Moving on from all the metaphysical megalomania, I think it's high time to roll up a new Jaunt. Uh, so to speak. This time we look westward for our next game: Westwood Studios, to be exact (segues!). While they'll always be better remembered for their seminal genre-defining work with the D&D-based Eye of the Beholder games (and, well Command & Conquer. Thanks ArbitraryWater), they also created a second series of first-person dungeon crawlers set in a world of their own devising: Lands of Lore.
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is the first of the LoL trilogy and still retains Eye of the Beholder's older four-directional system and colorful 2D artwork. Later games would be unfortunate FMV-ridden exemplars of mediocrity, but the original is timeless. At least in my opinion. Like Master of Magic, Lands of Lore is available from GOG.com, though I would advise waiting until it comes up in the sales (if it ever does) and electing it for the daily discount, because it is some classic-ass dungeon crawling. Unless it comes up against Master of Magic. Man, I don't envy anyone who has to make that decision.
Part 1: Long Live King Patrick Stewart
Another episode of A Brief Jaunt Through, another interminable tutorial area that I decided to present in its entirety. Stick around for Part 2, when things actually happen! Also Timothy!
Moving on from all the metaphysical megalomania, I think it's high time to roll up a new Jaunt. Uh, so to speak. This time we look westward for our next game: Westwood Studios, to be exact (segues!). While they'll always be better remembered for their seminal genre-defining work with the D&D-based Eye of the Beholder games (and, well Command & Conquer. Thanks ArbitraryWater), they also created a second series of first-person dungeon crawlers set in a world of their own devising: Lands of Lore.
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is the first of the LoL trilogy and still retains Eye of the Beholder's older four-directional system and colorful 2D artwork. Later games would be unfortunate FMV-ridden exemplars of mediocrity, but the original is timeless. At least in my opinion. Like Master of Magic, Lands of Lore is available from GOG.com, though I would advise waiting until it comes up in the sales (if it ever does) and electing it for the daily discount, because it is some classic-ass dungeon crawling. Unless it comes up against Master of Magic. Man, I don't envy anyone who has to make that decision.
Part 1: Long Live King Patrick Stewart
Another episode of A Brief Jaunt Through, another interminable tutorial area that I decided to present in its entirety. Stick around for Part 2, when things actually happen! Also Timothy!
I got about halfway through this before quitting, Timothy made my main character seem utterly impotent by comparison, and the way the game obfuscates some stats from you in a real weird and uncharacteristic way put me off. And the loot sucks. It looks nice, though.
This time we look westward for our next game: Westwood Studios, to be exact (segues!). While they'll always be best remembered for their seminal genre-defining work with the D&D-based Eye of the Beholder games, they also created a second series of first-person dungeon crawlers set in a world of their own devising: Lands of Lore.
They also made a little game called Command and Conquer. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but while Eye of the Beholder is a very important game as far as RPGs are concerned (popularizing what Dungeon Master did a few years earlier), I would still say that Westwood's defining game is the one where you click dudes and it's all like "I got a present for ya!"
@august: Well, Timothy in particular is a tutorial character. It's kind of important that you have some muscle before fighting through the manor. The next dungeon with Baccata is much less combat-orientated and shows off more of the game's diabolical puzzles.
I absolutely concur with the voice work though. It's like the director told the other voice actors that they got a "real talent" to provide King Richard's voice, and the rest got super pissy and uncooperative. "Oh hey guys, the REAL talent's here. I guess that means we suck, right? Suck at the voices? 'I'm an elf. Blah blah blah, alas and forsooth!'"
@Mento: I meant Baccatta! I think. The guy with four arms. I made the mistake of reading a gamefaqs guide for advice on which character to take and ended up with cat guy, and Baccatta quickly outpaced him in both fighting and magic. The guy has FOUR ARMS. Twice the attack speed and twice the shield armour and he's a boss wizard! It's kind of crazy.
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