Westwood's Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos is sequel in spirit to acclaimed Eye of The Beholder 2, but surpasses its AD&D predecessor in every way. The game broke new grounds with astounding graphics, great soundtrack, intuitive user interface, great spell effects and plot development, and last but not least, excellent automap.
Lands of Lore begin with an intriguing, albeit cliche, premise that is no less dynamic than those in Eye of The Beholder series. While consulting with Geron his counselor, King Richard of Gladstone received an alarming news: after countless futile attempts, Scotia the mad sorceress finally obtained the nether mask, a magical artifact that grants the wearer the power to change into any form. He immediately entrusts to his champion (you, of course) and the task of destroying Scotia once and for all. Westwood eschews traditional RPG character creation in favor of simple statistics, but for the most part, it works. You can choose from 4 characters depending on your preference in weapons/magic balance.
Rarely has an RPG -- or any game for that matter-- been able to entice the player into its world as quickly as Lands of Lore. I remember playing the game for the first time, exploring Gladstone Keep and the forest beyond, collecting all sorts of neat items, battling well-drawn monsters, casting a few spells with amazing effects, seeing my character gain a few levels, annotating the best automap I've ever seen, watching amazing plot development through in-game cutscenes... the next thing I knew, the sun had come up. The game had kept me playing for 6 hours straight-- I can't think of a better recommendation than this :)
Lands of Lore remains to this day one of the most accessible RPGs that stand the test of time, with the power to convert even the most ardent RPG dissenters into hapless addicts. It may not be original or even revolutionary, but it is definitely a flawless execution.
The CD-ROM version features the voice of Patrick Stewart as King Richard, along with other multimedia enhancements that make the game even more atmospheric than the floppy version. As a game design, it is a role model; as a game, it is simply a must-have.
Review By HOTUD
Comments and reviews
Loved this game! I bought the Disk based version when it came out and then the CD version when it came out. Plenty of fun. I also own the GOG version. It plays flawlessly and lists for $5.00, (on sale for half that) as of June 2025). Great price on a Classic.
I absolutely LOVED this game, played it for hours and hours and looked forward to it every time. I love games of this genre and era, they just hit the spot. Some wonderful memories - I enjoyed all of these, and every time I hear any music from it I get them 'feels' :) Like Ultima or Elder Scrolls, it gets me every time!
I liked this old game played 4 hours on end you just have to play with the game to know all the moves and yes it ticks u off when u dont know what to do but when u do its rewording
best game on the pc I can remember! with dragon lore . I enjoyed tie fighter and x wing and dune 2. dott and sam and max and some 7th guest
Is this the talkie or no?
This was one of the few games my entire family actually played. When I was a kid I had a few games but my parents didn't care for them at all. This game was different! On weekends, my Mom, my brother, and I would play late into the night gathered around the computer. I was great!
To 777Kluless111: Stfu.
You're playing a game from 1993 and whining furiously about the "non-intuitive" gameplay? Really?
People still play these games for the purposes of NOSTALGIA. 23 years have passed--there's better games out there.
Also: you sound like a fucking moron. Read the manual or experiment briefly with the controls. FFS--not everything is instantly handed to you in life.
Best dungeon crawl ever made - period.
I have played this before as a child and watched my dad play it.
Wonderful game, simplistic yet perfect and for 1993 - spectacular.
777KLULESS111 - have u try to click on the weapon icon on each character? because is pretty obvious that if u hit that button the character will attack...
I don't like these type of games but this one looks like
it might be worth playing, does anyone know how you
bring up the GADDAMN map????????????
can't tell where I am and where I need to be.
Don't forget the game's also compatible with ScummVM if you can't make it work with DosBox!
Don't work at all for me in my dosbox with D-fend... someone know how to fix it? And don't tell me to type something before launching i can't type anything before it launch
This game is cool, and typeing 'cputype 386' before you mounting really works.
THANKS! To SAS !
I already grabbed the original install cd version elsewere.patched it and it runs fine,the cd version has no copy protection.thanks anyway.great game.the patch 1.23 notes say"If you have used any cheat programs or hex editors to modify your LANDS OF LORE game, this patch -WILL NOT- work. Reinstall from your original game disks, and then install the patch program. This will not effect saved games."
If your game freezes after character selection, just type the following before launching the game: cputype 386 Worked for me..
freezes after character selection,dosbox .74 only supports patched versions.i downloaded the uk eng patch 1.24 but it still wont work.what version is this?
ty
Fantastic fantastic game! I played it back then, and it was explendid! I didn't even liked the genre...but it turned out one of the best I ever played!
Milestone of RPG. Lots of hours of great adventures guaranteed. Must play it!
Great game
possibly my favorite game of all time. This LoL game was of a more serious tone than its sequels and the CD version had voice actors such as patrick stewart (captain picard)
This thing rocks! I spent hours playing it years ago, and there are several surprises. Be sure to rip open all the spiderwebs, for example; there's a girl trapped in one. And like Garrett, I really hate ratmen. Why does every wizard decide to whip up a batch of ratmen?
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.