Reviews

After we'd all been wowed by Lords of Midnight, a sequel seemed inevitable. Following on from the original defeat of Doomdark, his daughter Shareth kidnaps Prince Morkin taking him to the land of Icemark, leaving Luxor and friends on a mission to save him, defeat Shareth and ensure both the futures of Icemark and Midnight.

Mike Singleton wanted it to be much bigger and better than the original game and certainly succeeded in the first part. The land of Icemark boasts 6000 locations and 128 characters versus the 4000 and 32 respectively of Lords of Midnight.

Bigger isn't always necessarily better though; where the land of Midnight feels crafted and its names have a pleasant natural tone to them, Icemark seems so obviously a product of random generation with tongue-twisting names and endless arrays of mountains, forests and plains.

Changes to the game mechanics make it rather different in play too. Where, in Lords of Midnight, you can usually count on finding the other characters in their initial positions, almost everyone in Doomdark's Revenge starts charging off across the landscape from the off. It soon becomes difficult to locate specific characters and your battle plans need to be very flexible; this rather works against employing the same grand strategies that succeed in Lords of Midnight. Where the first game was perhaps a little bit too predictable, DDR is a lot too random. Sometimes a random character will do you a favour by killing Shareth before she even reaches your armies, but it's also very easy to lose an important character like Luxor or Tarithel which can often ruin a promising start; the only thing you can do about it is to save the game regularly while you play.

Graphically, DDR uses the same landscaping technique of Lords of Midnight. However, there are some nice additional touches such as textured skies and changing colours to indicate progress through the day. Revamped graphics for buildings and the landscape add to the differing feel between the two games.

Whilst DDR doesn't always offer more of what was good about LOM, it still stands up as an excellent game in its own right; it's sufficiently different to offer a challenge to even the most experienced players. A third game, Eye of the Moon was promised but never arrived as Mike Singleton got sidetracked by a number of other projects and Beyond were taken over by Telecomsoft. A PC game entitled Lords of Midnight: The Citadel eventually did emerge, but suffered terribly from some poor design decisions that rendered it close to unplayable.

After waiting an eternity (about 6 months in child time) , i finally managed to purchase Doomdarks revenge from Smiths in Preston , i eagerly scampered home , fired up the speccy and slotted it in the tape deck and hit play.

After a short load (due to the very high pitched speed loader ) i placed the iconic keyboard overlay down and set off into the land of icemark to do battle once again with the forces of evil , this time lead by Doomdarks naughty daughter Shareth.

For anyone familar with its prequel - the lords of midnight , it plays very similar , you get a full 3d representation of the land around you and control your troops / lords / characters through their eyes , you start off with three recruits and quickly increase your armies by recruiting others to your cause.

Morkin (your son) has been kidnapped and the only way you're going to get him back is to travel north , defeat Shareth and rescue him from her bewitching clutches.

Being the follow up , it had more locations , more vaired terrain , different groups of characters such as Giants , Icelords , Barbarians and Dwarves to try and recruit , some groups wouldn't alliege to you if you had already recruited another type , so you had to plan ahead or end up losing an alliance you'd already forged earlier .

This time round Mike Singleton had inserted a tunnel network , which for a time could help if you were getting pasted in a battle , sneak in a tunnel and emerge a few locations away to retreat from a larger army (always a good idea) , the other major new feature was mist , i didn't care for this as you could end up lost or bumping into Shareths rather large army or a group of Icelords just when you weren't up for battle.

I really enjoy playing both the lords of midnight and doomdarks revenge , they are both extremely well written , very deep (especially for a spectrum game) , the graphics are wonderful , they are also both a decent challenge , iv'e actually only completed doomdarks revenge once after all these years of playing.

Anyone wanting a really tough challenge , look no further than Doomdarks Revenge , immerse yourself in the game and enjoy it as much as i have done.

The sequel to Lords of Midnight.
If you liked the first game, you will for sure love this one too. It's as brilliant as the first, if not better.

A sequel to the epic war / strategy / graphic adventure game, Lords of Midnight.
Lords of Midnight is a fantastic game, and Doomdark's Revenge is even bigger and better in most respects. It differs from the original enough to feel like a new game, a new challenge, and avoid making the original game redundant.
The ideal sequel to a real classic, and a classic itself.

Doomdark's Revenge has recently been released for Android and ios devices. And it's these versions that I'd recommend playing, as they're the ultimate version of this great game.
It's essentially the same as the Spectrum version but without the lengthy waits between night and day.
But back to the Spectrum version, and yes those waits between turns are very noticable. But being a long game, it's the perfect opportunity to make a cup of tea and review your strategy. Alternatively crank up the speed on your emulator.
This is of course the follow up to Lords of Midnight. And like a true sequel, the game is bigger. But not quite as enjoyable as the first game.