Lands of Lore 3

Although it's troubled development meant it wasn't as good as it could be. Still a fantastic pre-cursor to games of skyrim calibre. Interesting environments, voice acting and skill sets. Let down by dodgy jumping sections at times but that goes with the territory. Well worth both time and money.

The best thing I can say about LOL3 is that it was much better than the reviews led me to believe. The engine actually isn't bad, the game is colorful and the environments are diverse, so things don't get boring. I appreciated that it was usually pretty clear where to go and how to proceed, and the puzzles were pretty logical, so I didn't find myself constantly stuck like I did in LOL2. Although the game did swing a bit too far in the other direction, many of the environments were a little too linear. Combat and movement are also both fine, so this game is a fairly enjoyable journey gameplay-wise. One disappointing thing is that in LOL1 and 2, beautiful prerendered scenes would appear organically when you visited certain locations. However LOL3 mostly cut these out, there are cutscenes when you visit a new level but nothing tightly integrated like the past games. The NPCs suffer greatly from this, being horribly animated sprites instead of live-action CGI like LOL2. The biggest letdowns for me are game length and story. First, it's way shorter than LOL1 and LOL2, it feels like maybe half the length of those games. This may be because the previous games were epic tales with many twists and turns, but the story in this game is very straightforward: You have to visit five different realms to restore order to the lands. There are no real major twists or interesting wrinkles to the storyline, all cards are laid on the table from the beginning. Fine story for an action game, not so much for a story-driven RPG. But the worst part is the way they completely ruin the characters we loved from the previous games: Eric, Gladstone's greatest warrior, is portrayed as a weakling, a horrible Patrick Stewart impersonator plays a soulless Richard, and Geron, one of the most interesting parts of LOL1, is also ruined. It's no surprise they didn't make a sequel to this game, after they had ruined all interesting characters and closed off all interesting plotlines.

It is really difficult to review this game. I used to play when it came out and occasionally take it out and play it every once in a while. Why hate it? The game is clearly rushed, there are a lot of bugs. Some even game breaking. Some areas look really dated. The story is not very engaging, neither are the (very few) side quests. Although I still find it light-hearted and funny, others might find the voice acting and dialogues cheesy. If you do not rush the story, but take your time advancing your character, the game's fights become ridiculously easy. Why love it? - The game provided unprecedented freedom and interactivity that is still very rare even to this day. - LOL3 is very immersive and exploration is a hidden, but key gameplay element. There is A LOT to explore in the game's world, and exploration is rewarded. I remember just randomly jumping on lamp poles in town, thinking how agile I am, and then it turns out I was able to break into someone's room to loot a chest. Exploration is not spoon-fed to you, there are no direction signs like HERE IS A SECRET like pretty much in modern games. You need to look at every inch. - The game also provided a lot of lore about items, monsters, people etc in a journal system that is still the best in any RPG I have seen including Skyrim. - Interesting alchemy and you had to collect ingredients manually in the game world or buy them. The Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind and upwards) were clearly inspired by this EXCEPT, that in LOL3 BOTH ingredients and finished alchemical products have unique effects, not just a few randomly assigned effects as in the TES games. For example, one ingredient, upon destroying creates a rift which teleports in random items. Could be a lousy dagger or could be a piece of unique armor that does not even exists anywhere else in the game! You can use this ingredient to make an item which can dupe (once) other items. - Spell effects are pretty, interesting and unique. Still the most interesting set of spells in any first person RPG. TES spells look bland in comparison. - The game's world is overall interesting, its creatures are rather unique - Until Witcher 3 was released this game had the most accurate town structure in any non-isometric RPG (appropriate size and design, not just a few standalone houses). For example Skyrim's largest city is about a third of Gladstone - Hands down the best music in any fantasy RPG. On par with Witcher 3, blows any TES or Infinity Engine game out of the water. Composed by the same dude who made the soundtrack for Red Alert, but worry not, this is a very atmospheric, melodic and memorable fantasy soundtrack. The songs fit perfectly to the areas they are used in. Check it out on youtube. As you can correctly guess, I was so immersed in the game, that I could forgive the frustrating bugs and weak story. It is a lovable game once you spend enough time in it, and in a few aspects superior to any game that came after it

I'll be honest, 4 stars in today's world is probably a little generous as ratings go, but I cannot stress how highly I value this game. Let me be clear, this game is wonderful but suffers substantially from the passing of time. If I could take the concepts, gameplay, soundtrack and even characters and funnel them into a fresh game engine, I think it would clear up most of the problems in this dirty gem. Much of the game is let down by a single item, that of the graphics and the level design. Don't get me wrong, the art direction is great and the levels are atmospheric, they simply are, at base, linear paths. This is generally not a big problem, however in some cases it is tremendously noticeable after the first few passes. The forest - almost the main hub of the game, suffers most from this and I would trade Copper's right foot for a small section of Oblivion's forests. Apart from this, this game really isn't bad at all. I would even go as far as to say that a lot of its gameplay is innovative and hasn't really been duplicated. The familiar in particular is a massively enjoyable touch that hasn't been replicated, although if you pick Goldy you might not feel quite the same :p As it is, however, the game is enjoyable, interesting, easy to play and well put together. In the main you'll experience an oldskool feeling of being a hero. Saving the world, saving yourself, and visiting that long ago time when fun propelled a game forward.