Dungeon Master – Return to Chaos

Dungeon Master is a bloody brilliant game, period. I’ve spent so much time playing over the years on several different platforms (Atari ST, Amiga, PC Engine and SNES).

Originally released on the Atari ST in 1987 by the now defunct developer FTL, Dungeon Master was an instant classic as well as being the first real-time 3D roll playing game.

Chaos Strikes Back followed a couple of years later built on the same 3D engine but with some very fiendish level design and tough new monsters. All this produced what was a very challenging game. You could also play Chaos Strikes Back using the characters you’d previously developed whilst playing Dungeon Master which led to many people revisting DM to bulk up their characters.

Finally, after a 6 year wait Dungeon Master II appeared on the PC in 1995 with much improved graphics and sound but with the classic gameplay intact. It was more evolution rather than revolution which is probably why the game didn’t perform well at retail and that was the end for Dungeon Master.

Skip forward to the present day. You can now relive Dungeon Master on your PC thanks to George Gilbert and his Return to Chaos programming project. You can download the latest version of it here (12.6mb). Unfortunately, no Dungeon Master like game has ever appeared on any of the recent consoles (there was Labyrinth on the PSOne, promo screenshots in EDGE in 1995 but the game was never released. Anyone remember this?) Well, maybe Dungeon Siege has been the closest we’ve got to a modern version of DM come to think of it. We’ve really got enough football, driving and GTA games at the moment thanks very much, how about some dungeon action?

Return to Chaos Features:

• Only 8.9mb in size
• No installation required – unzip to a folder and run the RTC.exe
• DM and Chaos Strikes Back both fully playable as well as a zoo level populated by all the monsters in DM
• DM II has recently been added (some levels of the game are still in development though)
• Dungeon Editor – create/edit dungeons/traps/monsters
• Custom dungeons – create your own with the editor or download them from here
• Frequent updates – bug fixes, additional features like new maps and new spells

If you fancy a bit of classic 3D adventuring then Return To Chaos is the game for you.

Screenshots:

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