There are just four base attributes, and these can only be tinkered with at the character selection screen. To increase your powers further, you will have to find items such as potions that permanently increase your hit and spell points. You will also spend experience points to increase the potency of your spells and the damage of your weapon attacks. These experience points are earned by inflicting damage, and may only be spent once you have completed a dungeon.

Every NPC you meet is fully voiced and there's a unique voice set for each of the different player characters as well. The delivery of said voices may not always be very convincing, but at least the effort has provided some good variety. James C. McMenamy has created a great, dynamic (even sometimes bombastic) soundtrack for the game, which is an impressive feat considering its MIDI format.

The automap in Anvil of Dawn is one the game's strongest points, and it has many times been called one of the best automaps in role-playing game history. It shows anything you would want to see: monsters (alive or dead), doors, stairs, interactive objects, and much more. It even shows walls and outlines from where you have explored in previous games. True map aficionados can also print maps of the game's massive dungeons, or export them to text files.

Anvil of Dawn won the “RPG of the Year” award from Computer Gaming World in 1996, trumping over heavyweight releases like Might and Magic IV and Stonekeep. It features fantastic aesthetics, great exploration with varied environments and an almost unparalleled automapping system.

It may not be a favourite among hardcore dungeon dwellers due to its simplistic character development, but I'd say it's a great starting place for anyone new to dungeon crawlers.