“Virgin Interactive Entertainment presents the Westwood Studios production of Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.”

Ah, hearing Patrick Stewart’s resonant delivery of that line at the start of Lands of Lore’s intro always makes me smile. It’s one of those weird little cornerstones of my late 90s DOS and Windows 95 gaming nostalgia.

At the time of its release in 1993, I was still playing their earlier dungeon crawlers released under the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons licence: Eye of the Beholder I and II. I wouldn’t play Lands of Lore until late in 1998 after picking up a second-hand Windows 95 PC and a rather lovely compilation in the bundle of games I bought cheap to play on it: The Westwood 10th Anniversary collection.

Seemingly only released in Europe, Westwood 10th Anniversary contained a best-of mix of their early 90s titles not attached to a licensed property, all with their individual manuals and including a retrospective video compilation of candid photographic moments of Westwood’s history. And it’s thanks to this collection, still one of my favourites to this day, that I first fell in love with Lands of Lore.

A Kingdom Under Threat

The game kicks off with an intro featuring some truly lovely medieval fantasy VGA pixel artwork. The evil witch Scotia, thwarted once before in her efforts to bring low Gladstone and its ruler, King Richard, now again hatches fresh schemes.

Word reaches King Richard that Scotia has recovered an ancient artifact, the Mask of Chaos, from a forgotten temple. “I must destroy her now!” declares Richard to his court advisor.

The Mask, a bejewelled ring, grants the power to assume other forms at will, including that of a comely lass! You can see why Richard is so concerned; the libido of his guards will surely be sorely tested.

Pick a Character, Any Character…

It’s at this point that we’re brought to the character select screen. Unlike the Eye of the Beholder games, you don’t generate a party of characters and their stats, but instead choose from four pre-defined would-be heroes, each with their own personalities and voice-overs. And though Lands of Lore employs a system where all the characters can gain levels in any of three classes, Fighter, Rogue, and Mage, there are still some archetypes here to pick from. The Dracoid Ak’shel favours magic with a huge starting boost to his Magic stat and will gain magic skills at a faster rate than anyone else. His melee combat skills, however, are far weaker. Conversely, Michael favours brawn over brains and his combat skills will improve at an increased rate. Conrad falls squarely in the middle of being a jack-of-all-trades. The feline-faced Kieran, a huline, appears at first to be a weaker version of Conrad, but peeking into the clue book revealed that he will eventually gain an attack speed twice that of everyone else to reflect his natural agility.

“Well, have you decided?”

Richard will impatiently bother you as you consider your choices, startling the four protags as they await your decision. Conrad has traditionally been my go-to choice as I enjoy his voice delivery the most, but for this Adventure Log, I’ll buck tradition and go with Kieran.

The cocky cat is quick to boast about his agility, visibly preening in the throne room. “Strength, magics… what good is it all if you can’t dodge blows?” he says with a cheeky smirk, casting a glance at the other three now scowling at him as the choice is made.

Exploring Gladstone Keep

“Welcome to Gladstone Keep. King Richard awaits you in the throne room.”

A guard greets Kieran as the adventurer re-enters the castle, wondering why he couldn’t have just spoken to King Richard there and then in the throne room after being selected for service.

One of the things I enjoy about Lands of Lore is that there are lots of things to click on and get a voice/text line about. And it’s through these that you get little bits of personality from your character. Kieran here identifies it as the Gladstone crest and how that gold threads sparkle in the weaving, whereas I remember Conrad remarking that the old tapestries add a touch of warmth to the castle. Tsk, trust a feline to be attracted to something shiny!

Checking our inventory, we see that Kieran has turned up in his nightshirt, armed with a dagger. He also possesses a handful of herbs and a small flask, a healing potion. He begins at level one in all classes.

Ow! It’s through curiosity about the sharpness of the blades affixed to shields on the wall that Kieran takes his first point of damage. Silly thing, be careful!

You’re free to wander about the castle before presenting yourself to Richard. Like EOB, your movement is tile-based and done through either the keypad or clicking on the arrows.

This castle does a fair bit of worldbuilding, dropping titbits of lore about Gladstone and the various races that call the Lands home.

We also meet-and-greet some of the denizens of the castle, such as the Royal Herbalist, a rather nervous fellow.

The voice acting for Lands of Lore is a cut above most I’ve heard in games from the time, and I suspect that it’s thanks to the good voice direction of Joseph D. Kucan, the face and voice of Kane in Command & Conquer, who was hired in 1992 to provide just that as speech in games became more common.

