Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny

About Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny

Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (1997) is Westwood's first-person adventure-RPG in which the cursed Luther shifts unpredictably between human, lizard and beast forms while uncovering the return of the god Belial.

Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny in Depth

Eons ago the god Belial was executed for fuelling a war between the Huline and the Dracoids by arming the latter, but before his death he arranged for a powerful creature to bring about his rebirth. Near Gladstone, the Draracle has a vision of a Huline girl cornered by a monster and sees it as a sign of Belial's return. In Gladstone, Luther, a young farmer and son of the late sorceress Scotia, is imprisoned on suspicion of belonging to the Dark Army, unaware himself of the curse that will drive his journey.

Like Realms of the Haunting, it is a first-person adventure with occasional combat, built around puzzles solved by clicking on objects and people, using inventory items, casting spells, attacking, or dragging objects and even corpses into place. Luther's curse makes him shift at random between three forms. The small lizard can enter tunnels, runs fast and casts spells easily but drowns in even shallow water; the tall, heavy beast jumps poorly but can step across gaps, wade through deep water, resist poison and hit hard, but cannot cast spells and must wait to change back; the human is a balance of the two and the only form that can use weapons and armour. Spells later let him change at will in human or lizard form. Most enemies leave him alone unless provoked, and he fights with melee, a bow, items and spells at four levels, with a fifth unlocked late in the game.

Making Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny

Westwood Studios developed it for MS-DOS and Windows, and Virgin Interactive published it in 1997, Next Generation reporting that Westwood made it a flagship title because RPGs like Daggerfall had become hits. It received above-average reviews. PC Gamer US called it a "very good game" but said its engine was dated next to Jedi Knight and Quake, and Computer Games Strategy Plus praised its "excellent" story and "rich" world but criticised its FMV, "awkward" controls and dated engine. PC PowerPlay hailed it as "perhaps the most complete game" its reviewer had played, and PC Zone called it "another Westwood masterpiece".