This is my favorite game of all time, PC or otherwise. Thank you for making this video, and a double thanks is in order for walking us through how to get the 3DFX enabled. That's huge! Subscribed. Back to the game: it has, by several orders of magnitude, my favorite story of all time. Probably my favorite soundtrack (seriously listen to the City of the Ancients OST). Easily my favorite locations (the first time I raised the fabled Ancient City from the depths and entered was the closest thing I've ever come to a religious experience, the Dracoin Ruins are horrifying and scarier than 99% of survival horror games, the Claw Mountains' white vastness and melancholy mood a wonderful reprieve before the combat hell of the Ruloi Citadel). I will note that while the criticism of the curse mechanic has its merits, you can control it about ~15% into the game or so. With hotkeys it becomes a non-issue. So many paths. So many secrets. Westwood really put the love into their games and none typifies that moreso than Guardians of Destiny. Long live Lands of Lore. Long live Westwood.
I was really impressed with this game at the time. I had a brand new Diamond Monster Voodoo 2, and this was the first game I played with it. But what impressed me even more was the fact that the game managed to be fun all the way through. Even with the cheesy acting and the weird gameplay in many areas, I had a huge smile on my face all the time when playing this game. It's not as good as the original Lands of Lore, in my opinion, but I found it a damn fine game anyway.
Marcelo Sampaio Interestingly enough, only the structure geometry was true polygonal 3D, all other level elements were 2D sprites, very high resolution ones, so they actually looked better in some ways than polygonal 3D models in other games released at the time.
@@marcsm2008 I have to try this game. What you described there about "having a smile in your face during the whole game" pretty much describes my experience with a 1st-person RPG called Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. It's a fairly unique RPG without random encounters, so there's no need for grinding. I wrote a bit more details about it above in a new comment. Strongly recommend it. Any other recommendations of hidden gems out there?
I remember playing this when it was released. I'm a huge Westood Studios fan and played about every single game the company produced, including their SNES games. Even though many of them I only got around playing decades later. I remember seeing this game for the first time in 1997 and it was absolutely jaw-dropping. The graphics were something out of this world for me at the time and I couldn't believe the environments were 3D (albeit with most of the map objects, items and NPCs being 2D sprites) and that you could move around freely in an RPG-style gameplay, and the RPG side of things didn't feel like it was watered down and streamlined at the time. I did play TES II: Daggerfall before that but the graphics, framerate and gameplay fluidity weren't nearly as good as in Lands of Lore 2. The game also had the most incredible FMV cutscenes. It was still the mid 90s FMV craze and even though we were exposed to CGI and live-action FMV cutscenes for a few years by then, they were still absolutely mesmerizing in their pixelated and 8-bit color depth charm.
OH YES I was stuck in the same place when I was a kid, the river bank outside of the scroll trap ! Made me give up the game, then I took it back years later and I could check on the internet about the exit
I'm late to the party, but to anyone interested in the game, most of the criticisms about the technical issues are specific to DOSBox, and I can't speak to whether or not they still exist. Running this game on original hardware, I didn't have any problems with the brightness in the museum section, the issues with 3D rendering or any of the crashes. Fully patched, the game actually runs really well. On the other hand, everything said about the playability of the game is still an issue. The transformations are annoying, the level design is convoluted at times, there's a lot of UI quirks, and the game just sadly came out when developers didn't know how to make cRPGs control well in 3 dimensions. Still worth a play though.
It's one of these games that would benefit immensely (and have big sales too) if someone would "leak" the source code so the modders could work on the bugs or even provide a source port of it. Seems like a brilliant game.
I've played this game and beaten it several times throughout the years. I was lucky and purchased the hard copy of the game after the final version was released so my physical copy does not need to be patched in order to use hardware acceleration. And I've been able to get this game running on every iteration of windows since windows 95 by using the NT install executable install file included with the game. The controls are funky until you customize them but I would not call them terrible. You can AWSD with mouse look and hotkey physical attacks and magical attacks with ease. I use F for fight and R for magic. The review says that the use item system is bad but its not. When you open the full inventory page the ear-marked squares that appear are basically your "belt" allowing you to use each slot with corresponding numbers, I believe its 5 through 9. You don't NEED to use items in your mouse hand. The review also mentions the lighting in the Draracle's Museum. Yes it's dark but you get magic experience for each torch you light and you can light them all instantaneously if you find a hidden room. Finally, when all the torches are on the lighting is decent with exceptions in some areas. But I'm pretty sure it was meant to be dark. In regards to the "terrible" combat, the example is early game when you do not have ranged weapons. If you had one you'd range the targets kiting them as needed. Or you'd use your magic. And the example of the stun with the executioner is because of a specific item not game mechanics. The sword being used is long sword prism which casts a spell that temporarily blinds targets which mechanically feels like a stun. Although if you do enough damage to a target in combat they do have a recovery period of about a second from your attack and vice versa. Random morphs... The character is cursed... Level design isn't horrible.... for 1995, considering the technology of the day. Maybe not as good compared to today's large games. I thought the game was a solid 4 out of 5 based on the standards of the time it was released. While I did find some controls to be somewhat frustrating at first, I became accustomed to them and used them without issue. Ultimately, I did not find anything about the game to be terrible. Some of my favorite levels: The Draracle's Museum The Dark Halls The Dracoid Ruins City of the Ancients
Impressive for 1997? That was the year Goldeneye 007, Tomb Raider 2 and Final Fantasy VII came out. Also, Shenmue was being developed. If you like pixelated video captures as a stylistic choice, I guess that's fair, but this game was technically outdated at the time.
@@Mephitinae You're comparing ps1/n64 320x200 games to an SVGA 640x480 game. Two totally different beasts. These graphics were perfectly adequate for the time, not obsolete at all. Definitely not "the best", but not "obsolete" either, that is just being extremist.
@@FeelingShred I agree with you here. The competition consisted of pyramid tits and shaking face with sound coming out of square wobbly heads. This game actually had a real cast and an incredible story line.
I love me some new ADG!! This game has some really cool features it looks like for the time, as silly of a mechanic as it is I like the FMV that plays when you jump in the water and you watch yourself sink to the bottom! lol The graphics have a really nice aesthetic surprisingly with the combined use of FMV and the 3D engine, and the levels look really nice to me for a 90s game like this! awesome review as always Kris!
You actually don't need a Glide wrapper if you use DOSBox with the 3Dfx chip emulation patch (for example the DOSBox ECE build). The chip emulation has better compatibility than the glide wrapper patch and also allows you to record a 3Dfx game with the built-in DOSBox recorder. And of course it's easier to setup since you don't need any other programs/libraries, it just works.
@@Opinwood You see, that's when the "smart asses" out there usually shut up, when it's time to provide something of actual value and to share. They are only outspoken when it's time to post an argumentative comment trying to outwit the uploaded of the video. As if ADG himself wasn't already an expert in all of this. Totally unnecessary. There are many ways of achieving glide, and he is already aware of them.
