Play Anvil of Dawn Online

Game Overview

Anvil of Dawn is one of those mid-90s dungeon crawlers that somehow slipped under the radar—which is a shame, because it nails that perfect mix of exploration and real-time combat. You pick from five characters (I always went for the lizardfolk, because come on, who doesn’t want to play as a sword-wielding reptile?), then dive into these weirdly atmospheric pseudo-3D dungeons. One minute you’re poking around a rotting shipwreck, the next you’re solving pressure-plate puzzles in some warlord’s crumbling fortress.

What I love is how hands-off it feels—no grinding for XP, just swinging swords to get better at swinging swords, or accidentally discovering new spells when you mix the right ingredients. The combat’s quick but tactical, and there’s always some hidden alcove or secret lever you missed the first time. It’s like someone took the best parts of Ultima Underworld and Eye of the Beholder and made them less clunky. Still holds up if you can handle the old-school visuals.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".