The Spire on his back whereas the latter is the will of God. His narcissism is belied by these failing structures he reinterprets to maintain his worldview. "The Spire" is subject to critical analysis by Steve Eddy in the York Notes Advanced series and reviews by Frank Kermode and David Skilton are included in "William Golding: Novels 1954–1967." Don Crompton, in "A View from the Spire: William Golding's Later Novels," analyses the novel and relates it to its pagan and mythical elements. More recently, Mark Kinkead-Weekes and Ian Gregor cover all of William Golding's novels in "William Golding: A Critical Study of
The Dark Spire even equipment choices. The Spire is explored in a first-person perspective, and many classical RPG elements are included, such as random encounters and equipment. The player is tasked to find and defeat the Archmage Tyrhung at the top of the Dark Spire and to retrieve a necklace from him. "The Dark Spire" is a throwback to old first-person dungeon crawler RPGs, such as "The Bard's Tale" or "Wizardry". As a tribute, the game can be set in a mode which renders graphics and sound/music which could have been produced in a game dating to the late 1980s or early 1990s.