I'm about to try it myself soon, let's see if it sounds better than Hexen (ambiance sounds, atmosphere) or Ravenloft: Stone Prophet (overall presentation, music, art, atmosphere) Not that I really care about it being "better" or "worse", I'm just dropping some names there. Expectations are already high with this hidden gem of a game.
Well... having watched the first 2 minutes of this video, I'm already a little bit in nitpicking mode. The first Lands of Lore was called "Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos" and reduced the RPG-typical system and stats that were so prevalent in other dungeon crawls at the time ("Eye of the Beholder" and the likes) to an absolute minimum, so that it would be a much more appealing game for RPG newcomers. Now the second game was called "Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny", without being numbered. Why would it HAVE to be numbered though? I think it's common knowledge that games with a "2" or "3" or higher in the title don't sell as well because potential buyers might not own the first game, so they think they're missing out on something, so they don't buy the successor. (It's the same with "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Serrated Scalpel" and "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Rose Tattoo". They're two games in a series, but nobody ever complained about them not being numbered.) And "Guardians of Destiny" ALSO hides its underlying RPG system so that it's just more convenient to play. That doesn't make it less of a dungeon crawl though. Yes, it's got real-time 3D but that's what was possible at the time and it's what so many gamers back then were most excited about! A real-time 3D dungeon crawl without the single-step 90-degrees movement restrictions. Again: That doesn't make it an "action adventure" though. It's just more streamlined.
+SonataFanatica I... pointed out that first part right at the start of the video, how the number was left off becuase it was such a departure in terms of gameplay. As for the debate about calling it an RPG or not, as I mentioned a long while back, talking about genres can actually spark massively heated debates for whatever reason, so... let's not go there. ;)
To add to that, Might and Magic 6 to 9 and Wizardry 8 broke with the previous games' step-based movement too, but that didn't make them lesser RPGs. As long as the underlying RPG mechanics don't change, all is fine, and Lands of Lore never had super complex RPG mechanics anyway.
Pixelmusement Yeah, I know you said that. ;) I just don't think they omitted the number 2 because of the game's mechanics (its different feel). I think they did that because of sales, as most companies do. That's what I was trying to say.
Pixelmusement - Loving your reviews, especially that you also cover the more "nuts and bolts" mechanics side of things. Would love to see you review Gobliiins.
+Sean Metivier UA-cam's been experimenting with having the sub feed show recommended vids from subscribers first. There's SUPPOSED to be a way to set it back to date-ordered, but I haven't been exposed to this change so I don't know how to do it.
@@Pixelmusement On the computer there's a button that leads the user to ua-cam.com/users/feedsubscriptions which is super useful. But on the mobile app there's no such thing (as far as I know... I don't even spend that much time on my phone anyway, these things feel like disposable cheap toys to me...)
just something to consider... also, users on the mobile app are not able to click description links, so you have to re-paste all the info on the comments too, the comment sent by the uploader stays always on top, so that's nice... ("computah programming too hard for our engineering degrees") xDD
This game is hilarious and some of the dungeons are REALLY cool (like the Museum and the Ghost House). My favorite part is how Luther can be evil and just massacre NPCs with such lines as, "these cat people make amusing noises when they die." Lol.
16:03 I can start feeling proud of myself apparently, because I did find the Switch and then found the exit. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty now. I'm in the Draracle's Museum training with these skeletons. My physical attack is at level 8 (max for this level) and Magic is at level 7 (8 is max). I've quickly found out that playing on the hardest difficulty not only levels you up more (leveling is based on the amount of targets hit and higher difficulty requires more hits to kill), if also demands thinking strategically to single out targets and then find the best way to take them down. My game runes smoothly. No crashes at all. But that's probably because I bought it from G2A, back before I found out the site is... dubious to say the least. I consider Lands of Lore 2 one of my all-time favourite games.
I tried this years ago out of fascination for what came after the first game, but when I did, it looks like I gave up around the same point you did. And I gotta agree on how the game is very split in quality... When people talk of games being remade, I wish this one was considered for a serious contender. It feels like it's ambition should be lived up to.
+Steven Don Yeah, I was just kidding at the end there, although my analytics do show that viewership drops like a stone once the credits are reached. :P
12:38 - AH! The Draracle Museum!! That was actually one of my favourite parts of the game! It looked incredible in hardware accelerated Direct3D....perhaps you didn't have the gamma turned up enough?!
Getting old hardware accelerated DOS games running on modern Windows is a trip and a half so it wouldn't surprise me if that area's supposed to be much brighter than I was able to make it. :/
@@Pixelmusement In all honesty I left that comment before seeing the level of detail you went into at the end of the video explaining how to get it running!👋👋😄 I did try it via DosBox with a Glide Wrapper (can't remember which) a few years back and recall that it looked ok but lacked some of the subtle lighting and filtering that true 3DFX hardware provided. DgVoodoo seems a lot more advanced and how the game appears in this video is far closer to how I remember it originally but as you say, a little on the dark side! Could of course be that it was designed when CRT monitors were prevalent and LCD/LED technology can't emulate contrast/brightness in exactly the same way. Regardless, an excellent and highly informative video and many thanks for the nostalgia!👍. I may just revisit it again myself....it was a bug that put paid to my efforts last time!
Good review. I agree with a lot of your comments. Played Lands of Lore 1 in the late 90's and loved it. Bought the LoL 2 shortly after and played it a lot. I wanted to love it, and loved parts of it, but abandoned the run half way through (around the Dracoid Cemetary) because of some of the issues you bring up here. However, I disagree with your comments at 12:30. when going from the starting dungeon to the Huline Jungle the "short cut", is the main way. I'm not sure how you missed it since it's the obvious and straight path forward. The "long way", is actually the hidden place, the Draracle's Museum, which I thought (having just played LoL 1) was an amazing easter egg with all it's extra loot and information and references to LoL 1 (including establishing the canon that Keiran beat Scotia in the first game). I think it should be added to the brilliance category, as it was probably the best memory I have of the game. Keep up the good work. You've earned another subscriber! (BTW: you're video on Daggerfall, episode 66, is apparently flagged as adult by youtube, so unwatchable without verification of age via credit card or ID)
Daggerfall has mature content, specifically graphic violence. For the longest time it was never clear what qualified as "mature" or not in terms of graphics violence on video hosting services, but even with the definitions laid out better now it's safer to err on the side of caution, not just because of how much of the detection of content is automated, but especially for the sake of parents who are allowing their kids to watch the show so they can step in when appropriate. I am aware that by today's standards many of these DOS games don't get anywhere near as visually disturbing, but it's still taking place all the same. :P
Just a stab in the dark but.... Have you tried telling GOG how to set it up as here? I don't know if they'd take it, but it's at least worth a shot. If it works, you also get to save a lot of people a lot of headache.
