Doomdark's Revenge

Doomdark's Revenge is the sequel to the seminal ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 game The Lords of Midnight by Mike Singleton. It has similar game mechanics to Lords, but adds more detail and complexity. While the number of characters and locations increased, there are those who feel some of the clarity and focus found in Lords had been sacrificed along the way.

After Doomdark's defeat in the first game, word reaches his daughter, Shareth the Heartstealer that he has been overthrown. Enraged by this, she decides to take revenge on the chief architect of his downfall, Luxor the Moonprince, by kidnapping his son Morkin. The game revolves around Luxor and his companions Rorthron the Wise and Tarithel the Fey (Morkin's beloved), and their attempts to rescue Morkin and defeat Shareth.

The game has five factions to be recruited or fought, comprising of the Fey, the Barbarians, the Dwarfs, the Giants and the Icelords. The main difference between this game and Lords is that the lords now all move and react independently, no longer content to sit in their castles and wait to be recruited. Shareth also moves around, attempting to recruit armies and lords to her cause, so a major part of the game involves recruiting sufficient forces to counter hers.

This makes the relationship between lords very important, as some lords can only be recruited by certain others. Certain lords are vassals of certain others, and some may only be recruited by their lieges. (For better or worse, recruiting a liege does NOT automatically recruit all his vassals, or their vassals too!) Lords may also cooperate, recruit and fight each other independently, making the world a lot more dynamic than Lords.

There are many magic items to be found, most belonging to a single lord, and having 'power in battle', as well as magic crowns, and the landscape and it's features have many surprises for the player.

The game reverses the first games victory conditions by giving the computer one single goal, the death of Luxor. Shareth wins outright if Luxor is slain. The player has many possible levels of victory, ranging from the simple rescue of Morkin and retreat to Midnight up to the destruction of Shareth and the safe return of Luxor, Morkin, Rorthron and Tarithel to Midnight.