HG101 2018 Game Finish Challenge
Dec 7, 2018 11:09:12 GMT -5
Post by backgroundnoise on Dec 7, 2018 11:09:12 GMT -5
Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny
With the fading relevance of Dungeon Master styled games and Westwood's newfound interest in pre-rendered 3D visuals and live action actors since 1995's Command & Conquer, there was obviously no guarantee that the sequel to The Throne of Chaos was ever going to be even remotely similar to its predecessor. Moreover, there was a slowly developing trend of first person CRPGs shifting from multi character parties and grid mapped environments to a single character and unrestricted movement within full 3D spaces, with the financial success of games like Daggerfall only encouraging it. The development of the game wasn't entirely smooth, as the vast majority of the artists at Westwood weren't well versed in 3D computer graphics software at the time and attention was being diverted away from Westwood's other projects in favour of the Command & Conquer series. The game was, by their own admission, rushed in order to appease their publisher Virgin Interactive while their higher priority RTS project was in development. The Lands of Lore sequel that eventually graced the public in 1997 ended up being a surprisingly fascinating, if heavily flawed, action RPG that simultaneously feels liberating in certain aspects while feeling restrictive in others.
Backstory information pertaining to the Ancients briefly touched upon in the Lore of the Lands section of The Throne of Chaos is heavily reworked and mostly disregarded, which can be easily explained away by the unreliable nature of dracoid (humanoid dragons) written accounts, as well as their attempts at historical revisionism. The Ancient Gods did not provide for the mortal races, but rather agreed on a pact of non-interference in their development after the Lands as we know them were created. Said pact immediately gets disregarded by an Ancient known as Belial, who uplifts the dracoid race, granting them power beyond their imagination and subsequently spurring them on a path of conquest and bloodshed. His peers, more concerned with upholding their laws rather than performing acts of altruism, mostly ignored the situation as Belial and his chosen set their sights on the unfortunate hulines (humanoid cats). It took the posibility of feline extinction for one of the Ancients, Anu (the Draracle) specifically, to finally act against Belial by uplifting the Hulines in order to give them a fighting chance. Understanding that Belial must be dealt with, but not willing to sully their own reputation, they conceive of the obviously foolproof plan having a "criminal" execute another criminal and in this case the task falls to the Draracle to commit the very first act of kinslaying among the Ancients. Said act ends up being merely temporary as Belial, through sorcery in case anyone reading gets any bright ideas, conceives of a creature that shall act as his mother (no, this is not a joke), serving as the instrument of his rebirth. The remaining Ancients, barring the Draracle who remains to guide the mortals in the event of Belial's resurrection (and serving as a general oracle on the side), elect to leave this world, taking most of their ancient magic with them and sinking their city to the bottom of the ocean. Most dracoid historians would have you believe they all killed themselves in some sort of "War of the Heretics". Future dracoid generations, ashamed of the actions of their ancestors, start gradually rewriting their historical accounts in order to erase evidence of their collaboration with Belial and mostly succeeding, barring a few remaining speaking stones that the player will find, of course. While it's obvious that most long running video game stories aren't fully planned from the very start and lore may be twisted to suit the needs of the current narrative, rationalizing these inconsistencies can be a very entertaining prospect for certain individuals, while others tend to bemoan the fact that the pieces don't neatly fit together. One thing that at least some of us should be aware of is our tendency to treat every instance in-game flavour text as gospel, regardless of its source, be it a random bar patron, a respect historian or an omniscient deity who may or may not be truthful. Perhaps our desire to find answers to whatever questions we have compels us to latch onto anything that sounds even remotely plausible.