+Singular8ty I haven't, but given that updates like that would require additional testing on their part rather than just blind acceptance, as well as new installers and additional file reputation management, updating just ONE game would be a significant hassle just to make very minor changes like that so I wouldn't expect them to devote those kinds of resources to it when they already have upcoming releases to worry about, not to mention, I'm only providing the most basic configuration details necessary. Some users may still want to make even more modifications to the configs anyways for the use of scalers, different graphics settings, different sound buffering, etc.
@@Pixelmusement I totally get that, but if it's as bad as you seem to describe (near unplayable), they may consider it. Forum posts and the like can also tell people how to do it while also giving the GOG team an idea of how well received an update like that may be. The way I see it is that simply telling them this directly can only result in an improvement or status quo. Nothing lost either way.
I knew this game would cause you much frustrations. Even using Qemu in emulation mode with emulators reproducing bit for bit cycle for cycle the behavior of Voodoo graphics card this game sill crashes massively . Going back in the backlog of PC Gaming magazines CDS filled with patches has been the only solution so far to somewhat improve the situation. Heck even PCem and Bochs don't make that much of an improvement (hence why Linux retro-gamers, retort to use Qemu. At this point our settings are so hardcore that playing it on period accurate hardware would be less electrically consuming .... )
"Now, let's look at the sequel..." Me: Wooooow Dude... amazing. Thanks. Have to play this. By the way I arrived here looking at a Hexen mod called Quest For Glory IV (Zdoom Hexen mod) might be worth a look
Guys anyone has the game with 3dfx support?I tried and tried again but i cannot get it right....I have sound problems or vanishing cursor and stuttering problems.I have the original but it doesnt work with win11 64bit...Any help to make any version work properly with 3dfx support? PS: I have the original 4cd version and the gog version...
+Equalizing Distort It actually depends. Some GOG releases are done very well, others feel like they tried really hard but couldn't figure it out so just went with a baseline which "functioned" despite not functioning well. :P
@@Darkstar2342 Never played this one. Any updated patches out there for modern systems? Or is it pretty much about running the original version just fine? Any tips? Any recommendations of control schemes?
@@Tarquinn Have Been playing through Lands of Lore 2, and the huline monastery monk actually mentions being a former commander for the Tiberium forces, or something like that. Energy crystals such as the Stone of Basar in the Drarcle's museum and the Kyragem from Westwood's Legend of Kyrandia series seem to be a continuous theme in Westwood products, Tiberium crystals included. Not surprising, since Westwood is based on Las Vegas, out in the American desert where crystals are plentiful and have a sort of New Age culture about them. I love this kind of thing -- you just don't see it in modern games with that AAA creative control. John Romero and Tom Hall have commented on how all the protagonists of the original ID Software games (Commander Keen, Billy Blazkowicz, and the DOOM Guy) were all supposed to be of a single family line, as well. Anyway -- I'm curious, what was the LoL 3 reference?
The first game had charming fantasy illustrations for the non-human characters. This one had goofy digitized actors in creepy-ass "Cats" make-up. Sometimes, older games just did it better.
Wait, you can get 3D acceleration in DOS? I have Tomb Raider, but the only way I was ever able to get it to run with 3D acceleration was playing thru Windows (in DOS it would always lock up). I'm guessing on actual hardware you literally need a Voodoo 1 or something (I have a Voodoo 3).
+Jispy Moe Dantes With DOS games you basically need very specific video cards. It's a little less specific for games which use Glide, as any 3dfx card will do, but with a lot of other such games they'll indicate the specific cards they're compatible with. Again, the early days of 3D acceleration on PCs was kind of a free for all. :P
@@EdmondDantes224 If I'm not mistaken, early Tomb Raider windows executables are also possible to get working using a tool called DxWnd. I'm not sure since I usually play the PSX versions for the sake of convenience (and save states help a lot too)
It's really a shame that these 1st-person "RPGs" always have borked combat systems (Elder Scrolls I'm looking at you...) I always try to play these games without "cheesing it" by not walking back and forth between attacks, so I don't feel like cheating. The only game in this genre that left me satisfied with real-time combat was Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. And even in that game the combat is more or less bugged because the weapons themselves are flawed. In the sense that if you want to use a heavier weapon (theoretically "better" weapon) for combat, it means that you will need to wait more between weapon swings because of the stamina cooldown which is based on weight. What this ultimately means is that the better weapon in the entire game is the Dagger that you get at the start of the game, since it's the weapon which allows you the biggest number of swings per second (DPS Damage Per Second I think it's called, my memory is fuzzy here...) Turn-based is for combat seems to be the way to go to keep a sense of Tactical in these kinds of games. I have not found any of these kinds of games with real-time combat that keeps that sense of danger and threat in every combat. If you have any recommendations, please let me know, I am always on the lookout for games in this genre. Well, I could consider System Shock 2 to fit into this genre, and the real-time combat there kept the Tactical part of it and the Threat of every encounter, which is cool. Very rare occurence.
+Kamran KI The Windows executables are not included with the GOG release so I'm not certain... As far as I can tell, the D3D Windows version uses a specific hardware accelerator API that's long out of date and that the game won't function without it, so... no, I can't see it working better on modern Windows OSes... and that's presuming such a version exists because even the manual and box for the game alludes to it NOT existing by explaining how the DOS version runs when executed under Windows 3.x and 95 without so much as mentioning Windows installers or Direct3D... kinda leads me to believe that D3D Win95 support may have been added through a patch and that the game doesn't come with it by default. :o
@@Pixelmusement Actually the Windows version runs pretty much flawlessly in Windows 10 once the LOLG95.exe shortcut has been set to Windows 98/ME compatibility mode. The DOS version bug in the Cantina which you need the "-lowmem" bypass isn't present in the Windows version either. Graphics are almost, but not quite, on the same level as the DOS Glide. But you do get 60 fps and not the 30 fps that the glide DOS version is restricted to. The GOG install is missing three files that are needed for running the Windows version: LOLG95.EXE, MSS32.DLL, and LOLSETUP.EXE Add those files to the GOG install folder, copy the games DAT folder files into the main install folder then create a shortcut and run "LOLG95.EXE -CD." set to Windows 98/ME compatibility mode. This will allow you to play the game in Windows without a CD. To use the Hardware Accelerated Mode in Windows the LOLG95.EXE has to be updated to the 1.30 version (My CD copy only came with 1.06), you can find the patch on the internet and use DOSBOX to run the patch so that it will update the files. Hardware Accelerated mode seems to work fine in regular Windows 10, but you can also use DGVoodoo2 with its' x86 windows files to get more graphical options (Which includes upping the brightness and lowering the contrast with DGVoodoo2's color adjustments so that one doesn't go insane in that dark museum you mentioned [or alternatively play that area in software mode, the lighting is quite a bit different!]). *Oh and as a side note, the MIDI soundtrack for this game is amazing if it's set to 16 channels and ran with a great SoundFont or Sound Canvas VA. (Need to edit LOLSETUP.INI so that the game will use General Midi, not just SoundBlaster)
@@brandonpendergraft8728 For Win95/98 executables, maybe (I said "maybe" !!!!) DxWnd might be able to help. It's a wrapper for early DirectX versions and a few other conveniences. (CPU timings and such)
@@brandonpendergraft8728 For General MIDI like the one which was included on most Win95 computers back in the day (think Doom95 for example) I believe the soundfont is SCC1T2.SC2 (a clone of the Roland SC 55, it has 3.30 MB in size, so you know it's the right one)
Wow - it's similar to _Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss._ I knew when I saw the Westwood Studios brand that I had seen this before; never played it, but I had seen it advertised. I'm sorry I missed out.
