Lords of Magic: Special Edition

This game was one I played a lot of as a kid, and I'm happy to say it still holds up. It still has the bright and colorful world, the fun battle system, and a great OST that I have seared into my brain. It still has the problems, though. The balance is nonsense (never play Water) and endgame still suffers due to a steady decline in enemies to fight as nations are conquered and neutral forces across the world are destroyed, never to return. Unless you're playing Death, in which case you're the only one to get a spell that lets you re-populate neutral structures with enemies to fight. It's also not as feature-rich as a lot of more modern turn-based strategy/civilization games, but what's there is good and fun.

I believe at one time there was a DOS installer for this game that has been pulled. Using DOSBox and the config files would've saved the graphics but with only the Windows installer available through GOG - 640 Res graphics spread out on newer monitors not only looks atrocious but indephierable. Unlike ASCII games (such as Dwarf Fortress & Nethack) ; the eyes never adjust to the pixel smear - Stick to Age of Wonders and the several other similar franchises which evolved this oldie anyway and have much more continued love & support.

This game promised an epic battle against evil, and varied factions - including being able to play as giants. Boy, was my imagination stirred. However, the actual combat, and overall game just never felt right. The AI didn't know what to do, the lord of darkness tended to stay at home instead of trying to conquer the world, the animations were awkward, and the audio was lackluster. I wanted to love this game, but it was a big disappointment.

It definitly has a hard learning curve. I'm still learning it in fact and I've already played this game for at least 8 hours now. Still worth it though, no regrets lol

Please make a patch for modern screen resolutions. Don't change anything else.