As for the actual story itself, it concerns the woeful predicament of Luther, son of the first game's villain Scotia and reluctant inheritor of the Nether Mask. After her death, the ancient magic of the mask (well, more of a ring, but whatever) transferred itself to Luther, afflicting him with the curse of involuntary shapeshifting. To add to his list of problems, we first meet him imprisoned within Gladstone Keep, for the crime of being related to Scotia or something equally arbitrary. Naturally, Luther escapes, seeking the Draracle for answers on how to remove the curse while being pursued by Gladstone's staunch defenders. What he gets instead is vague directions (at least it's not a riddle this time) towards the southern continent, home to the huline and formerly the dracoid, as the ancient magic within Luther will inevitably become instrumental in stopping Belial's resurrection. What's interesting to see is how the tone and attitude towards Gladstone differs between this game and its prequel. When we see Gladstone through Kieran's eyes (or whoever else you choose in the first game), we are treated to a sight of clean reflective marble floors and walls adorned with lavish paintings and tapestries. The guards carry themselves with an air of dignity and authority, with their closeup portrait implying that they tower over the main character by a considerable margin. Aside from Geron's generally dismissive attitude and sour disposition, most characters affiliated with the kingdom of Gladstone treat Kieran with proper respect and not once does anyone mutter anything remotely negative about king Richard like the Gladstonian patriots that they are. On the other hand, the first we see of Gladstone in Guardians of Destiny is the sight of a claustrophobia inducing dingy prison. The members of Gladstone's military aren't exactly portrayed in a flattering light either, coming across as dimwitted, slovenly and a bit goofy which is best exemplified by the antics of Luther's self-appointed nemesis Kenneth (he's been in uniform for 42 years, you know). Outside of that, you get a slightly greater feel for dracoid and huline culture than the first game, diferentiating them somewhat from being non human versions of your average Gladstonian. Another quirk that both Lands of Lore games also have is the inclusion of strange otherworldly beings who have very little to do with the plot itself. The Throne of Chaos involves settling a dispute between the trans-dimensional Knowls and Xeobs, sidetracking the player from the immediate threat of Scotia. Guardians of Destiny, on the other hand, goes for something slightly less out of left field, though nonetheless an unconventional choice for what was up to that point a typical fantasy setting, with the alien race known as the Ruloi (or Ru-Loi, who knows). Not only do they very loosely resemble Roswell Grays in their outward appearance, they also have a habit of kidnapping women (and magic artefacts, though that's besides the point) as if this was some sort of cheesy science fiction B-movie from the 50s or 60s. Beyond that, not much is known about them and they become irrelevant as soon as you acquire a dreamstone from within their citadel, at least until Lands of Lore 3.
This being a post 1995 Westwood game, a significant portion of the cast of characters is portrayed by live action actors. The performances are generally pretty solid and the inherently cheesy nature of 90s era full motion video makes for a wonderfully charming story to follow with a lot of genuinely funny moments. Unlike Throne of Chaos and its selectable main character and ensemble of adventurers, you are permanently stuck with Luther of Gladstone, bereft of any companions to speak of. Fortunately Luther, physically portrayed by Paul Bastardo and voiced by writer, actor and comedian Sean Masterson, manages to be the standout element in your moment to moment hacking and slashing, spicing every situation with offhand jokes, silly misunderstandings, sarcastic remarks and occasional dramatic overacting. Gladstone's court magician Dawn, portrayed by Paige Rowland, returns from the first game in a much more proactive role in this story, often doing her own investigations offscreen and dispensing exposition or useful items to Luther whenever they meet up. Lands of Lore 2 being a solo adventure means that you can't exactly expect anything beyond that, but it's still an improvement compared to being absent or captured for a significant portion of the game's run-time and denied the position of a playable character at some point during Lands of Lore 1's development. Baccata returns as well, though now that he is no longer playable, his ineptitude is often played up for the sake of comedy. Nonetheless, his loyalty to Gladstone remains intact and he does get a chance to perform at least one act of heroism towards the end. On a minor note regarding the Draracle's portrayal, this would possibly be Clancy Brown's first video game role, performed as admirably as a mostly stoic divine being dispensing prophecies can be.
