Lands of Lore

Lands of Lore
File:Lands of Lore.gif
Developer(s)	Westwood Studios
Publisher(s)	Virgin Interactive
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release	1993
Genre(s)	computer role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player

Lands of Lore or LoL is a classical computer role-playing game series by Virgin Interactive, following the tradition of Dungeon Master but introducing a linear scenario-based storyline, rather than characters and feats.

Westwood Studios have made role playing games (RPGs) for a long time. Best known are Eye of the Beholder 1 and 2. When SSI planned to make a third one, Westwood chose to make their own RPG without the restrictions from the D&D rule set. The efforts ended up with LoL. Originally planned as a series of eight titles, but only ended up with three.

Setting

The storyline of the games takes place in a fantasy realm known and referred to simply as The Lands. The main realm of the Lands is Gladstone, where the civilised and 'good' races are based.

The history of the Lands is divided into six periods.

• The first is The Unknown Beginning when the Lands were created.
• Then came The Golden Age when the Ancients roamed the Lands. There were no wars.
• Then followed The War of the Heretics. The Ancients fell and the Dark Army rose for the first time. The Ancients became a myth. In the era after the disappearance of the Ancients, a group of predatory Ruloi established a stronghold in the Claw Mountains. They were able to accumulate much of the ancient magic that had been left behind in the lands.
• The Dark Times was the fourth period- a period of darkness. Small states appeared with every race.
• After that followed The Racial Wars. A lot of small wars not relating to each other. Some races were wiped out and the ultimate result was that the four races (Humans, Huline, Dracoids, and Thomgog) established domination over the Lands.
• The present period is called Rise of the Dark Army.

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

King Richard LeGrey is the noble 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 King is worried about Scotia, a vile old hag and ruler of the Dark Army who has recently acquired the Nether Mask, which is a magical item of extreme power and can now assume the shape of any living creature... or horribly unreal beast.

King Richard gathers together his armies and seeks a champion to go see Roland at his manor and retrieve the Ruby of Truth.

The player has to choose among 4 playable pre-made characters: Ak'shel (a 'Dracoid', an ancient race of dragon-lizard hybrid origin, specialized in magic over might), Kieran, (a 'Huline', another ancient race of human-feline hybrid origin, specialized in dexterity and magic), Michael, (a human specialized in strength and fighting) and Conrad (another human, who is a well-balanced combination of all).

Note: The sequel suggests that the canonical champion who participated in the quest was actually Kieran

When you finally make it to Roland, it is too late. Roland is near death and the Ruby is stolen. Returning to Gladstone you realise that you are again too late: a battle has resulted in the poisoning of the King. And now it is up to you to visit the Draracle and find the ingredients of an elixir that will save King Richard.

Having the recipe for the elixir, the heroes must now traverse the Lands to obtain the required 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 remakes: 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

Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny

LoL2 was released in 1997 and was a real-time, first-person RPG. According to the fashion of that era, its cutscenes were FMV combining actors with 3D scenery. As a result, the title required 4 CD-ROMs and a large hard drive installation. The high-resolution, CGI-based in-game graphics represented the pinnacle of 2.5D sprite-based rendering (ie. Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, etc), but were criticised in comparison to the all-3D graphics of other games from that era, such as Quake and Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. The initial version only supported software rendering, but this was fixed in a later patch that updated the game with Direct3D hardware-acceleration support, thereby smoothing out the previously pixellated 2D sprites. With this patch, Lands of Lore 2 became one of the only, if not the only 2.5D game to support Direct3D, as other 2.5D games like Blood and Shadow Warrior were limited to 3Dfx support only.

In Westwood's typically "flashy" style, the installation program and menu system were highly polished and powerful for a game of that era. Whereas most computer games from back then used plain DOS or Windows installers such as InstallShield, Westwood opted for a unique, customized, full-screen installer that tied in with the games visual style and presentation, even going so far as to have a CGI introduction video leading up to the setup options, represented as a book on-screen. The in-game menu system offered a suprisingly high level of control over the video, hardware-acceleration, audio and keyboard/mouse settings.

The mouse support was also unprecedented for it's time in 1997. Not only does it enable you to define controls for both the momentary movement and toggling of mouse-look, but it also allows one to set a key (also both momentary and toggle) to enable movement of the cursor for selecting on-screen buttons, similar to the system used in System Shock 2.

The plot follows Luther, Scotia's son, who is imprisoned by the soldiers of Gladstone and accused for being a member of the Dark Army. Luther is cursed to be morphed into either a monster or a lizard, thanks to which he manages to escape. While the Draracle guides him, Dawn and Bacatta (from the previous game) are after him. Luther must go on his quest while avoiding his pursuers.

The player controls Luther on his quest to solve the curse. Randomly he will change forms, gaining the respective advantages (strength, or the opportunity to enter small spaces and discover secret areas).

The player can choose between two branches, good or evil, which then evolve into 5 possible multiple endings.

Lands of Lore 3

The third game in the series takes place some time after Guardians Of Destiny, and is based on the adventures of Copper LeGrey, the son of Eric, whose brother Richard rules the Lands. In the beginning of the game, Copper's father and two brothers are slain by a dreadful rift hound, and his own soul is torn from his body. As a result, Copper must not only retrieve his soul, but also settle the tension against him, as the new sole heir to the Kingdom of Gladstone - a halfing heir. As well, he must seek out answers to help close new rifts that have appeared throughout the Lands.

The story unfolds over many portal worlds in which Copper has to receive lost pieces of his soul. The Draracle, has sent Copper on his quest to save his life and soul.

The game was released after much delay in 1999, by Electronic Arts. The game is more similar to a first-person shooter than an RPG, like the previous game.

External links

• Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos at MobyGames
• Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny at MobyGames
• Lands of Lore III at MobyGames
• Lands of Lore Kingdom fansite with hints and items guides
• www.landsoflore.de a German fansite and community about Lands of Lore.
• Official Fanlisting for Lands of Lore.
• Sentinel's Lands of Lore page English Lands of Lore fansite.
• Lands of Lore 1 solutions The Spoiler Centre - Solutions for Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.
• Lands of Lore 2 solutions The Spoiler Centre - Solutions for Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny.
• Lands of Lore 3 solutions The Spoiler Centre - Solutions for Lands of Lore III.