*Lassi Kinnunen:* Totally agree; I posted that comment early. Having not played _Guardians of Destiny,_ the only thing I'm missing is the headache. _Ultima Underworld_ on the other hand, was awesome. Even the introduction cut scenes in which the audio finished before the video like a dubbed kung fu movie, was awesome.
@@Christopher-N I tried playing Ultima Underworld 2 for some 15 minutes before I found the user interface too clunky to get used to. This game doesn't look that much worse than that to be honest. Some people just love to complain.
@@FeelingShred: I never had the sequel back then. We had _Ultima Underworld_ 1 as part of a Creative Labs compilation disc. I have UW2 now, but haven't played it yet, but I've read that it's not as good as the first.
Bought it, and maybe played through the first 1/4 before getting bored and putting it aside, never to finish. It was too dark. CRT days. Not fun to look at a screen where reflection is brighter than the game itself. Hated level design. Interface and controls were alright. I just didn't like the world itself. Got lands of lore 3, and it barely imrpoved in my opinion. Didn't like it either, but gave it a chance.
You can actually make that jump to the ramp in the secret area with the secret area, and the instant-death water. I've done it (and I did not know of the other way out). While Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (or LOLGOD as the game wants the install folder to be called...) was one of my first PC games, and one that I really liked as a kid, nowadays I just don't like it. I do like the first Lands of Lore though, despite not having played it as a kid.
That's too bad the game has lots its appeal to you with age. Some H.S. friends and I still replay it about once a year, we STILL discover new things all these years later. I think it's wonderful. If nothing else, the locations...Huline Jungle to Savage Jungle to Dracoid Cemetary to Dracoid Ruins to Claw Mountains to Ruloi Citadel to Huline Temple to the City of the Ancients (!!) to the subterranean caverns which you eventually find out is the stomach of the mother beast lol. Ah the mind wanders...
@@Opinwood Do you have to make videos or livestreams of it? What you described there sounds AWESOME. Try to get in touch with channels like "RPG Limit Break", their whole premise is focused on speedruns like what you are describing. I also have my list of games that I replay every year, Xcom for one, and like I mentioned above Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. There are multiple ways of playing and finishing Stone Prophet, using multiple kinds of parties, and for this moment I'm trying to finish the game without using NPC's help at all, and only using a party consisting of one Cleric and one Mage (for a challenge) It's been tough to survive the first area xDDD Dungeon Master 2 also seems to be a great game for challenging yourself with multiple unusual party configurations. There are even videos of a few guys finishing the game with a single character (tough as nails)
@@Opinwood If you want help with recording the screen to make videos of the game, let me know. I usually record using ffmpeg because it uses less resources, and because OBS sometimes does not recognize the game, it generates a black empty screen
This is quite possibly the worst RPG I have ever played. Things that Westwood has done well in it are so insignificant in comparison to the pile of crap that LoL2 has to offer that I find the second part of this game borderline unplayable. The only remotely good aspect I came across is music.
Bought it and completed the year of its release. The clunky visuals, goofy main character, awkwardly implemented digitized npcs, mostly bad acting, and overall not very interesting (and sometimes straight infuriating) gameplay made it for quite the disappointment overall.
+Blister Fingers There would've been more about the game if I had gotten further. I tend to focus on technical and design aspects with my vids over actual gameplay. :B
i wouldn't say that calling it an RPG is a misnomer. RPG just means role-playing game, and it simply means taking on the role of a character and trying to achieve their goals. the conventional mechanics of RPGs (turn-based combat, groups of different characters) were not as well established back then and those primarily came from J-RPGs.
Primarily? Jrpg's came from Ultima games. And before that there were semi-pseudo-RPG games being made in the late 70's to be played on mainframe machines, these games were made by bored engineers that wanted something to pass time in their work... Many of these games principles and designs still exist to this day as well. (think Rogue for a starter... it came before Ultima too)
Had that back then because my dad and i loved the first one but we both agreed that the second one sucked. 80 Deutsche Mark for the trashbin, lessons learned, don't buy stuff from studios you loved when EA$$ bought them, because their games will now suck balls trough a diarrhea covered straw. :,-(
This is my favorite game of all time, PC or otherwise. Thank you for making this video, and a double thanks is in order for walking us through how to get the 3DFX enabled. That's huge! Subscribed.
Back to the game: it has, by several orders of magnitude, my favorite story of all time. Probably my favorite soundtrack (seriously listen to the City of the Ancients OST). Easily my favorite locations (the first time I raised the fabled Ancient City from the depths and entered was the closest thing I've ever come to a religious experience, the Dracoin Ruins are horrifying and scarier than 99% of survival horror games, the Claw Mountains' white vastness and melancholy mood a wonderful reprieve before the combat hell of the Ruloi Citadel). I will note that while the criticism of the curse mechanic has its merits, you can control it about ~15% into the game or so. With hotkeys it becomes a non-issue.
So many paths. So many secrets. Westwood really put the love into their games and none typifies that moreso than Guardians of Destiny. Long live Lands of Lore. Long live Westwood.
Hear, hear. Someone else really played it.
@@jellocube27 Jealousy sucks...
If you found the ruins scary. I would welcome you to the Dark Halls :)
btw, I'm happy someone enjoyed this game as much as I did.
(9:40) The _Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things_ would be proud.
I was really impressed with this game at the time. I had a brand new Diamond Monster Voodoo 2, and this was the first game I played with it.
But what impressed me even more was the fact that the game managed to be fun all the way through. Even with the cheesy acting and the weird gameplay in many areas, I had a huge smile on my face all the time when playing this game. It's not as good as the original Lands of Lore, in my opinion, but I found it a damn fine game anyway.
BTW, amazing review, as usual. I loved the focus on the good and bad things of each mechanic in the game.
I had two Monster Voodoo II's SLI'd together at one point, all it did was enable you to up the resolution to 1024x768 :P So awesome!
