Lords of Chaos (video game)
| Lords of Chaos | |
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| Developer(s) | Mythos Games |
| Publisher(s) | Blade Software |
| Designer(s) | Julian Gollop, Nick Gollop, Martin Beadle |
| Composer(s) | Matt Furniss |
| Platform(s) | Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum |
| Release date(s) | 8-bit: April 1990 16-bit: August 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based tactics, tactical role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | 1 to 4 players, turn based, depends on scenario |
Lords of Chaos is a turn-based tactics tactical role-playing game published by Blade Software in 1990. It is the sequel to Chaos and an ancestor of the popular X-COM series of games, also written by Julian Gollop. In Lords of Chaos each player controls a wizard who can cast various magic spells. The spells have various effects, for example summoning other creatures (which the player also controls), or damaging opposing creatures and wizards. The game can be played against a computer-controlled opponent or by up to four human players.
Before embarking on the game's levels, the player is asked to design a wizard. This is done by splitting experience points amongst mana, action points, stamina, constitution, combat, defense and magic resistance. Remaining experience points are spent on spells. Spells may be offensive in nature (Magic Bolt, Curse), potions (Speed Potion, Healing Potion), utility (Teleport, magic Eye) or summoning (Goblin, Unicorn, etc.). These spells continue the theme from Chaos and include some of that game's more unusual elements (Gooey Blob, for example). After completing each scenario, the player may spend accumulated experience points to further improve their wizard.
The aim of each level of the game is for a player's wizard to reach a portal which appears after a preset number of turns. To do this, the player's wizard and creatures move around a map composed of square tiles, each of which represents one of various terrain types (for example, forest or the wall of a building). During a player's turn, only the parts of the map which that player's wizard or creatures have previously seen are shown, thus leading to other human players having to look away from the screen during each turn to avoid learning information they "shouldn't" know. Points are awarded for a player's wizard reaching the portal, for holding items of treasure (for example, valuable gems) when the wizard reaches the portal, or for enemy creatures killed during the level. Each level ends when all wizards have reached the portal or been killed, or when the portal disappears after a fixed number of turns (in which case all the remaining wizards lose). During each turn, each creature has a fixed number of action points which it can use to accomplish actions, for example moving, fighting hand-to-hand or shooting ranged weapons. When a creature's action points are used up for the turn, it can take no further actions until all the players have had a turn.
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