DOS

Lords of the Realm II

Lords II is an 'A-title.' Rarely do you find addictive gameplay, delivered with quality graphics and sound. Such grand quality reserves Lords II a spot in anyone's top 10 list. Sadly, the multiplayer gameplay looks and plays like a bad hack, but if you avoid the dubious real-time combat, you might finish a game (my friends and I never did). Lords II is the single- player game for '97. With the lack of micromanagement, I will play Lords II before Civilization and Master of Orion any day, but I'll be doing it alone.

Of all the strategy games I've played in the last couple of years, Lords of the Realm II seems to have the best balance of strategy and action, and recalls some of the best computer games from the ancient era of the 1980s. If you ever spent hours playing the text-based strategy games that were popular for the old Atari, TRS-80, Vic, and Apple IIes, then Lords of the Realm is the perfect synthesis of modern gaming technology and good old-fashioned gameplay. Your enemies are smart, your peasants restless, and there is a kingdom to be won and a king to be crowned. Sierra has hit the mark squarely with this one. If you like strategy, but find Civilization and Ascendancy to be too lengthy and involved, or like action but find Warcraft and Command & Conquer too action top-heavy, then definitely check out Lords II -- it looks like the kind of game that could suddenly make you wonder how it got to be 4 a.m.

Det blir snabbt lite trist att sitta och följa andras krig, speciellt om man är många spelare och det ofta utbryter krig. Det blir för många döperioder som drar ner speltempot. Detta är också mitt enda skäl till att inte ge spelet högsta betyg. Men kan man stå ut med det är nätverksmöjligheten helt underbar.

Forget about chivalrous kings and courtly honor: The Middle Ages sucked. If you didn't come down with a severe case of the Black Death in those days, then your poor, starving, plague-ridden village was being ransacked by some neighboring tyrant. Sierra tries to capture the bleak reality of the bloody feudal struggles during these so-called "dark ages" in their recent turn-based/real-time strategy title Lords of the Realm II. Devout fans of strategy greats hoped that this would combine the best of both Warcraft II and Civilization II, and while it falls just short of being that ultimate game, Lords II still provides a challenging and entertaining experience for strategy enthusiasts.

Echtzeit, Wirtschaft, Strategie - von allem ein bißchen was und verpackt in wunderschöner "Mein großes Ritter-Buch"-Grafik. Diese kunterbunte Mischung macht LOR 2 zum "Müsliriegel" dieses Genres - kurzzeitig sättigend, aber die Wirkung hält nur für wenige Stunden an. Deshalb: Wenn's nicht unbedingt Camelot-Atmospähre sein muß, bieten Civilization 2, Colonization etc. mehr für's Geld.