Lords of Magic: Special Edition

"Legendary Dragon, check. Hordes of Archerers, check. Staff of Drowning... Where'd I put that?"

Introduction:
Lords of Magic: Special Edition, is one of the cheapest, but greatest games I have ever played. First of all it is a turn based strategy, second, it takes a fantasy setting, and includes some RPG elements. Third, it takes a very ruler-like position, with you as the lord of your own nation, who must earn money, build troops, and the like. Overall this is an incredible little gem that simply slipped the eye of the gaming market.

Storyline: 7/10
Relatively simple, but it works. Basically you are the new lord of one of the 8 faiths of Urak, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Order, Chaos, Life, or Death (although you can't play as Death unless you've beaten the game at least once). You can be either a Warrior, who excels at hand to hand combat, a mage, who hurls powerful spells from a distance, or a thief, who uses ranged attacks and several stealthy abilities. You are out to destroy Balkoth, the evil lord of Death. You may either make war with the other faiths or ally them. Most of the story is up to you.

Gameplay: 10/10
Now this is where it gets good. As a lord, you have some tasks at hand. If you want to achieve your goals, you have to have resources. To get these are your loyal followers. Once you have cleansed the evil from your great temple, the people will erect a stronghold for you. Then followers will come to serve you. You can recruit them for your army, or put them to work either- gathering gold for you at the marketplace, creating magic crystals at the temple, preparing ale for you at the tavern, or spreading your fame at the magistrate. Those are your 5 resources- Gold, for thieves and missile units, as well as the most important resource in upgrading Strongholds and watchtowers. Crystals, used to summon mages and magic creatures, and the main requirement for your super powerful legendary creatures. Ale, to give your melee warriors and troops, and to hold a festival with. Fame, which increases the number of followers to come to your stronghold each week, or in times of crisis can be sacrificed to pass around the collection bowl and get some spare cash. Finally, followers, who can join your army, or work to collect resouces for you. Once you've got that settled, you can build men to clear out nearby caves, take control of gold and crystals mines, statues, and breweries for cash, and go out to befriend/conquer the neighboring faiths. Every faith's troops have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, the people of Earth have excellent armor and defense, but move ridiculously slowly. Each faith has a diplomatic opinion of you. How they start depends on what faith you are. Your polar opposite (Fire/Water, Order/Chaos, etc) will be hostile towards you, and Death is opposed to everyone. The "good" faiths (Life, Water, Order, Air) will be friendly with each other at the start, and the "bad" faiths (Fire, Chaos, Earth, and Death if it's not a normal game) will be loosely allied. Combat switches the game from turn based to real time. You order men around, and engage the foe in battle. Spells are cast, lives are lost. Your champions (who are the same as you lord only different colored and have a lower level cap) are your primary weapon, with other troops and creatures forming the bulk of your army.

Graphics/Audio: 9/10
Ok, so the graphics are a bit... lacking. You've got to remember that this was made in 1998. You can tell what everything is, and the FMVs are okay, but nothing too stunning. If this were graphics alone this would get a 7. However, the sound saves the day. All the combat related sounds work as they should, such as shooting arrows, clanging swords, etc. What's really good here is the music. First of all, it's great. Order, Fire, Death, and particularly Water have excellent music. Also, if you don't like it, alter it. All the music in this game are .wav files in a folder labeled Music, which is in a folder labeled Wavs. If you want, say, fire to have heavy metal music, find a .wav heavy metal file, and save it over the original music (but back the original up somewhere so you can use it again, it's great stuff).

Replayability: 9/10
With 8 different faiths, a map editor, and a large number of custom maps, not to mention 3 levels of difficulty, there are almost no limits. The one set back is you eventually reach a point where you can't make it any harder. You've gotten so good that nothing is a challenge any more. I certainly haven't reached this point, but there are a couple people on the board who have. The other problem is that since this is a little used game, multiplayer is complicated. It usually requires a large amount of preparation, and can only be done over Kali, an online gaming service.

Conclusion
Overall, LoM:SE is a great game that just didn't get the recognition it deserved. Although there are a few flaws, it really doesn't take much away from the game. I'd suggest this to anyone who enjoys strategy games. Hopefully my review was helpful. And have a good time playing!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/04