Lords of Karma

The Good
With all the simple text adventures that came out in the early Eighties, ones such as Lords of Karma and Empire of the Over-Mind do not have a complicated plot that you need to understand. You just have to achieve an objective like collecting all the treasures in the game and bringing it back to a specific location. In this game, you have to explore the countryside and defeat monsters that get in your way.

As with all the text adventures that I played, I mapped my way through the game, and from what I mapped, I found that there are a number of places you can visit, and those places are surrounded by forests. And these forests have objects you can pick up and deliver at the chapel, as well as defeating monsters that get in your way, for karma points.

Each game is not the same each time you start a new one. Although the locations are the same, whatever objects and monster in one location are scattered around the game world. These elements make the game replayable.

The Bad
The descriptions are vague. All it is is a list of directions you can go in and nothing else, so it is really hard to picture each scene. Furthermore, you need to look at each scene twice to see if there is anything worth picking up.

Also, although I mapped out the game, I found that the game randomly dumps you somewhere else because you either encounter a garbage dump or have zoned out somewhere.

The Bottom Line
Lords of Karma is a simple text adventure where you get to explore the land, get objects, and defeat monsters. Although there is no real plot behind it, I believe that you must get as many “karma points” as you can. Not everything remains the same each time you play. It is easy to get lost, so making a map is essential, although the game automatically dumps you somewhere else. The descriptions are poorly written, usually only consisting of directions. Although the game is good, there are better text adventures out there worth playing.