Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
PC
Nostalgia Factor:
Growing up I was mainly a console gamer, but our family did have a personal computer that we kept in our dad’s bedroom. Seeing as how this computer was so inconveniently placed (my dad locked his bedroom when he wasn’t home), us kids didn’t get to play it as often as we would have liked. We only had a handful of PC games… in fact I think I could name them all off the top of my head. There was The Lawnmower Man, Wolfenstein 3D, Corridor 7, Spear of Destiny, Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: Tie Fighter, and a Jurassic Park game that came pre-installed on the PC itself. Oh, and this game: Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.
At first I didn’t give this game much thought. My brother and my step brothers, who were big into fantasy role playing stuff like Dungeons and Dragons, were this game’s target audience. I’d watch them play it from time to time, but it just didn’t interest me at all. Eventually everyone stopped playing this game due to its steep difficulty level. I don’t know what changed with my thought process, but suddenly the game began to interest me. Perhaps it was because everyone else had given up on this game and I wanted to swoop in and one-up them. Whatever the reason, as soon as I started playing this game I immediately fell in love with it and became hooked. I played it as much as I possibly could, getting past the part where everyone else had gotten stuck (The Urbish Mines). My brother and my stepbrothers became so interested in seeing what happened next, that they’d gather around the computer and watch me play.
Unfortunately, I’d end up getting stuck as well. The White Tower. The third floor. Between dying all the time and this area’s complex puzzles, I just simply could not figure out what to do next. I obsessed over this Tower, spending hours and hours combing through everything there was to comb through. Could I figure out what to do? No. Remember, we didn’t have the internet back then to look up the solution when we’d get stuck. It got so frustrating I even considered calling one of those 1-800 gaming tip hotlines to figure out what to do next. But that didn’t happen. Eventually I gave up on Lands of Lore, and for over 20 years I’d be haunted by my failure to complete this game.
Up until the last year or so, I had always been opposed to emulating… except when it came to Lands of Lore. Every few years from basically 2006 to today, this game would pop into my head and I’d try to find a place where I could download it online. Every single time I failed, and I would give up out of frustration. Then a few years would pass and I’d try to see if I could find it again. I’d fail, get frustrated, and try again in a few more years. Finally here, in the year 2022, a whopping 28 years after this game’s initial release, I’d manage to get my hands on a working rom of this game.
Would this game be as good as I remembered? Would I finally be able to complete it? Read on for the full review.
Story:
An evil sorceress named Scotia has unearthed an ancient mask that allows her to change shape and take on the form of animals and other people. King Richard, recognizing Scotia’s threat to his kingdom, sends you (the player) out to recover the Ruby of Truth, an item that is instrumental in counteracting Scotia’s dangerous new magical mask. The Ruby is missing, however, and when you return to tell Richard, you find that Scotia has infiltrated the castle and has cursed the King. You are sent out by Richard’s counsel to consult with the nearby Draracle (a powerful prophet/oracle) to find out how to break the spell. The Draracle gives you a riddle scroll that you have to decipher in order to find the ingredients you need to concoct a potion to cure the King. This is basically your goal for the rest of the game. Scour the kingdom, talk to people, do battle with trolls, orcs, and other dangerous creatures, and gather the ingredients you need to save the King. Once you save the King, it’s time to defeat Scotia and end the game.
Gameplay:
Lands of Lore is considered a “dungeon crawler”, which is not a genre I have a whole lot of experience with, to say the least. How does it stack up against other dungeon crawlers out there? I don’t know. This is the only one I’ve played!
The game starts with you choosing from four different characters to play as. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are geared towards magic, while others may be geared towards physical strength. I almost always choose Conrad, who is the most well-balanced of the characters. Action takes place from the first-person perspective. Everything is handled through clicking on the screen with your mouse. There are directional keys on the bottom left hand corner of the screen that you click on to move your player. Next to the directional keys is an icon with your player’s face, along with health and magic meters. Click on your character’s face to open up the equipment screen, where you can swap out your character’s weapons and armor. Next to your player’s face is a weapon icon and a spell icon. Click on the weapon icon to attack, click on the spell icon to cast a spell. Along the very bottom edge of the screen is your inventory, where you’ll place all the various items you pick up as you play. Last but not least, there is a zzz button that allows you to rest (as long as you are in a safe location). Resting recovers all of your health and magic points. Be careful, because if there are enemies in the area they will wake you up with a physical attack while your defenses are down.
