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| Uh oh, Morkin's in trouble |
| Quick Info | |
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| Reviewed by: | Mark Goninon |
| Developer: | Mike Singleton (original), Chris Wild (remake) |
| Publisher: | Beyond Software (original) |
| Release Date: | 1984 (original), 12 July 2013 (Windows remake) |
| Time played: | 3.5 hours (INCOMPLETE) |
During the early 1980s, Britain went through a microcomputer revolution: one of the reasons for this was the BBC Computer Literacy Program and the introduction of the BBC Micro into British schools, but a basic 16KB BBC Micro cost £299 ($2,400 AUD today) and the more popular 32KB cost £399 ($3,200 AUD today). Not everyone could afford one of these computers in their homes but Clive Sinclair saw an opportunity in this. Prior to the release of the BBC Micro, Sinclair Research had released the affordable ZX80 in 1980 and the ZX81 in 1981. The competitor to the BBC Micro would be released in 1982: the ZX Spectrum with the basic 16KB model selling for £125 ($1,000 AUD today). The computer would become one of the best-selling machines in the UK selling over five million units.
The early 1980s saw a boom in the UK computer games industry and the affordable ZX Spectrum most likely helped in this regard. Prominent game developers such as David Perry (who went on to found Shiny Entertainment) and Julian Gollop (famous for the X-COM series) started out on the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.
Another developer who saw much success with the ZX Spectrum was Mike Singleton. Originally a school teacher, he started programming in the late 70s and eventually found much success in programming on Sinclair machines such as the ZX81 (where he earned £6,000, or approximately $47,000 AUD today, for a series of games called GamesPack1 - not bad for just over two weeks work). The game he is arguably most famous for would be released on the ZX Spectrum in 1984 and it was called The Lords of Midnight. The game was a mix of first-person adventure and strategy game, and was a critical success. ZX Spectrum magazine Crash gave the game a perfect 10 out of 10 and the press lauded its panoramic landscapes, the huge area to explore (apparently 30,000 locations), its complex wargame style gameplay and story (even though it's heavily inspired by Tolkien). It's hard to find anything negative said about the game, at least back in the 1980s. But how does this game hold up today?
The version I am playing is the one available on GOG, which is a remake created by Chris Wild. Originally, it was developed for the iOS platform in 2012 but eventually found its way onto Windows in 2013. From what I've read, it seems the remake stays as close as possible to the original with only Quality of Life improvements and updated visuals in order for the game to run on touchscreen devices.
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| That's a lot of "ands" |
Let's get digital
If you get the GOG version of the game, you'll note that it comes with a few digital goodies such as wallpapers, avatars, artwork, a manual and even a novella. Truth be told, the manual is nothing more than a booklet with some tips and tricks but it's good to see some care has been taken explaining how the game works to a modern audience (unlike previous games I've reviewed on GOG). Chris Wild, the developer behind the remake, gives us a bit of history about the game and how he approached the original developer, Mike Singleton, with his idea to develop the iPhone version of the game. Sadly, Mike Singleton died of cancer in 2012 but Chris released the game shortly after as a sort of tribute.
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| If you want to win a military victory, you'll have to get around to recruiting soldiers |
One Crown to Rule Them All
The game's plot seems heavily inspired by "The Lord of the Rings", but then again, just about every fantasy game from the 70s and 80s owes a lot to Tolkien. There is an evil Witchking called Doomdark that is attempting to take over the world and it's up to you to stop him. You start the game with four characters: Luxor the Moonprince (basically Aragorn), Morkin (basically Frodo), Corleth the Fey (basically Legolas) and an old wizard called Rorthron the Wise (basically Gandalf). There are a couple of win conditions in the game and the "adventure" win condition is to guide Morkin to steal some ice crown in the Tower of Doom (not to be confused with Mount Doom) and then destroy it by enlisting the help of an ally. The other win condition is to defeat Doomdark in battle, which means visiting several friendly keeps and enlisting the help of lords sympathetic to your cause. Winning the game through force is apparently the harder path and takes much longer to complete.
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| The more you explore, the more the fog of war is pushed back, and the locations you find will persist across playthroughs |
Like a Roguelike, but Not
Playing the game reminds me of roguelikes even though there's no way it would pass the Berlin Interpretation of one. In roguelikes, the player isn't expected to survive very long the first several times they play the game, although the expectation is that each time you play you will learn something new about the game world. I feel that this is the expectation in Lords of Midnight since although you have a general idea of how you're going to win, there are some details missing. For example, if you play as Morkin, how exactly are you going to destroy the Ice Crown? There are a lot of locations to explore in this game, such as many villages, ruins and towers and sometimes they will provide you with useful information or a weapon that gives you a better chance of surviving. Knowing the locations of keeps is important if you decide to take the path to war as you'll need troops and these are the only places you can recruit them from. Thankfully, any exploring of the map you've completed from previous games will show up on the map in later games, so the game isn't throwing you entirely into the deep end.
Despite having a walkthrough, and trying multiple times, I found the game too difficult to complete. Even knowing where you're meant to go is not enough since you're never quite sure where Doomdark's forces are until it's usually too late. For characters like Morkin, he is obviously no match for an army and while some of the other characters are better in a fight, they won't survive long if you don't have a large army of your own to back them up. Meanwhile, the longer you wait to engage Doomdark, the less capable your forces become due to the "Ice-Fear" which emanates from the Ice Crown (which reminds me of roguelites like FTL where hanging around in a sector gives you the opportunity to get better loot but also means you attract more unwanted attention): while I've managed to get Morkin to the Ice Crown once before, he was eventually surrounded by Doomdark's forces, and when I tried to take a more warlike path, rallying troops from the southern regions of the map, it wasn't enough in the end, not to mention battles are very rudimentary affairs where you just hit the attack button and then hope and pray that you win.
In the end, I could appreciate that this game was quite groundbreaking for the time, with its graphics, a huge world to explore and multiple ways to achieve success. The remake definitely makes the game very accessible to modern audiences but I feel the gameplay hasn't really aged well, as there are plenty of options nowadays when it comes to fantasy roguelikes and roguelites, which would act as fun substitutes to Lords of Midnight. Oh, it also didn't help that one time I played, the savegame became corrupt: every time I tried to reload the game, it would crash to Desktop. Not cool, and if you're unsure whether you can save any progress in the game, it kind of discourages you to try again, doesn't it?
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5
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While I could imagine Lords of Midnight being a groundbreaking title in its heyday, the gameplay is mediocre by modern standards and you could probably have more fun today playing a fantasy 4X or roguelike instead. Play it if you want to see an example of a classic ZX Spectrum title but if you don't have any nostalgia for the series, I think it's best passing on this one. |
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