We decide to keep our coins for now and continue exploring. Across from the herbalist, we meet Victor Glaston, the hearty Royal Blacksmith.

Seemingly unconcerned about the threat Scotia poses, he offers a choice of weapons to spend our coin on. Looking at the little dagger belted to his waist, Kieran purrs thoughtfully as he surveys them. Then his eyes light up as he takes in the fine long sword that Victor is polishing. “Not for sale! This commander’s sword!” Victor declares with a shake of his head as the huline inquires if he may purchase it.

Alas, Kieran’s coin purse is too light for two of the weapons: the shorter sword and the rapier. This leaves him with only two choices: another dagger for 10 crowns or a mace for 40. Kieran eyes up the mace, imagining himself hefting it about and delivering downward smashes with it. Then he shakes his head, visualising how clumsy it would feel. He bids Victor farewell and returns to the herborium, purchasing a second healing potion, ginseng for treating poisons, and an extra leaf of aloe. It always pays to be prepared! Then he hurries to the throne room, remembering how impatient his royal majesty could be.

Kieran walks in to find the king engaged in fierce debate with his advisors. Both seem convinced that Scotia is a problem they can handle themselves through either military might or magic. But King Richard has other ideas. He turns to Kieran as he notices the presence of the feline adventurer.

He seeks to employ the Ruby of Truth, renowned for giving sage advice in time of need. Currently, it lies in the possession of a trusted noble of the court, Roland. He instructs Kieran to travel to the Southland, retrieve it, and return it to Gladstone. The court advisor then requests that Kieran seek an official writ from him that will declare him to be on Royal Business.

Delivering a cock-sure bow and a respectful flick of his tail, Kieran leaves the throne room and heads off to the chamberlain’s office, which had previously been closed off by a locked door. Then he skids on a foot-paw and comes to a halt, remembering that the king gave him a key to the Royal Library.

It’s here in the library that you get some more deep lore, all delivered by Patrick Stewart. Well, if you’ve got him on the books, you may as well use him! This was advertised as one of the big draws of Lands of Lore, and admittedly, it does add gravitas.

I’m especially fond of travelogues for fictional settings, ever since the Volo’s books for AD&D, so props to Westwood for wanting to flesh out their world like this. There are also a few snippets of useful advice for situations and foes in the game, so be sure to click several times on each book!

It’s one of these books on the pedestal that is the ‘Magic Atlas’ promised to us by Richard. Kieran picks it up, feeling a slight thrum of sorcerous energy passing through it. And as he walks away, he can hear a scratching sound coming from within, like that of quill moving across parchment. He opens it to find an overhead map of his surroundings being drawn in real-time, his position helpfully marked.

Kieran smiles, purring in appreciation; this is indeed a helpful artifact!

The Royal Chamberlain is less than pleased to see us, nor is he happy that the king has sought the help of ‘would-be heroes’. He reluctantly provides us with a writ and also reports that a ‘rascal’ named Timothy can be found at the Grey Eagle Inn, should we require assistance in completing our mission.

Into the Forest

Gladstone Woods stretch out before Kieran as he leaves the castle. He sniffs the air, purring softly as he takes pleasure in the earthy, woodland aroma.

His idle meander through the woods is disturbed by the sound of furious porcine honking. Kieran tenses as it and the sound of stamping hooves grow louder still, readying his blade. And sure enough, one of the famously ill-tempered feral boars roaming the forest charges to attack him!

He emerges victorious, though gravely wounded due to the sheer ferocity of the beast. Panting heavily, wincing from being gored by the boar’s brutal tusks, Kieran takes some time to clean and dress his wounds as best he can.

Ah, but what is this? Inside a hole bored into a tree trunk, he finds an aloe leaf – very timely! He carefully rubs it on several painful scratches, already soothed by the aloe’s natural anaesthetic and healing properties. Much better.

“Excuse me, lad. Are you with King Richard?”

A melodic voice catches his attention as he carefully moves through the forest. Behind him, a young woman approaches, greeting him with a smile.

Something about her overly-friendly demeanour sets his fur on edge and puts Kieran on-guard. What would she be doing here in the forest, alone, with no weapon to defend herself against rampaging boars and the bandits he hears have set up a camp in recent days – another reason to be wary. He politely declines her request.

This immediately angers the young woman, and she transforms into a crow and flies away, cursing his name! He was right to be wary!

