Lords of Midnight

1987Lords on Midnight is not a new arcade game, nor an adventure, nor a strategy game either. It is something genuinely new on the gaming front. More than anything, it is a really successful blend of adventure and strategy game. Lords of Midnight is marketed by Beyond, it was written by Mike Singleton, and it is based on the Dutch professor J.R.R. Tolkien's book series The Lord of the Rings, volumes 1-3.

A vast playing area

The playing area is truly vast, some 4,000 squares. The game draws around 32,000 really high-quality landscape views. Mike Singleton has said himself that if he had had 2K more memory, he would have got the game finished two months earlier.

So the playing area covers some 4,000 squares, and from each square you can look in all eight directions of the compass. The land of Midnight is full of mountains, seas, lakes and highlands; only rivers are missing. Castles, towers, fortresses, ruins and even igloos have been scattered here and there.

Playing the game

At the start of the game you, Luxor the Moonprince, your son Morkin the Boy and your two faithful friends Corleth the Fey and Rorthron the Wise are standing in the Tower of the Moon in the middle of the land of Midnight. Your task is to free the land from Doomdark's rule.

You can destroy Doomdark in two ways: either by destroying him in battle or by destroying the Ice Crown, which lies behind Doomdark's power. A purely military victory is almost impossible, because even if you recruited every man available, Doomdark would still outnumber you four to one. The computer doesn't concentrate its forces, however, but sends them into the attack a little at a time. The advantage of this is that by concentrating your own troops you can win a victory over an otherwise overwhelming enemy host.

Battles

One of the most important parts of the game is fighting. At the start you have four lords and not a single soldier. By travelling around you can find more lords, and soldiers along with them. By recruiting them you can raise an army of as many as 32 lords and tens of thousands of men. As you travel around the land you may run into enemy troops. Against them you have two kinds of soldiers, horsemen and foot soldiers. Horsemen are worth more in battle than foot soldiers. Foot soldiers also tire more easily. Besides the enemy army you may also meet other adversaries. These include wolves, dragons, ice trolls and the like.

Although these fights are small, they aren't entirely trivial. An unarmed lord can in fact die in them, and if that lord is you or your son Morkin, things could go a bit funny before long.

The end

The game ends when you and Morkin are both dead, or when Morkin is dead and the enemy has managed to capture the castle of Xajorkith. For this reason it pays to gather Luxor or Morkin and as many lords as possible (10-20) in the castle of Xajorkith and wait. The computer will send tens of thousands of men against you, but don't worry. The enemy comes in detachments of a few thousand men, which are easy to wipe out. Once 100-150 days have passed since the war began, or when no enemies have turned up for a long while, you can move about freely. The last sizeable enemy armies are on the northern border, around the castle of Ushgarak.

Allow plenty of time

Playing time from start to finish is around 3-6 hours. The game can also be over in a few minutes, or it can go on for several days or even weeks. Sometimes marching a big army over long distances can feel frustrating, especially if you have to take detours.

There's no sound in the game, but the graphics are all the more magnificent for it. Even once you've beaten the game, it stays interesting thanks to its sheer scale.