Controls by default resemble a more advanced version of Wolfenstein 3D, though it's possible to remap the controls to resemble a modern FPS. Regardless of the player's desired input method, the changeling of Gladstone controls just fine, though being influenced by momentum, it takes a split second for him to either slow down or reverse his direction, which is easy enough to get used to and occasionally the game's platforming segments will require taking advantage of it to cross larger gaps. While a lot of games would be content with merely acknowledging the character's curse via narrative or treating it as a superpower for the player, Luther's curse is something the player gets to experience firsthand. Aside from the son of a witch's human form, you also have a magic proficient lizard form allowing you to enter small tunnels and a physically powerful, yet slow and magically inept beast form. You have no control when and what you transform into, for the most part. Sometimes, you transform after a certain amount of time has passed, other times walking over invisible event triggers will turn you into a specific form. That can be mitigated somewhat via magic spells obtained over the course of the game. Until you obtain said spells, however, dealing with your polymorphing problem can be absolutely aggravating. You may be engaged in a particularly difficult combat scenario when, suddenly, the game decides to turn you into a lizard, forcing you to run away and fight again another day. Speaking of inopportune moments, woe betide you if you transform into a beast while exploring smaller confined areas, as you may be unable to leave, forcing you to either wait it out (which takes too long) or reload your save file. Speaking of small confined spaces, it is possible for the game to transform you back into a human while you're inside one of the "lizard tunnels", killing you instantly. It gets much more bearable once you get your curse control spells, but their mere existence sort of discourages the player from liberally casting magic, meaning that your mage levels will lag behind your fighter levels in the beginning of the game. Speaking of which, the game uses a similar leveling system to the one used in The Throne of Chaos, granting you experience for each individual class based on your method of attack. Categories have been reduced from 3 to 2, removing the rogue class entirely from the equation, with ranged attacks now contributing to your fighter levels. One thing worth pointing out is that magic weapons that have a chance of activating their special abilities contribute to both your fighter and your wizard levels. The game seems to use a heavily aggressive experience scaling method, with weaker enemies contributing absolutely nothing and stronger enemies granting you new levels once every 4 or so attacks. Combine that with experience granted upon quest completion seemingly favouring mage levels and you'll be somewhere in your mid 20s for both "classes" before the game ends, regardless of how many combat encounters you engage in or your preferred methods. So much for having a say in how your character develops.
Combat ends up being the least enjoyable part of the game. Most of it involves bashing enemies over the head with your weapon of choice. Magic can be used to break up the monotony, though as stated before, it's wise to conserve your mana in case you need to stop Luther from transforming. The game allows you to change the combat difficulty whenever you desire between Normal, More Difficult and Most Difficult. None of them feel entirely ideal, as Normal makes the entire game trivial, More Difficult is mostly okay except for a few encounters and Most Difficult makes Luther incredibly fragile and enemies take an eternity to defeat. Higher difficulties do exacerbate the bloated health problem, but it should be noted that even Normal suffers from it to an extent. Speaking of damage, Luther has not been blessed with the gift of invincibility frames, so if you happen to be standing near a continuous source of damage, you may find yourself dying in what may appear to be a single hit (the Ruloi will be the bane of your existence), even on Normal. The magic system returns in a similar fashion that series veterans may remember, with 6 spell groups each containing four levels of power in addition to an new fifth/ancient level. Throughout the game Luther can find Ancient Stones that, when used, add 1 spell charge used for the activation of obscenely overpowered ancient magic. Special mention goes to Regenerate from the Heal group and Lich from the Mists of Doom group which effectively make the would be savior of the Lands invincible for a short time. One thing that may not be apparent to first time players is that Poison Cure also functions as a shield that protects the caster from all toxins while it's active.
