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REVIEWS

In 1997, Sierra released a fantasy strategy game based off it’s Lords of the Realms series titled Lords of Magic. What was promised was a turn-based, fantasy game with a real-time combat system. Heavy use of diplomacy and outright warfare were necessary in order to win. Unfortunately, the title had difficulties fulfilling the promise. It was not due so much to missing elements as it was to present elements that did not work correctly. Shoved out just in time for the Christmas season, many a fan became jaded towards the title and Sierra in particular. Patches were a long time coming. A year later we are now treated to a ‘Special Edition’ of the title. Just what does that mean? It means it was released in its proper form with a few extras. Does it therefore warrant a second look? I believe so.

Lords of Magic is your gateway into the legendary lands of Urak. As is true of any ‘real’ strategy title, there are many ways to win, depending on your preferred method of conquering. You begin by choosing your alter ego within the game, be it a warrior, wizard or thief, each with its own unique powers. The warrior is hardier in melee combat, the wizard has access to the arcane arts and the thief is gifted with spying and stealing abilities. Than you have eight different factions to choose from, all with varying traits. Below is a sampling of the type of units you are able to construct, spells you may research and artifacts you may discover:

Each faction has an enemy. Life opposes Death, Air opposes Earth, Order opposes Chaos, and Water opposes Fire.

Your goal in the campaign game is to beat Death, the main antagonist. You can do this by having the other factions ally themselves to you. If they refuse, you will need to conquer them. Their resources are needed in order to build units. Resources are garnered by having followers join your cause. They in turn, are assigned to your tavern (for ale resources); temple (for crystals); market (for gold), and magistrate (to increase your prestige which brings more followers). Followers are also used to build units. Also under your control are buildings such as the Thieves Guild, which produces thief-like units; Barracks for military units; Mage Tower for magical units; and, most important, your Great Temple. With the Great Temple under your control, followers will hear of your deeds and come to your aid.

What Lords of Magic:SE does so well is its varied forms of strategy used in order to win the game. Thief characters can essentially turn invisible in order to get close to the enemy’s capital. In this way, they can spy on troop movement, strength, etc. Wizards are needed to research powerful spells and in turn use them against the enemy. The Barracks churn out powerful warriors used to conquer buildings and marauding units. Each building has a leader unit. These units, when stationed in their respective buildings, confer their experience onto pre-existing units. In this way, you can outright purchase more powerful units. The strategy employed consists of using thieves to find your enemies weakness. In turn, you need to ally with them in order to create an effective front against the enemy. Powerful warriors are needed to vanquish those who oppose you.

Thieves are an important aspect within the game. Besides their abilities mentioned above, they also have the power of capturing units. They can in turn be told to interrogate the prisoner, knock them out (hinders them escaping), torture and execute. In addition, thieves are used to steal resources from your enemies.

Diplomacy is carried out by two forces from different factions meeting. You have the option of combat or parlaying. By parlaying, you have the opportunity to deal with other factions. You may present them with gifts, offer them a trade or demand resources from them.

Of course, your other option is combat. Combat is conducted in two ways. You have the auto-calc feature or the now popular turn-based/real-time format. That is, you hit the space bar to pause the game, give orders to your units, than unpause and watch your orders carried out in a real-time format. With so many units on the screen at one time, things get a bit cluttered. I am convinced that turn-based would have been a better option. On the plus side, things move well, the spells are fun to watch and the units are big with colorful graphics. The terrain needs to be used to your advantage. While some air units are weak, they have the ability of flight that allows them to move over obstacles. Of other note, whatever terrain you are on when you first encounter a combat situation, the combat screen is the same. This lends itself well to the atmosphere of the game.

So, just how does everything blend together? Exceptionally well in this edition. The micromanagement is kept at a minimum, consisting of building up your capital in order to attract more followers, in order to create more resources in order to build more units- I’m sure you get the picture. The fun part is that you can reassign followers to the different stations in order to garner the proper resources needed. Afterwards, you will construct leaders and units in order to explore the lands and conduct a campaign to bring order to the surrounding countryside. You will do this by entering caves and villages to fight bands of wandering monsters (like Bears, Goblin Archers, Orcs and Zombies, but to name a few). This is all accomplished in a turn-based manner. For the most part, a right click on anything brings up information. Gold mines, crystal caves and taverns provide more needed resources. These structures usually need to be cleaned out from monsters that have set up camp, and afterwards guarded from marauders. Once leaders have accumulated enough experience, it is wise to have them train at their respective buildings. Quality, not quantity, rules in LOM:SE. After bumping into another faction, your thief characters can be used as scouts to gather information, and eventually act as ambassadors. You will need allies in LOM:SE in order to vanquish Death who sooner, instead of later, comes knocking at your door. Artifacts will aid your heroes in their quest, as will assigning wizards to research more powerful spells.

The interface is easy to use. You can click on a group or even select a lone unit. There are three magnification levels to view the main map screen. The map screen is resplendent with various terrain and elevation levels. Units have different movement costs based on their faction that can be hindered by being in enemy territory.

The AI is no push over. In parlaying, it will only accept fair offers. In combat, the use of ranged units (archers) and flanking will be needed in order to save your valuable units for the next fight.

The Special Edition includes a powerful map editor and scenario construction kit. The Legends of Urak Quest Pack shows just what can be done. Of special note, there is a particular scenario based on the King Arthur myth. I found this to be accurate to the actual story of King Arthur and very entertaining to play. For owners of the previous Lords of Magic, there is a twenty-dollar rebate offer for purchasing the Special Edition. This means that the cost will figure out to be the same as if you bought an expansion pack for any other game. The Quest Pack is well worth the price. I am pleased that Sierra saw the potential with LOM and gave the go ahead for the Special Edition. I owned the original and was displeased with the problems. I have found this version to be heads and shoulders over the original release.  Multiplayer is available by using a Direct Serial Cable, a Modem, LAN or WON.NET (which is Sierra’s version of Battle.net).

Lords of Magic: Special Edition (LOM:SE) is ideal for fans of the Warlords series, Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM) and Masters of Magic (MOM). Having played both Warlords 3:Darklord Rising and Heroes of Might and Magic 2, I must confess that I found LOM:SE more interesting. The graphics are better than HOMM2 and Warlords as is the gameplay, namely in the diplomacy department.

Reviewed by A. Sage

Summary
Pros: Great gameplay, powerful scenario editor. Cons: It took a year after the original release to get it right.
Interface : 8	Gameplay : 8	Graphics : 8
Audio : 7	Multiplayer : 7	Overall : 7.8 8.5 *(for new comers)

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