Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

The Good
When I first tried out it, I almost "fell in love" with it. Beautiful, hand-drawn characters, colorful items, nice backgrounds. FMVs (actually, not full-motion) are great, just like in any other Westwood title. In-game spell effects are spectacular. The enemies vary, there are usually more types of them on one level.

The music is dashing, full of life; I can enjoy it in itself. Voice acting is pretty good! They're professionals. (At least Patrick Stewart)

The scenes are different enough: mines, forests, a city, dungeons.

Interface can't be simpler: one-click fighting, two-click casting, and cursor keys for movement. Found items can effortlessly be put in the invertory; while sorting items or equipping PCs the game pauses. World-objects in the view-port can easily be operated. Practically everything is logical. Auto-mapping makes the life easier, especially in the large levels.

Clever puzzles; you'll need to observe everything carefully, or else your progress will be harder. E.g. there is a hint in the King's library that ghosts cannot stand emerald. (So, ghosts on the top of the White Tower or the Castle can be defeated quickly using emerald blades)

The Bad
Nothing important. There are only some minor bugs in the CD version.

On the castle levels are a number of items i couldn't use for anything and a number of doors I couldn't open. It's not bad, but exasperating.

At the completion, the game generates a LANDS.SAV file, just like at the end of EOB2 (FINALE.SAV). I'm sure it was meant to be imported in the next game. It's a shame it eventually didn't make it to LOL2.

The Bottom Line
Consider it a technologically improved EOB or Dungeon Master; outdoor levels, better graphics, animation, music, storyline. Wonderful.

The Good
Westwood reached out to brilliance with their Eye of the Beholder games while working under SSI's surveillance, and soon after they became independent game developer on their own, they decided to give it baby one more try! Aha! And this time with noone but their own team, and hence Lands of Lore was born. Superior to EotB in everything but nostalgic factor, this game casted vast outdoors as well as indoors upon the player. The detail level was simply amazing, and you could now hop through shots or slide to create more real movement feeling. Frank Klepacki did brilliant soundtrack to emphasize the atmosphere of this game, whose only lack was it that it wasn't released as soundtrack itself as well. But hey, at least we got one for the sequel, so woo-jolly-hoo!

Unlike the floppy version (haven't seen that one, but I think there was one), CD-ROM version featured full voice-acting, and not only that, this game was the prelude to Westwood's later known actor acting in various C&C games, and for this one they picked none other but Jean-Luc Picard... or should I say, Patrick Stewart who did the voice of King of Gladstone, and the one to set you on this quest to face the evil old hag, Scotia... who I just happen to like for some peculiar and unknown reason. Must be 'cos she made me laugh a couple of times... and I really loved the sequel, where you play her son, DUN DUN!!

This game is long, has a huge variety of settings, music for each place, lots of characters, and even some neat and unexpected twists and turns in the plot. If I should judge it by how quality this game looks and feels, there'd be none of its kind to match its strength. It's a solid overture to EotB and a first in a proud trilogy to experience. And forget not, this game has a fully automated mapping system, so no more sketching yer own maps.

The Bad
As much as this game really was something, I can't say it was that fun to play, because let's face it, games in EotB style are not fun to play... to me, anyway. Especially when this long. But on the quality level, nothing beats it, and all those beautiful cinematics you'll encounter, it's a real jewel, I don't think there are two games of its kind, so this one's rather unique.

The Bottom Line
First in the trilogy, doesn't boost up the story, but shows you how it all began, creates a certain universe so you can easier take on the sequels, and has one helluva soundtrack. A part of what is probably the best RPG franchise ever created.

The Good
I don't have this game anymore and I've been yearning to play it again. I only get that yearning with quality games, and this is one. This may be the first game with an automap, or at least a good automap. As much fun as carrying reams of graph paper around is, the automap is very convenient. The graphics are terrific and this game passes the test of time. Still fun today for any adventure/rpg fan. I liked the midi music as well. It is tinny and midi-sounding, and repetitive, but you can always turn it off if you're tired of it.

The Bad
There's not much not to like. This is good stuff. Its reach didn't exceed its grasp the way subsequent games in the series did (LOL3 is an outright embarrassment and never should have been released by Westwood).

The Bottom Line
It is a DOS game, which means it may or may not work on XP. Keep a copy of Win98 around on an old machine just to be sure.