The game's narrative focus means that the player tends to be heavily railroaded. At each "milestone" of the plot you are given access to one of a small handful of hub areas connecting various points of interest with no possibility of backtracking to previous hubs, unless it's necessary. Well, for the mid point of the game at least, as in the beginning and at the end you are led in a linear fashion from stage to stage. While Throne of Chaos wasn't exactly an open world romp, you at least had some choice as far as quest completion order is concerned. Guardians of Destiny, for the most part, requires Luther to complete his objectives in a prescribed order, though it doesn't make it entirely transparent to the player, quite the opposite in fact. Take, for example, the initiation quest given to you by the Wild Ones. You are told to go to the dracoid cemetery to bring a silver leaf. Half an hour or so later of turning glass globes into yellow orbs via a magical device in order to open the locked mausoleums and you may discover that all you're getting for your troubles are more glass globes. In addition, there are a small handful of doors necessitating blue and white orbs, but the only device you found is the one for the yellow orbs. Well, it turns out you weren't supposed to go to the cemetery yet, but rather the dracoid ruins. The mage tower there contains a pedestal that transforms glass globes into white orbs and bracers that allow you to communicate with the dead. Oh, and once you open all the mausoleum doors, you're going to have to go back to the ruins anyway (three times in total, at minimum) to perform additional tasks. The one saving grace is the nearby teleporter that warps you instantly between the ruins and the cemetery. Also, if anyone wishes to attempt the game, it should be noted that your magic spells will be necessary to solve certain puzzles, though weapons with elemental properties are equally valid. Say for example, you need to dispel a ball of white mist via the element of fire. You can use a pyra pod to temporarily transform your Spark spell into a fire spell, use a magic attack item such as a fire crystal or you can use the fire elemental properties of the Valkyrie Crossbow instead. It's also worth pointing out that, in that respect, Mists of Doom counts as an ice spell, which may not be obviously apparent, especially to those who have played The Throne of Chaos. Then again, the concepts of death and cold are closely associated with one another (algor mortis). The game's overall linearity aside, one of its notable features is how open each map is and the amount of optional secrets that can be found within them, some of which you may not even find after multiple playthroughs, such as an entire optional dungeon in the huline monastery. To point out another interesting example, after speaking with the Draracle, you can do as he says and enter the Shining Path (magic mirror) that will teleport Luther Fiston to the southern continent. You can also pester him by going back to his chamber or dispel an illusory wall concealing a passageway to the Draracle's Museum, wherein you can get some additional backstory information and some considerably powerful and unique magical artifacts and weapons that you can't find anywhere else, such as the coveted Thohan's Greatsword. There are also quite a few interactive elements with non important functions, as well as torches to light via the Spark spell, pots to break and so on. Another interesting quirk about the game is its inclusion of what can best be described as neutral monsters. Generally speaking, if a creature is part of that particular ecosystem and they aren't some sort of spawn of Belial's mother, they will generally leave you alone. As underwhelming and tedious as the combat can get, they at least had the courtesy of not forcing too much of it onto the player. Your path may be mostly predetermined, but your morality, oddly enough, isn't. Throughout the game, most of the NPCs you find you can also attack, killing them or forcing them to flee. Lash out against enough of them and you will be well on your way to completing an evil playthrough and by extension an alternate ending. You'll be given quite a few opportunities to redeem yourself over the course of the game, but one can argue that evil Luther's over the top performance certainly beats the odd, though just as abrupt good ending.
The game's soundtrack was a collaborative effort between Frank Klepacki and new age/celtic/whatever musician David Arkenstone (first game he ever worked on, if his discography is to be believed), rendered in digital audio (as opposed to MIDI or FM synth). While most of the combat themes (one for each area), aside from the Ruloi Citadel are mostly functional if somewhat unremarkable, the exploration music does a wonderful job of adding to the game's atmosphere and some of the tunes are even catchy and memorable enough to be listened to independently from the adventure itself. Speaking of atmosphere, the lighting (even in software mode) is surprisingly convincing of a game of its age, going as far as simulating light sources originating from flickering flames as opposed to it just being a merely binary on or off state. The live action performances on the other hand, as charming as they are, haven't aged particularly well technically speaking. The FMV cutscenes generally look acceptable, but the live action actors chroma keyed into the in-game environments look a bit pixelated and compressed, clashing heavily with the pre-rendered 3D environment, a problem exacerbated considerably if one decides to enable hardware acceleration. Speaking of which, while running the game in hardware mode provides a higher maximum framerate (among other bells and whistles) than software mode, it's also very inconsistent in terms of performance, slowing down considerably in the more spacious and graphically intensive areas. It also causes the FMV cutscenes to stutter, at least under the default Dosbox and Nglide settings. While the framerate in software mode isn't ideal, you can at least be guaranteed a consistent and hassle-free playthrough.
It was an odd departure from the series at the time, the FMVs may be a bit too cheesy for some, the game can be obtuse at times, combat is somewhat dull, the transformations can be frustrating to deal with and character development in the mechanical sense is heavily downplayed, even compared to The Throne of Chaos. Its likeable and amusing cast of character, solid atmosphere and cornucopia of secrets can potentially be enough for future would be explorers to take the plunge anyway. Just be aware that what you're getting into is a bit of a mixed bag.
