Developed by Toys For Bob, Inc. and published by Crystal Dynamics (in North America and Japan) and BMG Interactive (in Europe) in 1994, The Horde is an isometric fantasy action game where you have to defend a village from attacking ‘Hordlings‘ – red gremlin-like creatures that attack in waves and try to eat and destroy everything in the province.

Each level is divided into two distinct stages. The first is the ‘building’ stage, where you construct pits, fences, and other defences, and the second is the ‘combat’ stage, where you take your sword (“Grimthwacker“) and try to eliminate attacking Hordlings. If the Hordlings manage to destroy all the houses in the village then it’s ‘game over’, so you of course must try to prevent that from happening.

During the building stage you can extend waterways by digging next to them (which are useful for protecting the village because small Hordlings will drown if they fall into them), or you can dig directly onto water to reclaim it as land. You can also build fences, or walls, or buy cows or other investments. Occasionally you’ll also be allowed access to the shop, which allows you to buy extensions to your abilities (such as Knights who’ll help protect the village, bombs, or even a teleportation ring that’ll allow you to jump straight to an incursion).

As the game progresses – as long as you can keep the Hordlings at bay – your village will grow in size and your income will increase, allowing you to build more. The King will expect more taxes from you, though, so you have to anticipate those because failure to pay them will also mean ‘game over’. The Hordlings will also start to increase in size, and become more dangerous and harder to kill. When the village is being attacked by big, hulking Hordlings you have to be careful not to run into them, or allow them to hit you, because they can easily kill you. It’s not too difficult to avoid them, if you’re careful and keep an eye on their movement.

The Horde has Full Motion Video (FMV) cut scenes featuring real actors, although the acting in them is not what I would call ‘top quality’. They’re not too bad, though, and do add some humour to the game. The 3DO version actually came bundled with the RealMagic card, an add-on that allowed hardware playback of MPEG video files.

The Horde is still a fun game to play now and is quite absorbing, when you get into it. It was also released for MS-DOS, Sega Saturn, FM Towns and PC-98.

More: The Horde on Wikipedia