Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is a 1993 role-playing video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games for MS-DOS, PC-98, and FM Towns. It is the first installment of the Lands of Lore series. The player travels around various environments, collecting items and battling monsters in an attempt to save the kingdom from a witch named Scotia, who has acquired shape-shifting abilities.

Westwood wanted to create something new after being acquired by Virgin, and it was intended that the game outperform Eye of The Beholder II. Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos received generally positive reviews, with reviewers complimenting the graphics and the skill system, but some criticized its combat and repetitiveness. In 1994, the game was re-released on CD, adding voice-overs, including some by Patrick Stewart. Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos was followed by a sequel, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, in 1997.

Gameplay

The game is a dungeon crawler, presented in a real-time, three-dimensional view from the character's perspective similar to the interface used on the Dungeon Master game and the Eye of the Beholder series. The player can move around and interact with the world by performing actions such as picking up items, throwing them, and using them on objects. Features such as locks and switches (which affect the world by triggering events such as walls appearing or disappearing) are abundant, and the latter can be interacted with directly. The player can obtain a map showing the player's current location, as well as important points on the level.