Early reviews of "Temple of Apshai" praised the game's graphics and unusual complexity, while criticizing long loading times and slow screen build-up for the dungeon graphics. "Compute!" stated that "Temple of Apshai" for the PET "is for anyone who is tired of simple 'video games' ... is quite an experience". It advised readers to be aware that "this is a serious game. Be prepared to THINK". Jerry Pournelle in "BYTE" called it "an excellent real-time dungeon game", and later reported that his sons had "nearly worn out the Dungeons of Apshai". "Kilobaud Microcomputing" criticized the long load times, but liked the game's graphics and "excellent" documentation. "PC Magazine" stated that the IBM PC version did not fully exploit the computer's graphics capability, but that players "will find excitement and entertainment ... it's certainly worth the silver to grab this game for the PC". The magazine was also favorable towards "Upper Reaches of Apshai", which it called "better than "Temple of Apshai" in some ways". "Popular Science" called "Temple of Apshai" "a good example of a graphic adventure game", but also stated that in it and other games like it "the play seems to drag" because "it takes time to draw the pictures". "The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984" gave "Temple of Apshai" an overall B rating, concluding that it was "an excellent game, one that's very involving", and gave the same grade to "Hellfire Warrior" and "Curse of Ra".