Despite this game being released in 1995 for Windows 98/XP, MORDOR: The Depths of Dejenol still provide a huge amount of fun. A game that manages to simulate having a dungeon visited by so many people without requiring a multiplayer component must have been no easy feat.

This game was a game I remember from my childhood, and having matured enough to learn how to play, the game is more rewarding than ever. With that said, the game can't run on x64 systems, but with a bit of handiwork, you can get it to run on a virtual machine or even run it off a USB drive using a virtual machine, making it an easy-to-play game you can take with you whenever and wherever.

This game is pretty much the original foundation for the game Ascension:Demise, from the same publisher. But as it is the original game, it lacks the rather modest graphics of that game and the interface is even more difficult to get a handle on. This game is not for casual players. There is no reloading, and lack of caution or lack of luck will see your characters dying again and again. You will learn what to do (and not to do) as you wander through the dungeon, and starting over is simply part of the game. You can easily create characters who suck. Learning how to build a decent character or party is also part of this game. In other words this game can be extremely frustrating. For those who like old school role playing games where you actually have to think to do well (let's not talk about winning) and where you weren't babied, will really enjoy this (though again, you might want consider Ascension:Demise instead, for its improved graphics an interface).

Truly a timeless game. If you're not fussy about storyline, which there is none, or fancy graphics, but enjoy endless playability, this is the game for you, as it is for me. A very basic dungeon crawler, encompassing 15 dungeon levels, 9 character races, 12 character classes and many, many monsters and items. Feel like a spellcaster? Blast your opponents away as a sorcerer, or charm your enemies to your side as a mage! Feeling Physical? Warrior for brutal style chopping, or ninja style multiple hits! Thievery is also quite useful, when it comes to opening locked chests! Delving deep into a dungeon has not been matched on replayability to this game, and is yet to be bested. This game will take many, many hours to complete, and will take months of your life away. Play at your own peril!

Having acquired this as part of the secret unlocks of IndieFort 1, I can say definitively that this game has a surprising amount of depth and some highly unique and interesting design decisions that were revolutionary in their time -- in particular, the monster alignment system, treating monsters just like NPCs, the realtime first-person 2.5D combat, and the persistent dungeon. Today this game is dated and probably not worth a purchase on its own, especially at $10, but surely worth your while as part of a bundle acquisition or when it's on a big sale. Generally this is of the same caliber as what other developers would release as public domain as all profitability had been lost; it is now timeless art and nostalgia rather than a commercial product.

Be prepared for a steep learning curve; we've come a long way in user interface design since the last decade of the last millenium, so expect it to play like a multi-tasker's worst nightmare, with modal dialogs all over the place arbitrarily stealing away your focus and ability to control your movements. Be prepared to be quick on the mouse and regarding hotkeys... what hotkeys? "Go back to 2012, loser!"

All in all, it shows its age. It's hard to give it a good rating based on the fact that it's clunky, does not work on 64-bit systems at all (but otherwise works great even on Windows 7 32-bit), and is otherwise about as cumbersome as they come; but it's also hard to give it a bad rating because if you're willing to endure the sharp needles of the migraine it will give you, you'll be rewarded with an old-school 2.5D dungeon crawl that was clever for its time.

This game feels just like an old windows visual basic shareware with no effort made to even try to enhance it a little since it's a re-release. You're be navigating in a cumbersome interface full of buttons and text fields and simply no way to know what to do or where to go. There is however a tutorial that helps getting a hang of it and which you must read if you want to at least survive your first steps in the dungeon.

Also, I got this error starting the game where it prompted me to find and copy 2 files to your windows directory in order to have sounds played in game. I didn't bother as the game also works without them but you might want to try to find them if sounds are necessary for you to enjoy a game.

Finally, I can't recommend this game as there are tons of other ones out there with better interfaces and have way more appealing graphics. Just search for 'First Person Dungeon Crawler'. Hint : Legend of Grimrock is a good choice or check this link for old school ones : www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=469298

While this is a fantastic turn-based RPG that was made for the Win95 OS, it should be noted that this will not run on 64-bit installations at all due to it being a 16-bit program!

If you enjoy old dungeon crawl RPG's then this is most certainly worth a look, there is a Demo available over the internet somewhere that features the first 3 floors. (20 in total)