With the fading relevance of Dungeon Master styled games and Westwood's newfound interest in pre-rendered 3D visuals and live action actors since 1995's Command & Conquer, there was obviously no guarantee that the sequel to The Throne of Chaos was ever going to be even remotely similar to its predecessor. Moreover, there was a slowly developing trend of first person CRPGs shifting from multi character parties and grid mapped environments to a single character and unrestricted movement within full 3D spaces, with the financial success of games like Daggerfall only encouraging it. The development of the game wasn't entirely smooth, as the vast majority of the artists at Westwood weren't well versed in 3D computer graphics software at the time and attention was being diverted away from Westwood's other projects in favour of the Command & Conquer series. The game was, by their own admission, rushed in order to appease their publisher Virgin Interactive while their higher priority RTS project was in development. The Lands of Lore sequel that eventually graced the public in 1997 ended up being a surprisingly fascinating, if heavily flawed, action RPG that simultaneously feels liberating in certain aspects while feeling restrictive in others.
Backstory information pertaining to the Ancients briefly touched upon in the Lore of the Lands section of The Throne of Chaos is heavily reworked and mostly disregarded, which can be easily explained away by the unreliable nature of dracoid (humanoid dragons) written accounts, as well as their attempts at historical revisionism. The Ancient Gods did not provide for the mortal races, but rather agreed on a pact of non-interference in their development after the Lands as we know them were created. Said pact immediately gets disregarded by an Ancient known as Belial, who uplifts the dracoid race, granting them power beyond their imagination and subsequently spurring them on a path of conquest and bloodshed. His peers, more concerned with upholding their laws rather than performing acts of altruism, mostly ignored the situation as Belial and his chosen set their sights on the unfortunate hulines (humanoid cats). It took the posibility of feline extinction for one of the Ancients, Anu (the Draracle) specifically, to finally act against Belial by uplifting the Hulines in order to give them a fighting chance. Understanding that Belial must be dealt with, but not willing to sully their own reputation, they conceive of the obviously foolproof plan having a "criminal" execute another criminal and in this case the task falls to the Draracle to commit the very first act of kinslaying among the Ancients. Said act ends up being merely temporary as Belial, through sorcery in case anyone reading gets any bright ideas, conceives of a creature that shall act as his mother (no, this is not a joke), serving as the instrument of his rebirth. The remaining Ancients, barring the Draracle who remains to guide the mortals in the event of Belial's resurrection (and serving as a general oracle on the side), elect to leave this world, taking most of their ancient magic with them and sinking their city to the bottom of the ocean. Most dracoid historians would have you believe they all killed themselves in some sort of "War of the Heretics". Future dracoid generations, ashamed of the actions of their ancestors, start gradually rewriting their historical accounts in order to erase evidence of their collaboration with Belial and mostly succeeding, barring a few remaining speaking stones that the player will find, of course. While it's obvious that most long running video game stories aren't fully planned from the very start and lore may be twisted to suit the needs of the current narrative, rationalizing these inconsistencies can be a very entertaining prospect for certain individuals, while others tend to bemoan the fact that the pieces don't neatly fit together. One thing that at least some of us should be aware of is our tendency to treat every instance in-game flavour text as gospel, regardless of its source, be it a random bar patron, a respect historian or an omniscient deity who may or may not be truthful. Perhaps our desire to find answers to whatever questions we have compels us to latch onto anything that sounds even remotely plausible.