Following another encounter with a boar, a black-furred and even more fierce example of its surly kind, he spies a pouch on the ground containing 5 silver crowns and a curious object: a ‘Swarm’. Sorcerous energies hum through the flat beehive-shaped object; Kieran decides to keep it and stow it in his pack. Perhaps someone at the castle will know what is can be used for?

“Hey you! I’ll be taking your money!”

A bandit slips out of the trees, delivering his gruff challenge. Kieran grins, flashing his feline fangs as he readies his dagger. “Try it take it from me, oaf!” he declares.

Kieran practically danced around the burly bandit, lashing out with claw and dagger and dodging the hefty but much slower blows his foe tries to deliver. The bandit roars in anger, bleeding from a dozen cuts and swaying from the blood loss. Then it was over as he went down, gurgling from a savage slash that delivers a mortal blow.

That battle reminded me that Lands of Lore seems to have some protection against ‘stance dancing’, as I called it during my last playthroughs of Eye of the Beholder I and II. You can no longer be practically invincible so long as you keep strafing and circling around an enemy with the keypad; blows are delivered regardess.

“Why are thugs guarding that cave?” muses Kieran as he peers around a bush. Before the rocky entrance, two fur-clad men swig from crude tankards and boast about their prowess at shaking down passing travellers. Purring thoughtfully to himself, he eyes up possible infiltration routes into the cave. Sneaky, sneaky does it…

“Hey you, come back here!”

Kieran froze, wincing as one of the thugs spots him. Oh well, he thinks to himself, wondering if he truly is as stealthy and agile as he fancies himself to be!

The semi-drunk bandits were not difficult to dispatch, especially not wth carefully luring them into the narrow pathways of the forest where he could launch hit-and-run attacks. Wiping his blade on a tuft of grass, he ventures into the gloomy, rocky-walled cave.

“A lantern!” Kieran remarks with a grin as he finds a battered lamp behind a hidden passage revealed by the flick of a lever. Lighting it, he holds it out, dispelling the gloom that his feline eyes could not. He also finds a rather torn and tattered shirt and a weathered dagger near it too.

Now we begin to run into one of the issues that Lands of Lore has: inventory management. Rather than a grid system for each character as is customary, LoL has a shared inventory running horizontally across the bottlom of thre screen. This fills up quickly, necessitating a lot of scrolling back and forth with the arrows either side. I honestly don’t think it’s much improved over a separate inventory and grid screen, despite the extra immersion.

Aha, what is this? Kieran lifts an ornate key from an alcove revealed by a semi-hidden wall switch. He pockets it, whistling in appreciation as he eyes up the purple gemstone inset into it.

“Curse these infernal buttons!” Kieran snarls as he fumbles through the series of pressure plates and hidden buttons by which the surprisingly canny bandits guard their loot. The lantern, out of oil, no longer burns, further hampering his puzzle-solving.

After much experimentation with placing rocks and spare daggers down on them, he makes it through to a locked chest – to which he has the key.

Kieran whistles as he lifts the ornate golden goblet from the chest, along with ten crowns, a set of lockpicks, and a bottle of healing salve – nice!

With the cave cleared of thugs and loot, it was time to head to the marina and book passage to the Southlands. Making his way through the now more-peaceful forest toward the lake, Kieran pushes open the door to the rustic, straw-roofed hut that served as an office for the ferrymaster.

“Where’s your money?” demands the ferrymaster, a no-nonense woman busy at a workbench. “But I have a writ from the king!”, counters Kieran. “Well, where is it?” she challenges. Clearly, friendly chat was not something he would receive here. Sighing, he reaches to his belt and unrolls the writ, presenting it to her for inspection.

A short time later, Kieran stands on the rolling deck of the ferry, a rickety ol’ sailing ship. The coastline of the Southlands is a hazy blur on the horizon. His adventure has barely begun, but already he has resisted temptation from a shape-changing sorceress, tangled with boars and bandits, and earned himself some treasure in the process. The feline adventurer grins to himself as he braces for choppy sailing ahead; this was sure to be an interesting expedition…

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And that’s where I’ll bring this Adventure Log to a close. Westwood packed a lot into that initial forest area, with combat, roleplay, and dungeon-delving to be done. You get a real feel for the kind of game that it’ll be, and it’s one of my favourite opening levels of any game.

I hope you enjoyed coming on this little tour of Lands of Lore, and that it inspires you to give it a try, if you’ve never played it, or fancy revisiting it if you have in the distant past. It’s available from GOG in a double pack with its sequel, currenly 75% off right now as of the publishing of this article, but it’s normal price is still only £4.79 – more than worth it.

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