Lords of the Realm III

Eight years after the previous cult classic LotR2 came this much anticipated title - now over ten years ago, but fans of the series probably still remember the growing disappointment and frustration they felt as they played it. It is not an outright horrible game, but it just fails at every turn and constantly provides a frustrating and annoying flow to the game. At first it doesn't seem quite so bad - although the first thing you find out is that basically the entire economy has been removed wholesale, and instead you just have underlings to manage each plot of land you own, and your choices are which ones - needing to assign enough food producing serfs to support your army, choosing which knights to assign with their different unit types, churches for morale, towns for income, etc. One good part here is that there are numerous named lords, mayors, and merchants with different bonuses

Terrible, just terrible! I had such fond memories of Lords of the Realm II that I figured what the heck I'll pick up Lords of the Realm III and see what all the fuss is about. I figured, how bad could it be... well, unfortunately it can be bad, really bad. It is hard to tell if this game was a cynical cash grab trading on the good will fostered by an established property, or was it (as I suspect) a game with greater ambitions which were just not realized when the final game in a series from a once great publisher and a well-regarded developer was rushed out before the walls came crashing down. The mechanics of the game are different than then the previous installment. Gone is the beloved turn based resource management game, replaced by a ‘simple’ vassalage system where you assign vassals to lands and based on their type and quality you to gain specific resources. With this new s

-Quick Review- Lords of the Realm III is a medieval economic and combat strategy game developed by Impressions Games and released in 2004. This was the third and final Lords of the Realm game developed by Impression Games, it was actually the last game Impression Games developed, trumpeting most people's opinion on this game. -Detailed breakdown review- Story: As is the theme for the Lords of the Realms Games, Lords of the Realm III takes place during the European Dark Ages. I'd love to say something very educational about the dark ages, but I'm not feeling very bright. *slaps knee* The only sense of "story" in Lords of the Realm III is in the text from the campaigns and battles where you're given a brief explanation, and sometimes a background of the battle or struggle you're about to participate in. For example, the text for the 1066, Hastings Battle gives a quick paragraph explainin

When this game was released in March 2004, it cost only $20. Yep. Brand new game, only $20. For comparison, Medieval I: Total War, a two year-old game at that point, cost the same amount. That should say something about this game's quality. Admittedly, I didn't hear of this game when it came out. The only reason I know it exists is because I saw a YouTube video of its predecessor, LotR 2, that made me want to play that game. I got it in the LotR series pack during the 2018 Steam Summer Sale. I saw the bad reviews, but it was super cheap, it came with a game I wanted, and I have a bit of a bile fascination, so I wanted to give it a go. This game is essentially a very poor man's Medieval Total War with some asinine design decisions. Unlike previous LotR games, which were turn-based and RTS hybrids (again, like Total War, but LotR did it years earlier), LotR 3 is completely RTS: No mat

Gameplay is horrendously simple. Ultimately, Lords of the Realm 3 was a big letdown. It is still a rather decent game, but nowhere near as deep as its predecessor. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3043393182 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1232920842 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1391356182