Lords of the Realm

I would Probably like this game, But I'm Afraid that there is a glaring issue, and that is that the emulator that it runs on just doesn't work on my hardware. Though I must Admit, It seems like a game I would enjoy, the fact that it crashes essentialy whenever you press a button prevents me from reciving any enjoyment from it. I would not reccomend this, simply because of the all too likely outcome of regular emulator freezes. Unless I find a Workaround this review will Remain Negitave. If I find a Workaround, I will edit the review and post the workaround. until I find one though, the score is 1/10 doesn't work at all.

Lack of in-game information and tutorials make this a difficult game for new players, but this should help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md9B0f-8FgE&list=PLaEZBF_sy6Z0aH5NJ-f8yQ0-6sO4Vutu9 I really like being able to design and build castles! Not sure why they removed that feature in later games, I know it makes little sense in terms of the games mechanics, but it helps you feel like you own it, like it's yours. Just like customising the appearance of your character in other games, no impact on gameplay, put it helps you to feel invested.

Got this as part of the weekend sale bundle. Very cheap. Was interesting to see how the game evolved from version to version. The graphics got fancier and the simulation simpler. I kind of like complex games, so I enjoyed the first one the most. Had fun poking around to see how it worked. Didn't play for that long; but I don't expect much from an old game I paid a dollar for. A fine expense/entertainment ratio. If, like me, you hadn't noticed this series before and like the genre, its worth a buck.

I have played many games in this genre, and since the reviews were very positive, I decided to give this one a try. However, after seven hours, I am still struggling to understand how the game actually works. There is not even a tutorial in this reworked version, so I had to manually search online for the official manual and booklets. Even after reading all the materials included with the physical version of the game, the gameplay still feels confusing. The enemy AI seems to build castles, train armies and conquer territories with ease, while I cannot even build my first castle because resources are gathered far too slowly. This happens even with 150 workers assigned to stone and timber, and I cannot barely move peasants away from the grain fields if I want to survive the following year. Notice that I was playing in Novice mode for both economic and military. There also seems to be a bottleneck once the population starts growing. Even when I add more fields to supply the grain needed to sustain everyone, the food supply still cannot keep up. I understand that some fields need to rest and be rotated before they become barren, and I have been doing that, but it still does not produce enough food to support the population increase. Overall, this is probably a very enjoyable game once you understand its systems, but it absolutely needs a proper tutorial to explain its gameplay mechanics. I am not giving this game a bad review because it is bad, but I couldn't find the essence of it that would have allowed me to enjoy it.

Of all the Lords of the Realm games, this one is probably the most obtuse. It's a really old and dated game, which inspired the much better sequel, Lords of the Realm 2. It was fine in it's day, but honestly, there's a much better alternative. Just play the sequel.

This game is terrible.

"Lords of the Realm" is an ancient game from 1994. It's a whopping 29 years old at the time of this review. The game runs in DOSBOX and lacks support for any modern gaming display resolutions (or widescreen monitors), it runs in VGA only, hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge. It was the first in a series of grand strategy games where you vie against 5 opponents, hotseat humans or AI, to control England and Wales (there was also a German map in the original game but the developers generously decided to screw over gamers and not include the full game in their nostalgia gouge). There's an economy component where you train peasants and plan out mining, agriculture and just try to survive medieval conditions, and if you can manage to do that you can build and equip an army and conquer your neighbours. Combat is an RTS affair, which gives the game an impressive level of depth and variety to rival the game depth of even the Total War series. It's just a shame this is way too old. "Lords of the Realm" is relatively expensive for an abandonware nostalgia gouge, at $2 USD, and it's not worth it. The game is just too old, hasn't been modernised. And as the old saying goes, you can't go home again.

Nice and funny.