production that  made it one of the best action-RPG titles around. The Xbox and GameCube ports that  followed the PS2 original did drag   the overall score down slightly, with  Xbox-centric publications disappointed   that their version didn’t make use of  the console’s extra processing power,   and GameCube owners incensed that their version  suffered from an inexplicable drop in performance. Luckily, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was still  really good regardless of your platform of choice,   and there was enough armour sundering,  loot plundering fun for everyone to enjoy. 12. Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession – PC – 1994 While we’re done with the Gold Box titles, we’re  not quite finished with SSI-published RPGs,   as DreamForge’sRavenloft: Strahd’s  Possession is next on our list,   and represents the SSI RPG formula  being used at its atmospheric best. The Ravenloft D&D campaign setting takes place  in a dimension known as the Demiplane of Dread,   which is composed of multiple spooky domains  ruled by entities called Darklords. The setting   focuses on the more horror-centric side of the  grander D&D universe, meaning players should   expect fewer goblins and kobolds and more  undead horrors and eldritch abominations. One of these Darklords is Strahd Von  Zarovich and, in case you hadn't guessed,   he’s a vampire. In Ravenloft: Strahd’s  Possession, he gets himself involved in   a plot to steal a holy symbol from Lord Dhelt of  the land of Elturel, and the player’s party find   themselves in Strahd’s domain of Barovia, unable  to escape due to an impenetrable poison mist. With its Gothic horror atmosphere,  Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession   offered a delightfully creepy alternative  to the high fantasy of its contemporaries,   and pleased those who liked their adventuring  with a generous helping of dreary spookiness. While the game was called out for  its clumsy interface, Ravenloft:   Strahd’s Possession was still lauded as one  of the very bestD&D video games at the time,   delighting fans and press with its  gameplay, intriguing storyline,   and atmospheric music and sound design. A  little clunky by today’s standards, this   supernatural soiree proved to be an eerie treat  for contemporary connoisseurs of creepy content. 11. Ravenloft: Stone Prophet – PC – 1995 Another game that makes use of  the Ravenloft setting, Ravenloft:   Stone Prophet steps away from all that  Transylvanian-style spooky stuff and   focuses on Egyptian-style spooky stuff instead,  with foreboding castles replaced with desert   ruins and mummies stepping in for vampires.  The game still possesses that traditional,   Ravenloft horror theme, but things are  a lot more sun-baked this time around. Trapped in the harsh and  dangerous deserts of Har'Akir,   the player-controlled party this time  find themselves up against an evil,   undying pharaoh and his appropriately  Egyptian-themed minions, with the land   of Elturel once again under threat as the  sandydomain encroaches on its borders. While Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession was  appreciated by almost all who reviewed it,   Ravenloft: Stone Prophet was near-universally seen  as a step up, offering a less buggy experience,   as well as a fresh setting that was enhanced  greatly by appropriately thematic music   and atmospheric sound design. The  gameplay and combat were on point,   and the well-written plot compelled  players to keep plumming the depths   of those labyrinthine temples and  ancient monuments in search of answers. The game wasn't perfect, with some still lamenting  the interface and others complaining of an ending   that didn't live up to the quality of the rest  of the game, but despite these issues, Ravenloft:   Stone Prophet was fresh, well put-together, and  filled with ancient mysteries to uncover. As   far as the SSI-published D&D adaptations go, we  think that this one sits on top of the pyramid. 10. Icewind Dale – PC – 2000 Alright, settle in, people, because  things are getting really serious,   now. As we enter into the top ten, we also  encounter our first Infinity Engine game. When Bioware created the  Infinity Engine in the late '90s,   they ushered in something of a resurgence for  Dungeons & Dragons-style RPGs. The top-down,   RTS-like gameplay replaced SSI's familiar static  combat maps and first-person exploration as the   go-to for computer role-playing games, right up  until Bioware themselves introduced the fully 3D   Aurora Engine in 2002.We'll get to that later,  though, as this is Icewind Dale's time to shine. Developed by Black Isle Studios, Icewind  Dale offered a more combat-focused adventure   than its fellow Infinity Engine titles, with  enemy encounters forming the grand majority   of gameplay with relatively little in the way of  investigation or interacting with party members.   In fact, the entire player party is created  by the player, offering plenty of scope for   customisation and experimentation, but robbing  more narrative-minded Infinity Engine fans   of the well-written and engaging allies that  Icewind Dale's bigger siblings were known for. Still, Icewind Dale's gameplay, music,  and presentation all hit the mark,   and the game's combat and mechanics-focus meant  that players who were interested in building a   powerful party and testing its mettle against the  toughest foes that the frosty tundra could offer   were sure to have a great time. Those looking for  inter-party conflict, fire-forged friendships,   and possibly even a spot of romance, would,  sadly, have to look elsewhere though. 9. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower  of Doom – Arcade/Saturn – 1994 We've had our fair share of RPGs, hack-and-slash  games, and the odd strategy interlude, but how   many of you were expecting a side-scrolling  beat-'em-up to make it into our top ten?   We're not just putting it here for shock  value either, as Capcom's 1994 arcade hit,   Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom,  is a top-notch example of its genre,   and offered something completely  different for fans of D&D video games. Combining D&D's Western, medieval fantasy setting  with Capcom's arcade flair and distinct visual   style, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom sends  players on a mission to save the land of Mystara   from a multi-pronged, organised monster attack,  led by the nefarious and spooky Arch Lich, Deimos. Not only did Dungeons & Dragons: Tower  of Doom provide mechanically sound,   four player beat-'em-up action, it also provided  unexpected depth, with numerous secrets to find   and seven levels to fight through. The developers  even remembered the game's role-playing origins,   and sprinkled story encounters and  equipment shops throughout the adventure. Also released on the Sega Saturn in Japan as  part of the Dungeons & Dragons Collection,   this arcade beat-'em-up isn't going to  be to every D&D enthusiast's tastes,   but when reviewers are claiming that it is  equal in quality to genre greats like Teenage   Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, it has  to be recognised at the higher end of our list. Also, the kobolds look and sound  like armed Yorkshire terriers,   which is both hilarious and adorable. 8. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over  Mystara – Arcade/Saturn – 1996 Then there was the sequel. Hitting  arcades a couple of years later,   Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara did  everything the original Capcom coin-op did,   but bigger and better. Two more player  characters were added, with a thief and   a magicuser joining the cast, and the story  continues directly on from its predecessor,   with the party realising the previous  antagonist, Deimos, was just a pawn in   an even bigger bad's game. The evil sorceress,  Synn, is the new threat, and she's another one   of those characters with a really scaly  secret. Seriously, watch out for those. By taking the original and improving  on it, Capcom rolled another natural   20 with this action-packed follow-up, and  the game received fervent praise across   the board. The developers continued to push  the envelope of 2D graphical capabilities,   more story branches and additional endings  were added, and controls and mechanics were   tightened up, expanded upon, and further refined  to create a sublime monster bashing experience. Often hailed as one of the greatest  examples of the beat-'em-up genre,   Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara  is the perfect game for those who still   want their Dungeons & Dragons fix, but are a  little worn out from all those stuffy RPGs. Go on, forget about stat rolling, extensive  dialogue trees, and character sheets for a while,   and just enjoy some good old button  mashing instead. Let your elven hair   down.Please refrain from poking the shopkeepers,  though. They are most definitely not for sale. 7. Neverwinter Nights 2 – PC – 2006 What do Neverwinter Nights 2 and Star Wars:  Knights of the Old Republic II have in common?   Well, both games were developed by Obsidian  Software, both were sequels to a Bioware-developed   predecessor, and both are generally seen as  inferior to said predecessor, but not by much. The most common complaints regarding this  3D role-playing sequel concerned a number   of aggravating bugs that affected things  like AI path-finding and camera operation,   and many of them persisted after numerous  patches. These programming nuisances were   enough to drop Neverwinter Nights 2's overall  score below that of the original game,   but Obsidian's sprawling adventure is  still considered one of the classics. Allowing players to create their character  from a selection of 16 races and 12 classes,   with an additional 17 unlockable  classes becoming available,   Neverwinter Nights 2 provided epic scope  for varied gameplay and replayability,   and even gave players the opportunity to  play the campaign cooperatively online. This campaign was definitely the game's strongest  point, specifically its expertly-crafted story   littered with tough, ethical choices, with game  director Chris Avellone using his experience with   previous D&D adaptations to craft another one  of gaming's all-time great yarns. Remember we   mentioned him way back in entry number  68? Talk about a reversal of fortunes. Like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II,  Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great game that stands   in the shadow of its beloved predecessor, but  it deserves to be celebrated in its own light. Come to think of it, this  seems to be Obsidian's thing... 