As for the actual story itself, it concerns the woeful predicament of Luther, son of the first game's villain Scotia and reluctant inheritor of the Nether Mask. After her death, the ancient magic of the mask (well, more of a ring, but whatever) transferred itself to Luther, afflicting him with the curse of involuntary shapeshifting. To add to his list of problems, we first meet him imprisoned within Gladstone Keep, for the crime of being related to Scotia or something equally arbitrary. Naturally, Luther escapes, seeking the Draracle for answers on how to remove the curse while being pursued by Gladstone's staunch defenders. What he gets instead is vague directions (at least it's not a riddle this time) towards the southern continent, home to the huline and formerly the dracoid, as the ancient magic within Luther will inevitably become instrumental in stopping Belial's resurrection. What's interesting to see is how the tone and attitude towards Gladstone differs between this game and its prequel. When we see Gladstone through Kieran's eyes (or whoever else you choose in the first game), we are treated to a sight of clean reflective marble floors and walls adorned with lavish paintings and tapestries. The guards carry themselves with an air of dignity and authority, with their closeup portrait implying that they tower over the main character by a considerable margin. Aside from Geron's generally dismissive attitude and sour disposition, most characters affiliated with the kingdom of Gladstone treat Kieran with proper respect and not once does anyone mutter anything remotely negative about king Richard like the Gladstonian patriots that they are. On the other hand, the first we see of Gladstone in Guardians of Destiny is the sight of a claustrophobia inducing dingy prison. The members of Gladstone's military aren't exactly portrayed in a flattering light either, coming across as dimwitted, slovenly and a bit goofy which is best exemplified by the antics of Luther's self-appointed nemesis Kenneth (he's been in uniform for 42 years, you know). Outside of that, you get a slightly greater feel for dracoid and huline culture than the first game, diferentiating them somewhat from being non human versions of your average Gladstonian. Another quirk that both Lands of Lore games also have is the inclusion of strange otherworldly beings who have very little to do with the plot itself. The Throne of Chaos involves settling a dispute between the trans-dimensional Knowls and Xeobs, sidetracking the player from the immediate threat of Scotia. Guardians of Destiny, on the other hand, goes for something slightly less out of left field, though nonetheless an unconventional choice for what was up to that point a typical fantasy setting, with the alien race known as the Ruloi (or Ru-Loi, who knows). Not only do they very loosely resemble Roswell Grays in their outward appearance, they also have a habit of kidnapping women (and magic artefacts, though that's besides the point) as if this was some sort of cheesy science fiction B-movie from the 50s or 60s. Beyond that, not much is known about them and they become irrelevant as soon as you acquire a dreamstone from within their citadel, at least until Lands of Lore 3.
This being a post 1995 Westwood game, a significant portion of the cast of characters is portrayed by live action actors. The performances are generally pretty solid and the inherently cheesy nature of 90s era full motion video makes for a wonderfully charming story to follow with a lot of genuinely funny moments. Unlike Throne of Chaos and its selectable main character and ensemble of adventurers, you are permanently stuck with Luther of Gladstone, bereft of any companions to speak of. Fortunately Luther, physically portrayed by Paul Bastardo and voiced by writer, actor and comedian Sean Masterson, manages to be the standout element in your moment to moment hacking and slashing, spicing every situation with offhand jokes, silly misunderstandings, sarcastic remarks and occasional dramatic overacting. Gladstone's court magician Dawn, portrayed by Paige Rowland, returns from the first game in a much more proactive role in this story, often doing her own investigations offscreen and dispensing exposition or useful items to Luther whenever they meet up. Lands of Lore 2 being a solo adventure means that you can't exactly expect anything beyond that, but it's still an improvement compared to being absent or captured for a significant portion of the game's run-time and denied the position of a playable character at some point during Lands of Lore 1's development. Baccata returns as well, though now that he is no longer playable, his ineptitude is often played up for the sake of comedy. Nonetheless, his loyalty to Gladstone remains intact and he does get a chance to perform at least one act of heroism towards the end. On a minor note regarding the Draracle's portrayal, this would possibly be Clancy Brown's first video game role, performed as admirably as a mostly stoic divine being dispensing prophecies can be.