Marcelo Sampaio Interestingly enough, only the structure geometry was true polygonal 3D, all other level elements were 2D sprites, very high resolution ones, so they actually looked better in some ways than polygonal 3D models in other games released at the time.
@@marcsm2008 I have to try this game. What you described there about "having a smile in your face during the whole game" pretty much describes my experience with a 1st-person RPG called Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. It's a fairly unique RPG without random encounters, so there's no need for grinding. I wrote a bit more details about it above in a new comment. Strongly recommend it. Any other recommendations of hidden gems out there?
I remember playing this when it was released. I'm a huge Westood Studios fan and played about every single game the company produced, including their SNES games. Even though many of them I only got around playing decades later.
I remember seeing this game for the first time in 1997 and it was absolutely jaw-dropping. The graphics were something out of this world for me at the time and I couldn't believe the environments were 3D (albeit with most of the map objects, items and NPCs being 2D sprites) and that you could move around freely in an RPG-style gameplay, and the RPG side of things didn't feel like it was watered down and streamlined at the time. I did play TES II: Daggerfall before that but the graphics, framerate and gameplay fluidity weren't nearly as good as in Lands of Lore 2.
The game also had the most incredible FMV cutscenes. It was still the mid 90s FMV craze and even though we were exposed to CGI and live-action FMV cutscenes for a few years by then, they were still absolutely mesmerizing in their pixelated and 8-bit color depth charm.
OH YES I was stuck in the same place when I was a kid, the river bank outside of the scroll trap ! Made me give up the game, then I took it back years later and I could check on the internet about the exit
I'm late to the party, but to anyone interested in the game, most of the criticisms about the technical issues are specific to DOSBox, and I can't speak to whether or not they still exist. Running this game on original hardware, I didn't have any problems with the brightness in the museum section, the issues with 3D rendering or any of the crashes. Fully patched, the game actually runs really well. On the other hand, everything said about the playability of the game is still an issue. The transformations are annoying, the level design is convoluted at times, there's a lot of UI quirks, and the game just sadly came out when developers didn't know how to make cRPGs control well in 3 dimensions. Still worth a play though.
It's one of these games that would benefit immensely (and have big sales too) if someone would "leak" the source code so the modders could work on the bugs or even provide a source port of it. Seems like a brilliant game.
I've played this game and beaten it several times throughout the years. I was lucky and purchased the hard copy of the game after the final version was released so my physical copy does not need to be patched in order to use hardware acceleration. And I've been able to get this game running on every iteration of windows since windows 95 by using the NT install executable install file included with the game.
The controls are funky until you customize them but I would not call them terrible. You can AWSD with mouse look and hotkey physical attacks and magical attacks with ease. I use F for fight and R for magic.
The review says that the use item system is bad but its not. When you open the full inventory page the ear-marked squares that appear are basically your "belt" allowing you to use each slot with corresponding numbers, I believe its 5 through 9. You don't NEED to use items in your mouse hand.
The review also mentions the lighting in the Draracle's Museum. Yes it's dark but you get magic experience for each torch you light and you can light them all instantaneously if you find a hidden room. Finally, when all the torches are on the lighting is decent with exceptions in some areas. But I'm pretty sure it was meant to be dark.
In regards to the "terrible" combat, the example is early game when you do not have ranged weapons. If you had one you'd range the targets kiting them as needed. Or you'd use your magic. And the example of the stun with the executioner is because of a specific item not game mechanics. The sword being used is long sword prism which casts a spell that temporarily blinds targets which mechanically feels like a stun. Although if you do enough damage to a target in combat they do have a recovery period of about a second from your attack and vice versa.
Random morphs... The character is cursed...
Level design isn't horrible.... for 1995, considering the technology of the day. Maybe not as good compared to today's large games.
I thought the game was a solid 4 out of 5 based on the standards of the time it was released. While I did find some controls to be somewhat frustrating at first, I became accustomed to them and used them without issue. Ultimately, I did not find anything about the game to be terrible.
Some of my favorite levels:
The Draracle's Museum
The Dark Halls
The Dracoid Ruins
City of the Ancients
Those graphics were really impressive for '97
Impressive for 1997? That was the year Goldeneye 007, Tomb Raider 2 and Final Fantasy VII came out. Also, Shenmue was being developed.
If you like pixelated video captures as a stylistic choice, I guess that's fair, but this game was technically outdated at the time.
No, the graphics were outdated even by 1997's standards.
@@Mephitinae You're comparing ps1/n64 320x200 games to an SVGA 640x480 game. Two totally different beasts. These graphics were perfectly adequate for the time, not obsolete at all. Definitely not "the best", but not "obsolete" either, that is just being extremist.
It had multiple CDs! Not floppies, CDs!
@@FeelingShred I agree with you here. The competition consisted of pyramid tits and shaking face with sound coming out of square wobbly heads. This game actually had a real cast and an incredible story line.
I love me some new ADG!! This game has some really cool features it looks like for the time, as silly of a mechanic as it is I like the FMV that plays when you jump in the water and you watch yourself sink to the bottom! lol The graphics have a really nice aesthetic surprisingly with the combined use of FMV and the 3D engine, and the levels look really nice to me for a 90s game like this! awesome review as always Kris!
You actually don't need a Glide wrapper if you use DOSBox with the 3Dfx chip emulation patch (for example the DOSBox ECE build).
The chip emulation has better compatibility than the glide wrapper patch and also allows you to record a 3Dfx game with the built-in DOSBox recorder. And of course it's easier to setup since you don't need any other programs/libraries, it just works.
+zirkoni88 I'll have to look into this next time because I wasn't aware this was a thing. :o
zirkoni can you post a step by step installation for this? i'm trying to get 3dfx working and can't yet. THANK YOU!!
@@Opinwood You see, that's when the "smart asses" out there usually shut up, when it's time to provide something of actual value and to share. They are only outspoken when it's time to post an argumentative comment trying to outwit the uploaded of the video. As if ADG himself wasn't already an expert in all of this. Totally unnecessary. There are many ways of achieving glide, and he is already aware of them.
This is an AMAZING game...I have finished it more than once,and i will finish it again and again...Both 2 and 3 are amazing,i wish for a remake....
This game has probably the best ambiance and music in any game. Very scary too
I'm about to try it myself soon, let's see if it sounds better than Hexen (ambiance sounds, atmosphere) or Ravenloft: Stone Prophet (overall presentation, music, art, atmosphere)
Not that I really care about it being "better" or "worse", I'm just dropping some names there. Expectations are already high with this hidden gem of a game.