6. Icewind Dale II – PC – 2002 Back to the Infinity Engine,  now, withIcewind Dale II,   another Black Isle Studios-developed RPG that  provides even more of the combat-focused,   pointing and clicking RPG gameplay that its  predecessor delivered so masterfully. The last   Infinity Engine game to be released, Icewind Dale  II proved to be a more than respectable send off. Once again, the player creates the entire  party at the beginning of the game,   and this time said party are identified as  mercenaries who have been shipped in to defend   the harbour town of Targos from a besieging  goblin army. As the situation escalates,   the party find themselves wound up in  a war between the Ten Towns of Icewind   Dale and an overwhelming enemy force  known as the Legion of the Chimera. What Icewind Dale II lacks in detailed  NPC and party member interaction,   it makes up for with varied and  interesting tactical combat,   adapting the mechanics of Third Edition  Dungeons & Dragons into digital form and   giving players near-unlimited tools to overcome  their enemies, both mundane and mystical. A well-presented and sublimely balanced  combat RPG with great music and sound design,   Icewind Dale II only came up short when  compared to its legendary contemporaries.   Of the five games remaining on this list, four  of them had been released within three years of   this game's emergence, and as such, it had  already been bettered in almost every way. Still, it's one of the best around for tactical,   goblin-zapping combat though,  and you've got to respect that. 5. Neverwinter Nights – PC – 2002 Bolstered by the success of their  earlier Infinity Engine games,   Bioware were able to pour vast resources  into their first foray into the 3D RPG   world. They chose to name NeverwinterNights  after the ground-breaking 1991 MMORPG,   due to the fact that they wanted it to work as  a possibility-filled, multiplayer framework,   with users able to host over 60  players in online gaming sessions. Neverwinter Nights also came packaged with the  powerful Aurora toolset, which gave would-be   Dungeon Masters the ability to create multiplayer  content, story-focused, single-player campaigns,   and anything in-between. Neverwinter Nights'  modding scene was popular and enduring, and over   a thousand custom adventures were available  by the end of the game's year of release. Aside from all this impressive technical  stuff and additional content, the actual   game wasn't half bad, either. In  the campaign, the player-created   protagonist is sent on a quest to retrieve  various exotic creatures in order to cure a   plague called the “Wailing Death” that has been  devastating the city of Neverwinter and forced a   city-wide quarantine. Plague-based storylines  really hit different nowadays, don't they? Reviewers enthusiastically sang  the game's praises upon release,   identifying it as a complete package,  and an RPG that had something to appeal   to everyone. Great combat, enchanting visuals  for the time, an adequately intriguing story,   and fantastic sound design all added  up to an adventure for the ages,   and the city of Neverwinter went down in gaming  history as the second most famous city in Faerun. Not that it's a competition, or anything. 4. Baldur's Gate – PC – 1998 If it was a competition, though, Baldur’s  Gate would definitely be winning,   not that you’ll be seeing the  fabled city for quite some time   in Bioware’s ground-breaking and  genre-revitalising RPG, though. The story of Baldur’s Gate starts with  the player character doing odd jobs in   the walled haven of learning and contemplation  known as Candlekeep, before they are forced to   flee and survive in the wilderness with  only bubbly sidekick, Imoen, for company. The story quickly escalates into a  continent-spanning conspiracy to cause   war and bloodshed so that Bhaal, the Lord of  Murder, might be revived, and the protagonist,   as well as especially-spiky big bad,Sarevok,  are both revealed to be said murder god’s   offspring. Along the way, the player can meet  a variety of iconic potential companions of   various alignments, and some among them are  still enjoying relevancy over 20 years later. It’s not just Baldur’s Gate’s cast that helped  it win over the dungeon-delving masses, though,   with the artful way the game’s story unfolds,  the best gameplay yet seen in a D&D RPG,   the detailed and atmospheric  pre-rendered backgrounds,   and the levels of customisation on offer all  contributing to the game’s instant classic status,   with an up-to six-player online multiplayer mode  being an added bonus for sociable adventurers. Ironically for a game whose premise centres  on the machinations of the Lord of Murder,   Baldur’s Gate breathed new life  into the struggling CRPG genre,   and saw Bioware flourish into a legitimate  Triple A studio. Legendary stuff. 