There are eight races and 16 classes, including four Mage classes, each with its own compelling set of spells. The character system is solid, and every level-up brings you a significant increase in power, allowing you to brave areas you previously would not dare to.

And with Deathlord's 17 continents and archipelagos, there are a lot of areas to brave. This huge world may feel too empty at times, but the locations are consistently good. They have traps, clues, and secrets to find. Many show more than they explicitly tell, by way of their surroundings and the NPCs that inhabit them, such as the masterful portrayal of the eternal yet unstable opposition between Fort Demonguard and Malkanth, the volcanic city of demons.

There are no quest objectives, or quests at all. There is only the starting clue that Deathlord, the game's villain, gives you. Further clues are obscure and difficult to find. There are some places, such as prisons or private residences, that you cannot simply enter; you can only break into them, with the consequence of angering on the entire town's guard.

However, you might learn something valuable if you do take the risk – all the greater given the game's “permadeath” save system with only one, automatically overwritten slot.

The ingenuity of Deathlord's design is to make its blend of Ultima exploration and Wizardry combat flow really well despite the difficulties involved in bringing traditional dungeon hazards – chutes, secret doors, teleporters, etc. – over to a top-down perspective. Most dungeons have a unique theme, and are as unforgiving as they are inventive. You will not make it far without mapping them out, and some secrets are only noticeable if you study the map.

To an enthusiastic dungeon crawler, Deathlord is one of the ultimate games.