| Lords of the Realm III | |
|---|---|
 Cover art ofLords of the Realm III | |
| Developer(s) | Impressions Games |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Producer(s) | David Nathanielsz |
| Designer(s) | Brett Levin |
| Programmer(s) | Justin Przedwojewski |
| Composer(s) | Henry Beckett |
| Series | Lords of the Realm |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,multiplayer |
Lords of the Realm III (also known asLords 3) is a medieval themedreal-time strategycomputer game published in March 2004 bySierra Entertainment, a subsidiary ofVivendi Universal Games. It is the third installment in theLords of the Realm series, and the last game made byImpressions Games.
At the start of a game, the player must choose a noble by either selecting one of the default nobles or creating a new one. Nobles act as user accounts within the game, wherein completed campaigns and saved games are local to each noble. A noble consists of three customizable features:housename,portrait, andheraldry.
Once a noble is selected, the player can choose to play a campaign or battle map, or load a saved game. While all the battle maps are available when a noble is created, the campaigns require that the player complete each level in sequence. The game has four campaigns, each with several scenarios.
In a battle map, the player is placed in a battlefield and is provided with predefined companies of soldiers available to them. The only victory condition of these battles is to defeat all enemy companies. The gameplay is consistent with that of the battle mode in the campaigns.
Except for the tutorials, campaigns consist of three layers of gameplay: thestrategy layer, thediplomacy layer, and thebattle layer. The layers allow the player to control different components of the game.
The strategy layer allows the player to see a large overview of the lands to command their armies and assign vassals to the lands they possess. The land that the player possesses is subdivided into parcels. The player must assign a vassal to each parcel to manage the land for them.
There are several different types of parcels that dictate what they will produce. Furthermore, each parcel is of a certain quality which determines how fast they will upgrade their land and produce units. The different categories of vassals are as follows:
In the diplomacy screen, the player may assess his progress and the progress of the other nobles as well as engage in politics such as trade, war declarations, and forming alliances. The diplomacy screen shows a diplomatic map of all the lands, colored by the nobles who own them, that displays parcel usage, army locations, and territorial control. The player can view theirchivalry,Christianity, andhonor levels, and their progress in obtaining the next level in each of them.
The battle layer engages the player in the battlefield, allowing them to manually control their companies.
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 65/100[2] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Computer Gaming World |   [3] |
| GameSpot | 8.4/10[4] |
| GameSpy | [5] |
| IGN | 6.4/10[6] |
| PC Format | 41%[7] |
| PC Gamer (UK) | 77%[8] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 66%[9] |
| PC Zone | 19%[10] |
| X-Play | [11] |
Lords of the Realm III received "mixed" reviews according to thereview aggregation websiteMetacritic.[2] A common complaint was, relative to its predecessors, the simplification of province management and the departure from the turn-based strategy map.[citation needed]
Lords of the Realm III was a runner-up forComputer Games Magazine's 2004 "Best Budget Game" award, but lost toThe Political Machine.[12]