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Something's rotten in Waterdeep, well under Waterdeep actually. The lords of the area have recently discovered a presence of evil somewhere within the city and dispatched Khelben the Adventurer to investigate. Having searched nearly everywhere though, he leamed only a name - Xanathar.

The one place Khelben didn't look was under the city, and what with him still conducting his investigations away from home, guess who's been given the task of Sanitary Engineer?

It's not all muck and filth though. You have been given permission to keep any treasures you find down there, and there's always the chance you'll get into a good scrap - amongst the scrap, so to speak - so things are looking up. And of course, there's the reward waiting at the end of it all...

Comparisons to the ageing classic Dungeon Master are inevitable. When two games look this similar, even their programmers would have trouble telling them apart. The question that has to be asked, then, is if you own one do you really need to buy the other?

And with Dungeon Master (and its successor Chaos Strikes Back) having been around for what seems like eons, has SSI waited too long to release Eye Of The Beholder? Well, it has its good points and bad points. In its favour is the fact that, as with all the other AD&D products, there are bound to be plenty of sequels using the same characters in each game.

Also, the essence of the table-top version of AD&D have been captured nicely (in contrast to previous AD&D titles, there's more emphasis on puzzle-solving than combat - a refreshing change). Combat is also handled extremely well, the spells and 'ranged weapons' rules are all faithful to the original game and the graphics are, quite simply, superb.

The gameplay works wonderfully, conjuring up both the spirit and the atmosphere that you get from any good dungeon romp in the table-top game. The trouble is, both Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back worked equally well - and although they didn't have the background of the most popular RPG in the world to work with, they still offered just as much atmosphere and challenge.

Eye Of The Beholder is an essential purchase for followers of the AD&D series, but also for people who missed FTL's games first time round and those of you that finished them and want some more.