Deathtrap Dungeon (video game)

The game is a third-person action-adventure, with the player taking the role of an adventurer (either the Amazon "Red Lotus" or the barbarian "Chaindog"), who at the invitation of a wizard explores a series of dungeons and must overcome both monsters and traps to find riches. ==Development==

Ian Livingstone was heavily involved in determining the game's level design and art style. The aesthetics and atmosphere are manifestly inspired by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose ruins drawings fascinated Ian Livingstone. Though the game's 3D engine is very similar to that of Tomb Raider, another Eidos-published game with a development cycle which overlapped that of Deathtrap Dungeon, the two games were developed in isolation. Deathtrap Dungeon was first publicly shown at E3 1996. ==Release==

Deathtrap Dungeon was promoted with a racy ad campaign featuring a leather-clad dominatrix. ==Reception==

Deathtrap Dungeon received mostly negative reviews on both platforms, though the PC version saw a larger share of mixed reviews than the PlayStation version did. Criticisms were levied at the bland environments, IGN praised the greater focus on action as compared to Tomb Raider but felt the flaws outweighed the merits and made the game overall unappealing. Next Generation concluded that the flaws in the PlayStation original "continually distracted us from the fun parts. Overall, there are only three words for this game – bad, bad, bad." and later said that the PC version was "certainly worthy of attention". ==Notes==