Controls by default resemble a more advanced version of Wolfenstein 3D, though it's possible to remap the controls to resemble a modern FPS. Regardless of the player's desired input method, the changeling of Gladstone controls just fine, though being influenced by momentum, it takes a split second for him to either slow down or reverse his direction, which is easy enough to get used to and occasionally the game's platforming segments will require taking advantage of it to cross larger gaps. While a lot of games would be content with merely acknowledging the character's curse via narrative or treating it as a superpower for the player, Luther's curse is something the player gets to experience firsthand. Aside from the son of a witch's human form, you also have a magic proficient lizard form allowing you to enter small tunnels and a physically powerful, yet slow and magically inept beast form. You have no control when and what you transform into, for the most part. Sometimes, you transform after a certain amount of time has passed, other times walking over invisible event triggers will turn you into a specific form. That can be mitigated somewhat via magic spells obtained over the course of the game. Until you obtain said spells, however, dealing with your polymorphing problem can be absolutely aggravating. You may be engaged in a particularly difficult combat scenario when, suddenly, the game decides to turn you into a lizard, forcing you to run away and fight again another day. Speaking of inopportune moments, woe betide you if you transform into a beast while exploring smaller confined areas, as you may be unable to leave, forcing you to either wait it out (which takes too long) or reload your save file. Speaking of small confined spaces, it is possible for the game to transform you back into a human while you're inside one of the "lizard tunnels", killing you instantly. It gets much more bearable once you get your curse control spells, but their mere existence sort of discourages the player from liberally casting magic, meaning that your mage levels will lag behind your fighter levels in the beginning of the game. Speaking of which, the game uses a similar leveling system to the one used in The Throne of Chaos, granting you experience for each individual class based on your method of attack. Categories have been reduced from 3 to 2, removing the rogue class entirely from the equation, with ranged attacks now contributing to your fighter levels. One thing worth pointing out is that magic weapons that have a chance of activating their special abilities contribute to both your fighter and your wizard levels. The game seems to use a heavily aggressive experience scaling method, with weaker enemies contributing absolutely nothing and stronger enemies granting you new levels once every 4 or so attacks. Combine that with experience granted upon quest completion seemingly favouring mage levels and you'll be somewhere in your mid 20s for both "classes" before the game ends, regardless of how many combat encounters you engage in or your preferred methods. So much for having a say in how your character develops.
Combat ends up being the least enjoyable part of the game. Most of it involves bashing enemies over the head with your weapon of choice. Magic can be used to break up the monotony, though as stated before, it's wise to conserve your mana in case you need to stop Luther from transforming. The game allows you to change the combat difficulty whenever you desire between Normal, More Difficult and Most Difficult. None of them feel entirely ideal, as Normal makes the entire game trivial, More Difficult is mostly okay except for a few encounters and Most Difficult makes Luther incredibly fragile and enemies take an eternity to defeat. Higher difficulties do exacerbate the bloated health problem, but it should be noted that even Normal suffers from it to an extent. Speaking of damage, Luther has not been blessed with the gift of invincibility frames, so if you happen to be standing near a continuous source of damage, you may find yourself dying in what may appear to be a single hit (the Ruloi will be the bane of your existence), even on Normal. The magic system returns in a similar fashion that series veterans may remember, with 6 spell groups each containing four levels of power in addition to an new fifth/ancient level. Throughout the game Luther can find Ancient Stones that, when used, add 1 spell charge used for the activation of obscenely overpowered ancient magic. Special mention goes to Regenerate from the Heal group and Lich from the Mists of Doom group which effectively make the would be savior of the Lands invincible for a short time. One thing that may not be apparent to first time players is that Poison Cure also functions as a shield that protects the caster from all toxins while it's active.