Well... having watched the first 2 minutes of this video, I'm already a little bit in nitpicking mode. The first Lands of Lore was called "Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos" and reduced the RPG-typical system and stats that were so prevalent in other dungeon crawls at the time ("Eye of the Beholder" and the likes) to an absolute minimum, so that it would be a much more appealing game for RPG newcomers. Now the second game was called "Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny", without being numbered. Why would it HAVE to be numbered though? I think it's common knowledge that games with a "2" or "3" or higher in the title don't sell as well because potential buyers might not own the first game, so they think they're missing out on something, so they don't buy the successor. (It's the same with "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Serrated Scalpel" and "Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Rose Tattoo". They're two games in a series, but nobody ever complained about them not being numbered.) And "Guardians of Destiny" ALSO hides its underlying RPG system so that it's just more convenient to play. That doesn't make it less of a dungeon crawl though. Yes, it's got real-time 3D but that's what was possible at the time and it's what so many gamers back then were most excited about! A real-time 3D dungeon crawl without the single-step 90-degrees movement restrictions. Again: That doesn't make it an "action adventure" though. It's just more streamlined.
+SonataFanatica I... pointed out that first part right at the start of the video, how the number was left off becuase it was such a departure in terms of gameplay. As for the debate about calling it an RPG or not, as I mentioned a long while back, talking about genres can actually spark massively heated debates for whatever reason, so... let's not go there. ;)
To add to that, Might and Magic 6 to 9 and Wizardry 8 broke with the previous games' step-based movement too, but that didn't make them lesser RPGs. As long as the underlying RPG mechanics don't change, all is fine, and Lands of Lore never had super complex RPG mechanics anyway.
Pixelmusement Yeah, I know you said that. ;) I just don't think they omitted the number 2 because of the game's mechanics (its different feel). I think they did that because of sales, as most companies do. That's what I was trying to say.
+SonataFanatica Maybe, except the "II" IS present in some releases. If it was a sales decision, why omit the "II" from some markets and not others? :P
Pixelmusement Maybe because the first one was so popular in certain regions that they thought the "2" would add to the appeal or something?^^
Pixelmusement - Loving your reviews, especially that you also cover the more "nuts and bolts" mechanics side of things.
Would love to see you review Gobliiins.
I love this show. The reviews are so entertaining and yet so informative.
I watch basically every video as they come out and this is missing from my sub feed. 10/10 UA-cam!
+Sean Metivier UA-cam's been experimenting with having the sub feed show recommended vids from subscribers first. There's SUPPOSED to be a way to set it back to date-ordered, but I haven't been exposed to this change so I don't know how to do it.
@@Pixelmusement On the computer there's a button that leads the user to ua-cam.com/users/feedsubscriptions which is super useful. But on the mobile app there's no such thing (as far as I know... I don't even spend that much time on my phone anyway, these things feel like disposable cheap toys to me...)
just something to consider... also, users on the mobile app are not able to click description links, so you have to re-paste all the info on the comments too, the comment sent by the uploader stays always on top, so that's nice... ("computah programming too hard for our engineering degrees") xDD
This game is hilarious and some of the dungeons are REALLY cool (like the Museum and the Ghost House). My favorite part is how Luther can be evil and just massacre NPCs with such lines as, "these cat people make amusing noises when they die." Lol.
Looks like an interesting game
Looks can be deceiving though
16:03 I can start feeling proud of myself apparently, because I did find the Switch and then found the exit.
I'm playing on the hardest difficulty now. I'm in the Draracle's Museum training with these skeletons. My physical attack is at level 8 (max for this level) and Magic is at level 7 (8 is max). I've quickly found out that playing on the hardest difficulty not only levels you up more (leveling is based on the amount of targets hit and higher difficulty requires more hits to kill), if also demands thinking strategically to single out targets and then find the best way to take them down. My game runes smoothly. No crashes at all. But that's probably because I bought it from G2A, back before I found out the site is... dubious to say the least.
I consider Lands of Lore 2 one of my all-time favourite games.
I tried this years ago out of fascination for what came after the first game, but when I did, it looks like I gave up around the same point you did. And I gotta agree on how the game is very split in quality... When people talk of games being remade, I wish this one was considered for a serious contender. It feels like it's ambition should be lived up to.
19:52 "you can't use a straight version of dosbox"
GET THE FAB VERSION Y'ALL
What's the fab version?
The one with the rainbows, curvatures and dates programs of the same sex or whatever ADG suggested in the video.
I definitely do watch the credits every week.
+Steven Don Yeah, I was just kidding at the end there, although my analytics do show that viewership drops like a stone once the credits are reached. :P
12:38 - AH! The Draracle Museum!! That was actually one of my favourite parts of the game! It looked incredible in hardware accelerated Direct3D....perhaps you didn't have the gamma turned up enough?!
Getting old hardware accelerated DOS games running on modern Windows is a trip and a half so it wouldn't surprise me if that area's supposed to be much brighter than I was able to make it. :/
@@Pixelmusement In all honesty I left that comment before seeing the level of detail you went into at the end of the video explaining how to get it running!👋👋😄 I did try it via DosBox with a Glide Wrapper (can't remember which) a few years back and recall that it looked ok but lacked some of the subtle lighting and filtering that true 3DFX hardware provided. DgVoodoo seems a lot more advanced and how the game appears in this video is far closer to how I remember it originally but as you say, a little on the dark side! Could of course be that it was designed when CRT monitors were prevalent and LCD/LED technology can't emulate contrast/brightness in exactly the same way. Regardless, an excellent and highly informative video and many thanks for the nostalgia!👍. I may just revisit it again myself....it was a bug that put paid to my efforts last time!
Awesome! Can't wait for a "Die by the Sword" video now :D
Good review. I agree with a lot of your comments. Played Lands of Lore 1 in the late 90's and loved it. Bought the LoL 2 shortly after and played it a lot. I wanted to love it, and loved parts of it, but abandoned the run half way through (around the Dracoid Cemetary) because of some of the issues you bring up here. However, I disagree with your comments at 12:30. when going from the starting dungeon to the Huline Jungle the "short cut", is the main way. I'm not sure how you missed it since it's the obvious and straight path forward. The "long way", is actually the hidden place, the Draracle's Museum, which I thought (having just played LoL 1) was an amazing easter egg with all it's extra loot and information and references to LoL 1 (including establishing the canon that Keiran beat Scotia in the first game). I think it should be added to the brilliance category, as it was probably the best memory I have of the game.
Keep up the good work. You've earned another subscriber!
(BTW: you're video on Daggerfall, episode 66, is apparently flagged as adult by youtube, so unwatchable without verification of age via credit card or ID)
Also, why no mention of the savage sarcasm of Luther's comments and facial expressions?
Daggerfall has mature content, specifically graphic violence. For the longest time it was never clear what qualified as "mature" or not in terms of graphics violence on video hosting services, but even with the definitions laid out better now it's safer to err on the side of caution, not just because of how much of the detection of content is automated, but especially for the sake of parents who are allowing their kids to watch the show so they can step in when appropriate. I am aware that by today's standards many of these DOS games don't get anywhere near as visually disturbing, but it's still taking place all the same. :P
Just a stab in the dark but.... Have you tried telling GOG how to set it up as here? I don't know if they'd take it, but it's at least worth a shot. If it works, you also get to save a lot of people a lot of headache.
