| Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Westwood Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, NEC PC-9801 |
| Release date(s) | 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is the first installment of the Lands of Lore series. It was developed by Westwood Studios and distributed by Virgin Games, Inc. The game presents a real-time, three dimensional view from the character's perspective that is similar to the interface used on the Dungeon Master game and the Eye of the Beholder series.[1]
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King Richard LeGrey is the leader and 40th heir of the Gladstone Keep and the White Army. Gladstone is the base of operations for all of the civilized areas. The White Alliance has been defending it from many threats for three generations.[2] The King is worried about Scotia, an old witch and ruler of the Dark Army who has recently acquired a ring called the Nether Mask, which allows its user to assume any form of any power or capability.
The player has to choose among 4 playable pre-made characters:
When the hero finds Roland, he learns that the Ruby of Truth has been stolen as Roland dies. When he returns to Gladstone, he sees Scotia poison King Richard and escape. It is now up to the player to save the King and defeat the evil witch Scotia.[3] He must visit the Draracle and obtain the recipe of an elixir that will save King Richard.
Once they have the recipe, the party must travel the Lands of Lore to find the ingredients, while simultaneously learning as much as possible about the Nether Mask in the hopes of defeating Scotia.
The game was critically acclaimed and was followed by two re-releases: a CD-ROM "talkie" version in 1994 which featured an additional narrative history of the Lore of the Lands by Patrick Stewart (who also voices King Richard), and a Special "White Label" European Release in 1996.
The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #200 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[4]
In his 2008 work Dungeons and desktops: the History of Computer Role-playing Games, Matt Barton said that Lands of Lore is a Dungeon Master–style game that is easy to learn but not without challenge. He added, "The result was a thoroughly captivating game that is as fun to play today as it was in 1993".[3]
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