One thing I can’t stress enough is to GET THE MAP as soon as you start playing the game. Somehow I missed it on my last playthrough, and I had to restart the whole game over again when I realized how impossible it would be without a proper map. The map acts as most maps do in video games – everything on the map is blank until you discover it, and it fills in as you go. This game is filled with a countless number of twisting and turning corridors that all look the same, so be prepared to reference this map quite often.
Dungeons in this game are really hard. Not only are they tough to navigate, but the game doesn’t ease you in when it comes to the difficulty level of some of these battles. I don’t know if it was just me doing something wrong, but my characters only connected on their physical attacks about 20 to 30 percent of the time. It became very frustrating watching them miss all the damn time. The dungeons themselves are filled with pits, pressure pads, hidden walls, compartments, and buttons to press. You’re just going to have to trial and error your way through this game’s puzzles, because nothing is given to you on a silver platter. Or just cheat and use the internet like I did. Hey, don’t judge! I put in my time with this game when I was a kid. My main focus this time around was beating the game at all costs.
My main gripe with this game is that figuring out what to do next is nearly impossible sometimes without guidance. You know how people like to rip on Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest for all the cryptic and obscure things you have to do to beat the game, like standing against the wall and holding down for ten seconds with the red crystal equipped to summon a tornado to take you to the next area, when the game NEVER gives you hints that you are supposed to do this? Lands of Lore does the same kind of thing. In one part of the game you have to hold a green skull over your character’s face and right-click the mouse in order to defeat a challenging beast guarding the entrance to the mines. In another area you have to do that same thing with a black cube in order to break down a magical gate. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wasted hours and hours scouring the game for hints when there were none to be offered.
Overall, however, I enjoyed the sense of freedom and discovery I felt when exploring this strange fantasy world. I just wish the focus of the game was a little bit clearer.
Graphics:
I think the art style of this game still holds up pretty well. Your enemies can look a little bit pixelated at times in battle, but what you see here is nothing worse than what you’d see in a game like Doom or anything else released in that era of gaming. In fact, I’d say Lands of Lore looks even better than Doom. While a lot of the dungeons may look repetitive and “same-y”, where this game excels is in its ability to create a believable fantasy atmosphere. Many areas of this game may not look like much, but I was never not engrossed by this game’s rich fantasy design.
Sound:
I just mentioned this game’s atmosphere, and the sound effects and music of Lands of Lore have just as much to do with creating that atmosphere as its graphics. Everywhere you go, the music fits right in with what you are doing. If you are in a cave, the music is dreary and grim. If you’re exploring the overworld, you get a nice little adventurous (but mysterious) tune. The voice acting is great. Patrick Stewart is the game’s most recognizable talent as King Richard. The sound effects are good, too. I have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to this game’s sound.
Overall:
What a blast from the past. I expected that I would still enjoy Lands of Lore, but I can't say I expected to like it as much as I did. From the moment I started playing this, I couldn't put it away until I was done with it. Almost all of my precious free time has gone towards playing this game. Between raising a toddler and working a full time job, that time is hard to come by!
This game delivers a fresh-feeling fantasy world to its players. The music and the graphics add terrific atmosphere to this game. The maps are large and fun to explore (for the most part). The story isn't the greatest out there, but it's enough to keep you moving and always on your toes. This game does have some flaws - like respawning enemies, cryptic hints as to what you are supposed to do next, and dungeons that begin to overstay their welcome (I'm looking at you, Castle Cimmeria!). Solutions to certain puzzles are so vague it almost feels impossible to beat this game without the help of an online guide.
All of that said, I still couldn't help but love Lands of Lore. I loved it as a kid. It was my introduction to role playing games in general back then. I love it now. It's such a fun game. I would recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in this type of game. Even if you aren't a dungeon crawler fan, like myself, I would be willing to bet you'd be able to enjoy this game. I see and I realize its obvious flaws, but to me the positives of this game far outweigh the negative. And it has nostalgia going for it too.
So yeah - Lands of Lore. Excellent game.
Final Score:
A
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