3. Planescape: Torment – PC – 1999 Developed by Black Isle Studios and designed  and written by Chris Avellone, Planescape:   Torment isn't for everyone. Where the likes  of Icewind Dale carved an identity by moving   away from role-playing and focusing on combat,  Planescape: Torment goes in the other direction,   with a huge amount of effort put into its  dialogue, characters, and world-building,   and the combat left as something  of an afterthought. It's an oddity,   an acquired taste, and the epitome of a cult  classic, but it could also unironically be   described as a masterpiece of the medium, and  one of the greatest stories ever told in gaming. Making use of the Infinity Engine and the  dimension-hopping, unashamedly bizarre   Planescape setting, Planescape:  Torment has its own visual style,   and offers players a customisable avatar in  the form of The Nameless One. This immortal   amnesia-sufferer wakes up in a mortuary at the  start of the game, and it's the player's job   to end said immortality by finding out  the secrets of the Nameless One's past. This will take players to some very dark and  twisty places, and will introduce an unequalled   cast of optional party-members, including a  gith before gith were cool, a tiefling before   tieflings were cool, a chaste succubus, a  haunted suit of armour, a burning corpse,   a floating skull, and a robot with identity  issues and Homer Simpson's voice actor. Universally hailed as one of the all-time greats,   Planescape: Torment did suffer  from occasionally-clunky combat,   but words are timeless, and the words in  this game are some of the very best around. 2. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn – PC – 2000 Two years after the release of the original  game, Bioware came back with Baldur's Gate II:   Shadows of Amn, and once again shook the  foundations of computer RPGs. Taking everything   that Baldur's Gate had done so well and making it  bigger and better, this anticipated sequel allowed   players to transfer their existing character,  thus kicking off the adventure at a higher level,   which opened avenues for encounters with  powerful creatures, extra-planar beings,   and high-level entities that would have absolutely  flattened the party from the first game. The story's antagonist is  disgraced elven spellcaster,   Jon Irenicus, who plans to use the protagonist's  Bhaalspawn status for his own nefarious goals,   and has captured the protagonist  and their companions at the start   of the game. Irenicus' dungeon is  located in the city of Athkatla,   from which players will eventually strike  out on a quest filled with twists, betrayals,   thieves, vampires, and an isolated prison island  specifically intended to hold powerful mages. Reviewers and players alike extolled the  virtues of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn,   and pointed out its many improvements over  its predecessor, including more meaningful   interactions with party members, shinier  visuals, interface and combat tweaks,   and some vast and entertaining side-quests.  Routinely identified as one of the greatest   games of all time, Baldur's Gate II  is truly the stuff of gaming legend. 1. Baldurs' Gate III – PC/PS5/Xbox Series – 2023 It may seem sacrilegious to put this  Johnny-come-lately at number one,   but as fantastic as its predecessors always  will be, they are over 20 years old, and are   inevitably becoming dated, so a new direction was  required. With the likes of Mass Effect: Andromeda   and Anthem under their fraying belts, Bioware are  no longer the masterpiece factory they once were,   but Belgian developers, Larian Studios, seem just  about ready to step into those very big boots. Like an illithid tadpole boring its way into  an adventurer's brain, Baldur's Gate III has   bored its way into the hearts of millions  all over the world, and has seized upon   the unprecedented current popularity of  D&D to become a legitimate phenomenon. Larian have crafted an outstanding adventure  that respects the fifth edition D&D rules it   is based on, but still knows when to tweak them  for optimum gaming enjoyment. It also respects   the classic titles that came before it without  letting that respect hold it back, managing to   seamlessly blend old-school and modern gaming  principles into a near-universally-adored whole. With its varied and likeable cast of  companions, its compelling villains,   and its multitude of legitimately  tough moral choices, Baldur's Gate   III creates a captivating narrative  for story-focused players to enjoy,   and with its intelligent use of the D&D  rules, its clever encounter and world design,   and its mechanics that lend themselves to  the constant emergence of surprising and   chaotic situations, it also has the varied  gameplay to back up its fascinating premise. It has become a modern classic, with countless  reviewers ascending to the rooftops of the nearest   temple of Lathander to profess their adulation.  Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying something of a   renaissance period, and video games based on the  ever-evolving ruleset are more relevant now than   they ever have been. Larian’s sprawling  epic is riding the crest of that wave,   and offers an unforgettable adventure second  only to the very best tabletop sessions. Baldur’s Gate III readily deserves  its position as the shiniest jewel   in the large and varied treasure hoard  that is Dungeons & Dragons video games,   and that’s not just the brain tadpoles  talking – we really, really mean it. Now, can I talk to you about The Absolute?

Channel: TripleJump

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Keywords: Every Dungeons & Dragons Video Game Ranked From WORST To BEST, dungeons and dragons, d and d, d&d, dnd, dungeons and dragons video games, best dungeons and dragons video games, worst dungeons and dragons video games, baldur's gate 3, baldur's gate 2, planescape torment, baldur's gate, neverwinter nights, icewind dale 2, neverwinter nights 2, shadow over mystara, ravenloft stone prophet, baldur's gate dark alliance, triplejump, triplejump ranked, pool of radiance, d&d online

Id: O59I5rjzEmc

Length: 112min 41sec (6761 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023