+Singular8ty I haven't, but given that updates like that would require additional testing on their part rather than just blind acceptance, as well as new installers and additional file reputation management, updating just ONE game would be a significant hassle just to make very minor changes like that so I wouldn't expect them to devote those kinds of resources to it when they already have upcoming releases to worry about, not to mention, I'm only providing the most basic configuration details necessary. Some users may still want to make even more modifications to the configs anyways for the use of scalers, different graphics settings, different sound buffering, etc.
@@Pixelmusement I totally get that, but if it's as bad as you seem to describe (near unplayable), they may consider it. Forum posts and the like can also tell people how to do it while also giving the GOG team an idea of how well received an update like that may be. The way I see it is that simply telling them this directly can only result in an improvement or status quo. Nothing lost either way.
@@Singular8ty This game is BEGGING for a source code "leak" and a source port to come around. Such a hidden gem...
I knew this game would cause you much frustrations.
Even using Qemu in emulation mode with emulators reproducing bit for bit cycle for cycle the behavior of Voodoo graphics card this game sill crashes massively .
Going back in the backlog of PC Gaming magazines CDS filled with patches has been the only solution so far to somewhat improve the situation.
Heck even PCem and Bochs don't make that much of an improvement (hence why Linux retro-gamers, retort to use Qemu. At this point our settings are so hardcore that playing it on period accurate hardware would be less electrically consuming .... )
It's nice to see you playing in 4:3. I hate it when people stretch full screen to 16:9 it looks terrible lol.
I wouldn't be much of a retro game reviewer if I couldn't get my aspect ratios correct! ;)
"Now, let's look at the sequel..."
Me: Wooooow
Dude... amazing. Thanks. Have to play this. By the way I arrived here looking at a Hexen mod called Quest For Glory IV (Zdoom Hexen mod) might be worth a look
BEST GAME EVER MADE
I wish that LOL: GOD held up as well as Throne of Chaos did, but I truly love the fantasy world in this series.
Guys anyone has the game with 3dfx support?I tried and tried again but i cannot get it right....I have sound problems or vanishing cursor and stuttering problems.I have the original but it doesnt work with win11 64bit...Any help to make any version work properly with 3dfx support? PS: I have the original 4cd version and the gog version...
GOG are usually great with their games, weird how they've messed this one up.
+Equalizing
Distort It actually depends. Some GOG releases are done very well, others feel like they tried really hard but couldn't figure it out so just went with a baseline which "functioned" despite not functioning well. :P
I wish you could do Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven, but it's not a DOS game.
Watching that video reminded me of MM6 too... now where are my installation CDs... :)
@@Darkstar2342 Never played this one. Any updated patches out there for modern systems? Or is it pretty much about running the original version just fine? Any tips? Any recommendations of control schemes?
There's a Command & Conquer crossover later in that game.
It's in the third game, I believe.
Hah, you are right! My bad!
@@Tarquinn Have Been playing through Lands of Lore 2, and the huline monastery monk actually mentions being a former commander for the Tiberium forces, or something like that. Energy crystals such as the Stone of Basar in the Drarcle's museum and the Kyragem from Westwood's Legend of Kyrandia series seem to be a continuous theme in Westwood products, Tiberium crystals included. Not surprising, since Westwood is based on Las Vegas, out in the American desert where crystals are plentiful and have a sort of New Age culture about them.
I love this kind of thing -- you just don't see it in modern games with that AAA creative control. John Romero and Tom Hall have commented on how all the protagonists of the original ID Software games (Commander Keen, Billy Blazkowicz, and the DOOM Guy) were all supposed to be of a single family line, as well.
Anyway -- I'm curious, what was the LoL 3 reference?
The first game had charming fantasy illustrations for the non-human characters. This one had goofy digitized actors in creepy-ass "Cats" make-up. Sometimes, older games just did it better.
its good game i all 3 of them on gog
Wait, you can get 3D acceleration in DOS?
I have Tomb Raider, but the only way I was ever able to get it to run with 3D acceleration was playing thru Windows (in DOS it would always lock up). I'm guessing on actual hardware you literally need a Voodoo 1 or something (I have a Voodoo 3).
+Jispy
Moe Dantes With DOS games you basically need very specific video cards. It's a little less specific for games which use Glide, as any 3dfx card will do, but with a lot of other such games they'll indicate the specific cards they're compatible with. Again, the early days of 3D acceleration on PCs was kind of a free for all. :P
Thank God for standardization in the Win95/98 years.
+Jispy
Moe Dantes Mind you, Apple hasn't learned the lesson and is making a push to end OpenGL support on their platforms... :|
@@EdmondDantes224 If I'm not mistaken, early Tomb Raider windows executables are also possible to get working using a tool called DxWnd. I'm not sure since I usually play the PSX versions for the sake of convenience (and save states help a lot too)
@@FeelingShred The PC version by default lets you save anywhere, none of that "save crystals" crap I've heard the console versions have.
Is this game still broken??? It looks really fun!! Clear that the devs were inspired by Ultima Underworld though.
It's really a shame that these 1st-person "RPGs" always have borked combat systems (Elder Scrolls I'm looking at you...) I always try to play these games without "cheesing it" by not walking back and forth between attacks, so I don't feel like cheating. The only game in this genre that left me satisfied with real-time combat was Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. And even in that game the combat is more or less bugged because the weapons themselves are flawed. In the sense that if you want to use a heavier weapon (theoretically "better" weapon) for combat, it means that you will need to wait more between weapon swings because of the stamina cooldown which is based on weight. What this ultimately means is that the better weapon in the entire game is the Dagger that you get at the start of the game, since it's the weapon which allows you the biggest number of swings per second (DPS Damage Per Second I think it's called, my memory is fuzzy here...) Turn-based is for combat seems to be the way to go to keep a sense of Tactical in these kinds of games. I have not found any of these kinds of games with real-time combat that keeps that sense of danger and threat in every combat. If you have any recommendations, please let me know, I am always on the lookout for games in this genre. Well, I could consider System Shock 2 to fit into this genre, and the real-time combat there kept the Tactical part of it and the Threat of every encounter, which is cool. Very rare occurence.
The original release also ran natively on Windows (with D3D acceleration). Does that version work better?
