When you're making certain games (or writing certain books or making certain movies, for that matter), it takes a lot of confidence to really believe in your lore. I mean believe in it so hard that you don't self-consciously laugh at it for the audience, or wink at them, or sprinkle in pop culture references to show that you're as cool as Dennis Miller and as ironic as Family Guy. Of course, it helps if the lore is good. There's nothing quite so unattractive as a terrible fantasy world that takes itself too seriously.

For the most part, Fall from Heaven - which is absolutely worth the confidence - has this confidence. It reminds me a bit of the also epic strategy game, Dominions (the latest greatest version here), a sprawling cultural mish-mash of fantasy tropes distilled through the imaginations of a tiny team of Swedes, but without the advantage of the elegant Civilization IV engine. Both Dominions and Fall from Heaven are serious, rich, and utterly convicted. But sometimes, Fall from Heaven winks and blows the illusion.

Take, for instance, the Three Stooges. Please. After the jump.

Now that I've discovered everyone else on the map, it's time to get involved. Loki, my unique hero, needs to head south to explore and extort a little money with his entertain ability. He's been entertaining away five gold a turn from the Calabim, but those desert-bound bloodsuckers already have a hard-scrabble existence. Time to get Loki overseas among the fat and prospering Elohim and Bannor. I need at least two ships. There are marauding sea serpents and a giant tortoise swimming around the ocean. It would be pretty embarrassing to lose my unique hero at sea. Not quite as embarrassing, however, as the way I'm about to lose him.

There are a couple of jokey references in Fall from Heaven that I don't care for. This is such a creatively vivid setting that it doesn't need any winking or nodding or elbow nudges or goofing. For instance, one of the religions is a shout-out to an internet message board. There's a pirate hero named after the character from the Monkey Island adventure games. And then there's the Pact of the Nilhorn, a Wonder of the World that summons three powerful hill giants for you to control. Which is pretty cool until you see that they're named Larry, Curly, and Moe. Get it? Yuck yuck.

As the Civilopedia explains, the actual Pact of the Nilhorn begins with a bard who lived among the hill giants - Nilhorn - after discovering how much they loved his music. The bard died when he returned to civilization to defend his village. This enraged the giants, who came storming out of the mountains and drove back the attackers. Out of gratitude, the villagers built a monument to the Nilhorn. Hence Pact of the Nilhorn, but with a Three Stooges reference poured over it. Don't get me wrong: I like the Three Stooges as much as the next guy. Just not when I'm playing Fall from Heaven.

So when Loki, who can freely explore rival territory, crosses the border into Elohim territory to do a little exploring and entertaining, he's rudely greeted by a giant named Curly. The Elohim have obviously built the Pact of the Nilhorn. Since the hill giants technically count as barbarians, they can attack my units without the Elohim having to declare war. Kind of like how my privateer can sit off the coast of an Elohim city and stop all fishing and commerce. So Curly takes a few swings with his club and easily defeats Loki.

But Loki can't be defeated by something so simple as losing a battle. When he loses a battle, he simply retreats. So as he explores the Elohim's flourishing cities, he's hounded by Larry, Curly, and Moe. The stupid hill giants constantly knock him around, never quite wising up to the fact that it won't do any good. They're playing ping-poing and Loki's the ball, resigned to his fate of being occasionally knocked back a square. I keep giving Loki destinations that take him through Elohim territory, carefully mapping out the lands I eventually intend to take as my own. And once I've seen them all, I head for the Elohim capital, where Loki will start using his entertain ability to siphon away Elohim money.

But here's where I have failed to read the fine print, which reads somewhere as follows: Loki cannot retreat when he's in a city. Of course, I don't realize that until he's been killed and I go searching through the fine print to find out what happened. A lesser man would just reload the game. But not me. I'm going to take my lumps. I will endure every barbarian setback, freak uprising, and slain hero the game throws at me. Besides, I just got a far better hero than Loki.

Up next: now that's a hero
(Click here for the previous Fall from Heaven game diary.)