Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos is Westwood's answer to the question of how to make a dungeon crawler accessible without losing its teeth. The player sets out into a kingdom threatened by the sorceress Scotia, who commands shapeshifting powers and is pushing the land toward collapse, and gradually assembles a small party traveling from forests and caves to castles and underground cities. At the start the player picks one of four heroes, who differ in strength, magic, and skills, so each playthrough has a slightly different focus.

The basics are classic: first-person view, grid-based movement, and real-time combat handled by clicking on weapons. But Westwood strips away most of the friction. The auto-map draws itself, the interface is large and readable, the inventory is clear, and the game guides the player clearly through a set sequence of locations you can return to. Puzzles rely more on observation and using the right item than on drawing plans on graph paper, and the steady arrival of new companions keeps the story's pace up even as the dungeons start to stretch out. There are also special items and transformations that change the rules of passage, so the game regularly flips the switch on you.

Visually it's one of the prettiest games of its kind on DOS: detailed VGA environments, boldly animated monsters, and character portraits that react to injury. The CD version also offered spoken dialogue, in which King Richard was voiced by Patrick Stewart, giving the game an unusually professional sheen. The music is melodic and adventurous, miles away from the frozen silence of Eye of the Beholder. At the time the game was praised for its fluency and presentation and founded a series that later headed toward a more action-oriented take. Today Lands of Lore is probably the best choice for someone who wants a taste of an old dungeon crawler without the frustration: it's good-looking, easy to follow, and its pace still holds up after thirty years. The series followed it with two sequels, though neither has quite as pure a fantasy mood as Throne of Chaos.