Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is a 1993 role-playing video game created by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Games for computers such as MS-DOS, PC-98, and FM Towns. It is the first game in the Lands of Lore series. In the game, players explore different environments, gather items, and fight monsters to rescue a kingdom from a witch named Scotia, who has the ability to change shapes.
Westwood Studios aimed to make a new game after being bought by Virgin Games, and the game was designed to be better than Eye of The Beholder II. The game received mostly positive reviews, with praise for its graphics and character abilities, though some critics noted issues with the combat and repetitive gameplay. In 1994, the game was released again on CD, which included added voice-overs, some performed by Patrick Stewart. A follow-up game, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, was released in 1997.
Gameplay
The game is a dungeon crawler, shown in a 3D view that moves as the character moves, similar to the style used in the Dungeon Master game and the Eye of the Beholder series. The player can move around and interact with the world by performing actions like picking up items, throwing them, and using them on objects. Features such as locks and switches (which cause things like walls to appear or disappear) are common, and switches can be touched directly. The player can find a map that shows their current location and important spots on the level.
The player can choose from four characters, each with their own abilities and strengths. Each character has two main statistics: might, which affects how much damage they deal, and protection, which affects how much damage they absorb. Players can give characters items like weapons and armor to improve these stats. Some weapons have special effects, such as a chance to deal extra damage or instantly kill enemies. Not all special effects are helpful: for example, one bow never hits its target. Other items, like medicine, keys, and rings that increase health recovery, can be collected and stored in an inventory. Characters also have skills: Fighter improves combat ability, Rogue helps with using bows and opening locks, and Mage increases spellcasting ability. Spells include fireballs, lightning, and healing, each with four levels of power. Using these actions makes characters better at performing them. Characters may join or leave the group during the game.
Throughout the game, the player will fight many monsters. Weapons and magic can be used to attack enemies. Some monsters can poison (which takes away health) or stun (which stops the character from acting) group members. Medicine can heal group members, and the group can rest at any time (though monsters can wake them up) to recover health and mana. If all group members lose all their health, the game ends. Group members who lose all their health can only be healed by magic or medicine.
The player explores environments like forests, caves, mines, swamps, and castles. Some areas take away mana or make the group sleep. Many areas have chests that contain items when opened. Many levels have multiple floors. The player will also find shops where items can be bought and sold using silver crowns. Many levels include puzzles, such as escaping an area or finding a way to reach a place.
Plot
King Richard, the ruler of Gladstone Keep, learns that Scotia, an old witch, has obtained a ring named the Nether Mask. This ring lets the person who wears it take on any shape or use any power. King Richard sends the player on a mission to find the Ruby of Truth.
When the player reaches the ruby’s guardian, they discover that the ruby has been stolen, and the guardian passes away. When the player returns to Gladstone, Scotia gives King Richard poison and escapes. The player must save the king and stop Scotia. To do this, the player finds the recipe for a special drink that can heal King Richard. After obtaining the recipe, the player travels through the land to gather the ingredients and make the drink. During this journey, the player finds the Ruby of Truth. When King Richard is healed, he gives the group a piece called the Shard of Truth. This shard joins with the Ruby of Truth to form the Whole Truth. The Whole Truth is then used to defeat Scotia.
Development and release
After Westwood Studios was bought by Virgin Interactive, the company decided to stop using the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons license to create a new game instead. Producer Rick Gush said that Brett Sperry, the main leader of the project, helped make this choice. Gush explained that Sperry understood the benefits of this decision, and Gush believed making a new brand would help the studio grow. Joseph Hewitt, an artist at Westwood, said the company wanted to create its own games rather than make games for other companies to earn money.
Westwood already had the tools and experience from the Eye of The Beholder series, but making a new game was still challenging. Gush said the lead programmer, Philip Gorrow, came up with ideas for the new game. Bill Crum was hired to design it. Westwood aimed to improve on Eye of The Beholder II by adding more depth to the story. One challenge was making the game easy for many players to use. Hewitt said Sperry wanted the game to be simple for players to understand. He also explained that the team did unusual things for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games. Their desire to be different with Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos greatly influenced how the game was designed, especially the characters in the game. Sperry was frustrated about creating a character for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which would have required making detailed statistics he did not know. He decided to let players choose from four pre-made characters instead.