+Kamran KI The Windows executables are not included with the GOG release so I'm not certain... As far as I can tell, the D3D Windows version uses a specific hardware accelerator API that's long out of date and that the game won't function without it, so... no, I can't see it working better on modern Windows OSes... and that's presuming such a version exists because even the manual and box for the game alludes to it NOT existing by explaining how the DOS version runs when executed under Windows 3.x and 95 without so much as mentioning Windows installers or Direct3D... kinda leads me to believe that D3D Win95 support may have been added through a patch and that the game doesn't come with it by default. :o
@@Pixelmusement Actually the Windows version runs pretty much flawlessly in Windows 10 once the LOLG95.exe shortcut has been set to Windows 98/ME compatibility mode. The DOS version bug in the Cantina which you need the "-lowmem" bypass isn't present in the Windows version either. Graphics are almost, but not quite, on the same level as the DOS Glide. But you do get 60 fps and not the 30 fps that the glide DOS version is restricted to.
The GOG install is missing three files that are needed for running the Windows version: LOLG95.EXE, MSS32.DLL, and LOLSETUP.EXE
Add those files to the GOG install folder, copy the games DAT folder files into the main install folder then create a shortcut and run "LOLG95.EXE -CD." set to Windows 98/ME compatibility mode. This will allow you to play the game in Windows without a CD.
To use the Hardware Accelerated Mode in Windows the LOLG95.EXE has to be updated to the 1.30 version (My CD copy only came with 1.06), you can find the patch on the internet and use DOSBOX to run the patch so that it will update the files. Hardware Accelerated mode seems to work fine in regular Windows 10, but you can also use DGVoodoo2 with its' x86 windows files to get more graphical options (Which includes upping the brightness and lowering the contrast with DGVoodoo2's color adjustments so that one doesn't go insane in that dark museum you mentioned [or alternatively play that area in software mode, the lighting is quite a bit different!]).
*Oh and as a side note, the MIDI soundtrack for this game is amazing if it's set to 16 channels and ran with a great SoundFont or Sound Canvas VA. (Need to edit LOLSETUP.INI so that the game will use General Midi, not just SoundBlaster)
@@brandonpendergraft8728 For Win95/98 executables, maybe (I said "maybe" !!!!) DxWnd might be able to help. It's a wrapper for early DirectX versions and a few other conveniences. (CPU timings and such)
@@brandonpendergraft8728 For General MIDI like the one which was included on most Win95 computers back in the day (think Doom95 for example) I believe the soundfont is SCC1T2.SC2 (a clone of the Roland SC 55, it has 3.30 MB in size, so you know it's the right one)
Wow - it's similar to _Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss._ I knew when I saw the Westwood Studios brand that I had seen this before; never played it, but I had seen it advertised. I'm sorry I missed out.
*Lassi Kinnunen:* Totally agree; I posted that comment early. Having not played _Guardians of Destiny,_ the only thing I'm missing is the headache. _Ultima Underworld_ on the other hand, was awesome. Even the introduction cut scenes in which the audio finished before the video like a dubbed kung fu movie, was awesome.
@@Christopher-N I tried playing Ultima Underworld 2 for some 15 minutes before I found the user interface too clunky to get used to. This game doesn't look that much worse than that to be honest. Some people just love to complain.
@@FeelingShred: I never had the sequel back then. We had _Ultima Underworld_ 1 as part of a Creative Labs compilation disc. I have UW2 now, but haven't played it yet, but I've read that it's not as good as the first.
Bought it, and maybe played through the first 1/4 before getting bored and putting it aside, never to finish. It was too dark. CRT days. Not fun to look at a screen where reflection is brighter than the game itself. Hated level design. Interface and controls were alright. I just didn't like the world itself. Got lands of lore 3, and it barely imrpoved in my opinion. Didn't like it either, but gave it a chance.
You can actually make that jump to the ramp in the secret area with the secret area, and the instant-death water. I've done it (and I did not know of the other way out).
While Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (or LOLGOD as the game wants the install folder to be called...) was one of my first PC games, and one that I really liked as a kid, nowadays I just don't like it. I do like the first Lands of Lore though, despite not having played it as a kid.
That's too bad the game has lots its appeal to you with age. Some H.S. friends and I still replay it about once a year, we STILL discover new things all these years later. I think it's wonderful. If nothing else, the locations...Huline Jungle to Savage Jungle to Dracoid Cemetary to Dracoid Ruins to Claw Mountains to Ruloi Citadel to Huline Temple to the City of the Ancients (!!) to the subterranean caverns which you eventually find out is the stomach of the mother beast lol. Ah the mind wanders...
@@Opinwood Do you have to make videos or livestreams of it? What you described there sounds AWESOME. Try to get in touch with channels like "RPG Limit Break", their whole premise is focused on speedruns like what you are describing. I also have my list of games that I replay every year, Xcom for one, and like I mentioned above Ravenloft: Stone Prophet. There are multiple ways of playing and finishing Stone Prophet, using multiple kinds of parties, and for this moment I'm trying to finish the game without using NPC's help at all, and only using a party consisting of one Cleric and one Mage (for a challenge) It's been tough to survive the first area xDDD Dungeon Master 2 also seems to be a great game for challenging yourself with multiple unusual party configurations. There are even videos of a few guys finishing the game with a single character (tough as nails)
@@Opinwood If you want help with recording the screen to make videos of the game, let me know. I usually record using ffmpeg because it uses less resources, and because OBS sometimes does not recognize the game, it generates a black empty screen
Why did I think today was Friday? Also this game looks like a precursor to the Later Elder Scrolls games.
This is quite possibly the worst RPG I have ever played. Things that Westwood has done well in it are so insignificant in comparison to the pile of crap that LoL2 has to offer that I find the second part of this game borderline unplayable. The only remotely good aspect I came across is music.
No thanks. I dont want to get a degree in micro-management to even get the game running, let alone play the dang thing.
Bought it and completed the year of its release. The clunky visuals, goofy main character, awkwardly implemented digitized npcs, mostly bad acting, and overall not very interesting (and sometimes straight infuriating) gameplay made it for quite the disappointment overall.
This was a lot of information about the games' issues. Not very much about... the game.
+Blister Fingers There would've been more about the game if I had gotten further. I tend to focus on technical and design aspects with my vids over actual gameplay. :B
i wouldn't say that calling it an RPG is a misnomer. RPG just means role-playing game, and it simply means taking on the role of a character and trying to achieve their goals. the conventional mechanics of RPGs (turn-based combat, groups of different characters) were not as well established back then and those primarily came from J-RPGs.
Primarily? Jrpg's came from Ultima games. And before that there were semi-pseudo-RPG games being made in the late 70's to be played on mainframe machines, these games were made by bored engineers that wanted something to pass time in their work... Many of these games principles and designs still exist to this day as well. (think Rogue for a starter... it came before Ultima too)
Had that back then because my dad and i loved the first one but we both agreed that the second one sucked. 80 Deutsche Mark for the trashbin, lessons learned, don't buy stuff from studios you loved when EA$$ bought them, because their games will now suck balls trough a diarrhea covered straw. :,-(