Lords of Magic

"Pretty much everything Lords of the Realm II wasn't, with fries on the side."

To start things off, let's get something straight: I'm not big on strategy games. So why am I giving this game a 10? Because it's addictive, pure and simple. The story goes like this: The powerful god of Death, Golgoth, has finally gained enough power to start making the world of Urak his again. He manages to free a long-imprisoned servant by the name of Balkoth, who will basically go on a massive killing spree unless the other groups (called faiths) can stop him. That's where you come in. Your main goal in the game is to stop Balkoth from conquering the world. Of course, you have the minor problems of being a relative unknown with few resources and not many friends. You must win the respect of your faith as well as the others in your journey to defeat this great evil.

To start, you must first choose whether you (known as "The Lord") will be a fighter, wizard, or thief, each with their own skills and advantages. Then, pick one of eight faiths, four good (Life, Water, Air, and Order) and four evil [Death(only after you beat Balkoth can you play as Death), Fire, Earth, and Chaos). Then, go out and conduct strategic battle, building your levels RPG style until you are strong enough to conquer the Great Temple of your faith, which will allow you to recruit soldiers, gain resources, and basically get a head start on your journey. Make political deals with your neighbors or simply blow them up. The choice is yours. And so is the fate of Urak.

GRAPHICS: 8
The graphics on the overland screen are small and not very detailed, but battle sequences have generally nicer graphics. But, strategy games aren't very dependent on graphics quality anyway, so this isn't that important.

SOUND: 10
Lots and lots of well composed music in this game. Death's theme is particularly cool. Speech is included, and is used to good effect through the game as your units talk to you. Buildings in town also use voices when you click on them. This gets rather annoying if you click multiple times in succession, but that shouldn't happen to often. And, there's an option to turn the town voices off anyway.

CONTROL: 10
Point on your army, click on your army, point where you want them to go, click where you want them to go. Simple, direct, and easy. Newer versions of this game also include a Move All Parties command, which allows you to move different armies without having to choose all of them. This gets useful closer to the end of the game, where you can amass quite a collection of movable parties.

GAMEPLAY: 10
While simple, the gameplay is completely addictive. Each faith and lord type plays differently to offer new gaming experiences every time. Pop-up hints aid newbie players while veteran players who know the ropes can shut them off at their leisure. Real-time battles bring out critical decision-making skills you never knew you had. And for the big plus, IT'S MULTIPLAYER! That's right, choose your favorite faith and make your friends cry as you wipe their puny faith right off the map! Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Yes, it's a good thing.

Let me put it this way: If you enjoy strategy and aren't put off by elves, then this game is a must have.

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