In response to the 3D graphics in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, released in March 1992, the Lands of Lore team improved its 2D engine to create a 3D-like effect using blurred movement. Although the game was no longer tied to the Dungeons & Dragons license, a journalist for Computer Gaming World described a preview of the game in April 1993 as a small improvement over the Eye of the Beholder series, with similar gameplay and a better user interface.
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos was released for MS-DOS in September 1993. A version for the Amiga computer with 32 colors was planned. Early versions of the game had a bug that made it impossible to finish: at one point, players could accidentally give up a key item. If this happened, the item was supposed to be recovered later, but the team forgot to include this, making the item permanently lost and the game unbeatable. One player who found this issue sent his save file to Westwood, who fixed it by adding the item back to his inventory.
The game was re-released on CD-ROM in 1994, which included voice-overs, some performed by Patrick Stewart. It also featured an extra story read by Stewart. Gush said the team was very impressed with Stewart’s work and paid $30,000 for him to be with the team for three hours. Stewart finished the voice-overs in less than three hours, and the team received a cardboard cutout of him in a Star Trek uniform. This version included 130 MB of digitized speech.
The game was later re-released on GOG.com in November 2011, along with its sequel.
Reception
According to Westwood Studios, Lands of Lore was a commercial success, with more than 250,000 copies sold by November 1996.
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos received positive reviews from many sources. Trent C. Ward of CD-ROM Today called it one of the best PC games. Scorpia of Computer Gaming World said the game introduced new features, such as improved graphics compared to Eye of the Beholder, an advanced map, and simpler systems for skills, magic, and inventory. While she disliked the combat, she said the game was better than average and worth playing, especially for fans of Eye of the Beholder. InfoWorld described it as a new standard for games similar to Dungeon Master, praising its user interface, graphics, sound, puzzles, and story. The magazine wished the automap could be turned off but called the game a classic. A reviewer from Dragon said the graphics were good and varied but noted the game was not much more advanced than other RPGs. However, the reviewer said the game was fun to play and criticized some puzzles for being too easy. Ray Ivey of Just Adventure said the game was one of the longest he had played and noted that repeated levels made it feel repetitive. He also said some game elements were unclear but praised the combat and skill progression. Edge’s reviewer liked that the game did not use unnecessary details like hunger and called it enjoyable. A French magazine, Joystick, said the graphics were beautiful and the scenes were magnificent but criticized the lack of an option to skip non-interactive parts. Paul Rand of Computer and Video Games said Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos was everything Eye of the Beholder III should have been and more, though he found the game too easy because players could rest and heal often. He praised the presentation and animations. Reviewers of Génération 4 called the game perfect, saying its graphics, animation, story, and puzzles made it the best RPG ever.
Computer Gaming World’s May 1994 review said the CD version’s voice-overs added new elements to the game. Joystick said the CD version had excellent music and voices but did not add much to the original floppy disk version. PC Gamer UK said the CD version’s voice acting reminded players of Star Trek: The Next Generation and added value to the game’s soundtrack. The magazine also said the voices were well-directed and that the CD version was what the game should have been from the start.
James Trunzo of White Wolf #39 (1994) gave Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos an "Excellent" rating, praising its strong story, interesting puzzles, fair but challenging combat, and high-quality sounds, graphics, and animation.
Lands of Lore was a finalist for Computer Gaming World’s Role-Playing Game of the Year award in June 1994, losing to Betrayal at Krondor. The editors said the game had impressive special effects and a story that combined classic fantasy themes. Stewart, the voice actor, won the Best Male Voice-Over Award. The editors said he was well-suited for his role and added realism to the game.
In 1994, PC Gamer UK ranked Lands of Lore as the 22nd best computer game of all time. The editors said it was one of the few RPGs that could compete with the Ultima series while offering a unique experience.