Lords of Chaos

Thomas Wellicome reviews a cult classic from yesteryear

Lords of Chaos is a turn-based strategy game for the Atari ST, although the name could equally refer to the present US and UK governments. There's an extremely ludicrous plot about wizards, build-ups of Mana and the world shattering into seperate self-contained areas connected only by inter-dimensional portals. The wizards, being the well rounded individuals they are, decide that they can only survive by butchering each other on these newly created worlds, while grabbing as much dosh as they can.

What this means to the player is that they get to take control of a wizard and use his/her magic abilities to explore a world and cast spells, while fending off the slightly unwelcome attentions of up to three other wizards if you play in multi-player mode. Take on the computer and you're restricted to one enemy, though when you first start this is hard enough. The opening options screen allows you to save and load games, wizards and scenarios. Also included is the "Wizard Designer" (A wizard wizard?! - Ed), which allows you to create and maintain the ultimate wizard. You are given a certain amount of experience which basically allows you to purchase spells. When you complete a level you recieve a certain amount of more experience points, depending on how well you did, which you can use to improve your wizard. The spells you can buy range from fireballs and potions, to spells that create magical beasts such as demons, unicorns and skeletons. Using up more experience buys you a better spell. You can however leave this if you want to and let the game design a "random" wizard for you. This usually results in a much harder challenge as the computer usually picks the most ridiculous combination of spells.

Once you have set up your wizard you load a scenario from the three available, then you start the game proper. Your first game usually ends in utter defeat as the enemy wizard seems to have a bit of an advantage on you. He knows exactly where he's going and has been designed to cause you as many problems as possible. It's up to you to make the best use of your spells and explore each scenario while protecting your wizard and collecting useful objects.

Once you begin to know your way around the area and begin to learn how to overcome the various traps and puzzles then the game really becomes addictive. You finally begin to outclass your opponent and give him the hiding he so thoroughly deserves. But then it's on to the next level and an even harder wizard and even more fiendish puzzles. Oh and I forgot to mention the portal. Yes after a set amount of time a portal appears which you and the enemy wizard have to race to get to before it closes leaving you stranded.

The various creatures you can conjure up are one of the most charming things about this game. There are quite a few to choose from, whether the undead or pixies are your thing, all tastes are catered for. Each creature has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, pixies are incredibly puny in a fight but they do have the advantage that they're invisible. This means they can observe the enemy without being spotted and carry out ambush attacks. Demons on the other hand are huge, red and highly visible. They're immensely strong and can tear pretty much all the other creatures apart without breaking a sweat, but, due to their power, also seem to be the target for opposing wizards to blast first. They also cost a load of Mana points to summon so they have to be used wisely. Various creatures can fly and some can carry riders, which is doubly useful for getting your wizard about the place. The undead are invulnerable to anything but attack from other undead or magic, so trying to take on a vampire with a troll is unadviseable. By far the most powerful of creatures are the dragons, but they are also the most difficult to get hold of. However, casting more dragon spells than your opponent is usually a sure-fire method of winning the game.

Some of the other spells you can cast have interesting effects. One creates a gooey blob that rapidly spreads engulfing enemy creatures. Another surrounds the enemy with tangle vines. There are spells for subverting some of the natural occupents of the worlds to your cause and other spells to vaporize them. You can also create a range of potions to heal yourself, give you increased strength or make you invisible.

Lords of Chaos is a great little game and really wasn't given the accolades it duly deserves. ST Action gave it a brief footnote in its "Dungeons and Disk Drives" mentioning that it could be a good game but it was far too difficult for them to understand. Quite how a section that mainly dealt with the obscure text interfaces of the Sierra games could have problems with a pretty good icon-based game is beyond me! The only magazine that noticed its true merit was Zero, which gave it a very credible 89%. Now Lords of Chaos isn't going to appeal to everyone. The very fact that it contains dwarfs and pixies will probably make quite a few people turn tail and run for the hills mumbling something about bad experiences and Games Workshop under their breath. Being turn-based and involving strategy will probably write it off the shoot-'em-up fanatics list as well. But there's still a surprising amount of action in it and people who didn't like the likes of Borodino and other such strategy games shouldn't ignore it.

Now all games have their faults and Lords of Chaos isn't perfect. There aren't enough scenarios for example, three in the main game and two more in the expansion pack. Although the scenarios have a large amount of replay value (I spent a day playing through the first three for the purpose of this review) it just isn't enough. A few more spells would have been good, as would some sort of network play for multi-player modes. The title picture only works on 512 KB machines which leaves a bizarrely blank screen with the wobbly opening theme tune warbling in the background as means of introduction. While we're on the subject of sound, er, there isn't a lot of it. No in-game music and only a few bleeps and blurps when you cast a spell or select an icon. Some samples would have done wonders here. The graphics are colourful and detailed but as with most ST games have seen their day. There's some good animation of the backgrounds but the actual characters themselves all seem to be walking permanently on the spot, which is slightly disconcerting.

Overall though I really enjoyed this game and it's still the one that makes me switch on my ST the most nowadays. Personally I'd give it a five star rating though due to fact it probably won't appeal to everyone I've lowered this to a four.

For those who can't get enough of Lords of Chaos a project is currently underway to bring a version of it to that lowliest of platforms, the PC. Zak Evans is currently attempting the task at the link below...

MyAtari magazine - Review #3, February 2003