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Whereas the first game saw the player following a fairly linear path through the adventure, Chaos Strikes Back features a choice of paths and a far more convoluted set of puzzles. It is pitched at a much higher difficulty level than its predecessor. The player can choose from a selection of moderately high-level characters or can import characters from a Dungeon Master saved game. In an indication of the game's uncompromising toughness, the player's very first task is to get out of a sealed room filled with ferocious man-eating purple worms. The game is made a little easier by the inclusion of a separate program which dispenses cryptic hints based on the player's current saved game.
The player's task is to collect four pieces of corbamite, a magical material from which the eponymous Lord Chaos draws his power. This requires the traversing of four separate paths each leading to a piece of corbamite and each themed around one of the disciplines open to characters in the game. These disciplines are fighter, wizard, priest and ninja (as with many role-playing computer games of this period, a great though unacknowledged debt was owed to Dungeons and Dragons, of which Chaos Strikes Back has plenty of both).