Lands of Lore 3

Classic game. I play it for nostalgia mostly

I know this game is pretty buggy and downright broken and unfinished and all that, but there are just some things in this game I love that keep me coming back to play it. Even if I am just soaking up some nostalgia. But it isn't all nostalgia. Even if you don't wanna buy or play this game, the music is incredible. Well, most of it anyway. (The town music and the Talamari guild music are peak) Also the colored lighting (when using Direct/3D) just does something pleasant to my brain. This and legacy of Kain : Blood Omen both have lighting systems which I love. As far as the actual game, it's really enjoyable to just explore and figure everything out. The game really isn't that hard and I really like first person slashers. Plus there's something odd about collecting and hoarding stuff to vendor. The very MMORPG inventory system mixed with actually being able to place items anywhere you want is strangely satisfying. I don't know how to explain it... but I want to replicate it one day in a modern game. The combat itself is not really that engaging. It has some depth, but not really a lot at all. It's certainly very smooth and works well for what it is and there's a great deal of variety in magic spells. So I do naturally enjoy it quite a bit. The quests and such are eh, and the main story is also kinda eh, but not bad. Just eh. The worst part is how glitchy the game can feel at times and maybe the old FMV style graphics. But another thing I LOVE about this game is that you go to several different worlds. It feels great to visit these strange places! My favorite is the underworld for sure, but the variety is awesome. I think the game would've benefitted from more of a Daggerfall approach and let the player create their character. Then focus more on the various dimensional exploration and the dimensions leaking into the world over time as the main plot. (Like Oblivion, but better) Copper is completely unnecessary to the plot when you think about it.

I'm a huge Westwood fan and this game was a staple in my childhood. Playing this game 10 years later and it's still just as challenging and fun.

I have been playing Lands of Lore since it the original was released on 8 floppy disks. The third installment is, sadly, a brutally unfinished work rushed to market from a declining studio. It has a tremendous amount of potential, but it falls flat when you realize how bad the UI is and the bugs make you wonder if you need to call an exterminator. Yes, for those who love the series, a play through is warranted, if you can get anywhere without constant crashing. Some of the alternate worlds you visit are interesting. But it is not, in the end, a game that aged well. If someone were to remaster it? Sure, it could be. Even a bug fix would go a long way, but in its current state? Skip it. Go play the original, maybe the second, but pass on this disappointment.

I didn't remember, when buying, that this has a non-optional inverted mouse Y axis for "mouse look", i.e. implementing airplane logic, which is inappropriate for this type of game & thus unplayable for me. (even in the 1990s there were plenty games whose developers had more sense...) The FOV is also ridiculously small such that everything looks like you have a binocular glued to your face, but that's a thing that even today many don't get right, although it's not rocket science... The remaining aspects of the game could be as great as can be - if it's not playable due to stupid limitations of input mapping (there are probably more I didn't care to find out), it ruins everything.