The game's narrative focus means that the player tends to be heavily railroaded. At each "milestone" of the plot you are given access to one of a small handful of hub areas connecting various points of interest with no possibility of backtracking to previous hubs, unless it's necessary. Well, for the mid point of the game at least, as in the beginning and at the end you are led in a linear fashion from stage to stage. While Throne of Chaos wasn't exactly an open world romp, you at least had some choice as far as quest completion order is concerned. Guardians of Destiny, for the most part, requires Luther to complete his objectives in a prescribed order, though it doesn't make it entirely transparent to the player, quite the opposite in fact. Take, for example, the initiation quest given to you by the Wild Ones. You are told to go to the dracoid cemetery to bring a silver leaf. Half an hour or so later of turning glass globes into yellow orbs via a magical device in order to open the locked mausoleums and you may discover that all you're getting for your troubles are more glass globes. In addition, there are a small handful of doors necessitating blue and white orbs, but the only device you found is the one for the yellow orbs. Well, it turns out you weren't supposed to go to the cemetery yet, but rather the dracoid ruins. The mage tower there contains a pedestal that transforms glass globes into white orbs and bracers that allow you to communicate with the dead. Oh, and once you open all the mausoleum doors, you're going to have to go back to the ruins anyway (three times in total, at minimum) to perform additional tasks. The one saving grace is the nearby teleporter that warps you instantly between the ruins and the cemetery. Also, if anyone wishes to attempt the game, it should be noted that your magic spells will be necessary to solve certain puzzles, though weapons with elemental properties are equally valid. Say for example, you need to dispel a ball of white mist via the element of fire. You can use a pyra pod to temporarily transform your Spark spell into a fire spell, use a magic attack item such as a fire crystal or you can use the fire elemental properties of the Valkyrie Crossbow instead. It's also worth pointing out that, in that respect, Mists of Doom counts as an ice spell, which may not be obviously apparent, especially to those who have played The Throne of Chaos. Then again, the concepts of death and cold are closely associated with one another (algor mortis). The game's overall linearity aside, one of its notable features is how open each map is and the amount of optional secrets that can be found within them, some of which you may not even find after multiple playthroughs, such as an entire optional dungeon in the huline monastery. To point out another interesting example, after speaking with the Draracle, you can do as he says and enter the Shining Path (magic mirror) that will teleport Luther Fiston to the southern continent. You can also pester him by going back to his chamber or dispel an illusory wall concealing a passageway to the Draracle's Museum, wherein you can get some additional backstory information and some considerably powerful and unique magical artifacts and weapons that you can't find anywhere else, such as the coveted Thohan's Greatsword. There are also quite a few interactive elements with non important functions, as well as torches to light via the Spark spell, pots to break and so on. Another interesting quirk about the game is its inclusion of what can best be described as neutral monsters. Generally speaking, if a creature is part of that particular ecosystem and they aren't some sort of spawn of Belial's mother, they will generally leave you alone. As underwhelming and tedious as the combat can get, they at least had the courtesy of not forcing too much of it onto the player. Your path may be mostly predetermined, but your morality, oddly enough, isn't. Throughout the game, most of the NPCs you find you can also attack, killing them or forcing them to flee. Lash out against enough of them and you will be well on your way to completing an evil playthrough and by extension an alternate ending. You'll be given quite a few opportunities to redeem yourself over the course of the game, but one can argue that evil Luther's over the top performance certainly beats the odd, though just as abrupt good ending.
The game's soundtrack was a collaborative effort between Frank Klepacki and new age/celtic/whatever musician David Arkenstone (first game he ever worked on, if his discography is to be believed), rendered in digital audio (as opposed to MIDI or FM synth). While most of the combat themes (one for each area), aside from the Ruloi Citadel are mostly functional if somewhat unremarkable, the exploration music does a wonderful job of adding to the game's atmosphere and some of the tunes are even catchy and memorable enough to be listened to independently from the adventure itself. Speaking of atmosphere, the lighting (even in software mode) is surprisingly convincing of a game of its age, going as far as simulating light sources originating from flickering flames as opposed to it just being a merely binary on or off state. The live action performances on the other hand, as charming as they are, haven't aged particularly well technically speaking. The FMV cutscenes generally look acceptable, but the live action actors chroma keyed into the in-game environments look a bit pixelated and compressed, clashing heavily with the pre-rendered 3D environment, a problem exacerbated considerably if one decides to enable hardware acceleration. Speaking of which, while running the game in hardware mode provides a higher maximum framerate (among other bells and whistles) than software mode, it's also very inconsistent in terms of performance, slowing down considerably in the more spacious and graphically intensive areas. It also causes the FMV cutscenes to stutter, at least under the default Dosbox and Nglide settings. While the framerate in software mode isn't ideal, you can at least be guaranteed a consistent and hassle-free playthrough.
It was an odd departure from the series at the time, the FMVs may be a bit too cheesy for some, the game can be obtuse at times, combat is somewhat dull, the transformations can be frustrating to deal with and character development in the mechanical sense is heavily downplayed, even compared to The Throne of Chaos. Its likeable and amusing cast of character, solid atmosphere and cornucopia of secrets can potentially be enough for future would be explorers to take the plunge anyway. Just be aware that what you're getting into is a bit of a mixed bag.