Lords of the Realm II

"The sequal to a great strategy game."

OVERVIEW: This game has all the makings of a great strategy sim. You've got your bloody, no-holds-bared real time battles, and your stategic country planning. I recomend this one to any strategy game lovers.

MODES OF PLAY: There are 3 modes of play in the game. The first is single player. You pick your shield (this chooses the color of your flags i.e. purple shield, purple flag), your name, and then you go kick some serious medevil butt! You will play against one AI, and your goal is to overthrough him, and conquer the world. Of course, there will be some small villager armies in your way. You then promptly dispose of them and move on. Or, you could destroy there wheat fields, sending them into political shock, and resulting in there self destruction. I use the later method most often. Every county you defeat i.e. attack the castle or main plaza, and win, turns your color. Once the whole world is your color, you win. Then you move on, doing the same, through progressively harder maps, to world domination, and beating the game. But then you can't just spend all your time building huge armies. You must devlop a stable economy, buy buying wheat and crops, keeping your pop. happy, etc. That is what balances the game out, making it not just a bloody war game, but a good mix of war and strategy.

The second mode is the game config. mode. You can set your game prefrences, then play asingle game on the map of your choice ( over 20! ). The gaol is the same as in single player, but this is only one map, and with cool game settings. An example: You can start with no money, and a huge army, or vise versa. This makes the game more challenging, and really helps replay value. The last is modem play. You can get online and conquer your friends. It offers the same options as game config. and you can play against up to 3 friends. Very cool.

GRAPHICS: OK, its a strategy game, so what do you expect? You only see the tops of the peoples head any way, right? Wrong. In the real tim,e battles the graphics are amazing. The player movaments are very smooth, and there are very few gliches. The graphics work well with the real time play, to create a very smooth look.

IN CLOSING: If you have any questions, please mail me at the above addres. I recomend this game to strategy fans, but if you're a die hard war game fan, don't try it. I'm out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99