Lords of Chaos (video game)

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Lords of Chaos

Developer(s)	Julian Gollop
Publisher(s)	Blade Software
Designer(s)	Julian Gollop, Nick Gollop, Matt Furnish, Martin Beadle
Release date(s)	8-bit: April 1990 32-bit: August 1991
Genre(s)	Turn based strategy, Fantasy theme.
Mode(s)	1 to 4 players, turn based, depends on scenario
Platform(s)	Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum

This page is about the video game Lords of Chaos. For the book, see Lords of Chaos. For the self-styled teen militia see Lords of Chaos (self-styled teen militia)

Lords of Chaos is a turn-based strategy game, the sequel to Chaos and an ancestor of the popular X-COM series of games. As with the other games, it was written by Julian Gollop. In the game, each player controls a wizard who can cast various magic spells. The spells have various effects, for example summoning other creatures, which the player also controls or damaging opposing creatures and wizards. The game can be played against a computer-controlled opponent or by up to four human players, and was released on both 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. The 8-bit versions (for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC were released in April 1990, with the 32-bit versions (Atari ST and Commodore Amiga) following in August 1991. The prices were £9.95 for the Spectrum/Commodore 64/Amstrad CPC tape, £19.95 for the Atari ST disk and £24.95 for the Commodore Amiga disk. An IBM PC version was scheduled for release but never was.

As Lords Of Chaos is now over 15 years old and has been made freeware^{[citation needed]}, most regular players use emulator software to play this game because of the difficulty in getting these vintage computer systems.

[edit] Game mechanics

The aim of each level of the game is for a player's wizard to reach a portal which appears after a preset number of turns. To do this, the player's wizard and creatures move around a map composed of square tiles, each of which represents one of various terrain types (for example, forest or the wall of a building). During a player's turn, only the parts of the map which that player's wizard or creatures have previously seen are shown, thus leading to other human players having to look away from the screen during each turn to avoid learning information they "shouldn't" know. Points are awarded for a player's wizard reaching the portal, for holding items of treasure (for example, valuable gems) when the wizard reaches the portal, or for enemy creatures killed during the level. Each level ends when all wizards have reached the portal or been killed, or when the portal disappears after a fixed number of turns (in which case all the remaining wizards lose).

During each turn, each creature has a fixed number of action points which it can use to accomplish actions, for example moving, fighting hand-to-hand or shooting ranged weapons. When a creature's action points are used up for the turn, it can take no actions until all the players have had a turn.

After each level (and before the first level), each player can spend experience points on their wizard, which can improve a wizard's characteristics (for example, how fast they move) and allow them to learn new spells.