The game is based on the first Dragonlance campaign module, Dragons of Despair, and the first Dragonlance novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight. It focuses on the journey of eight heroes through the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth, where they must face the ancient dragon Khisanth and retrieve the relic, Disks of Mishakal.

While Heroes of the Lance is a faithful representation of the books it is based on, it was a departure from the usual RPG style of most Dungeons & Dragons games, and many players lamented its difficult game play interface which consists of using one character at a time in horizontally-scrolling fighting. Each character has different types of attacks and spells making them more suited to fighting different enemies but they merely act as "lives" for the player as in more traditional fighting games, removing one of the main strategies of role-playing games from the game.

Discover the world of Krynn in this AD&D epic. Control the Companions of the Lance (they aren't Heroes until they succeed!) in their quest to recover the Disks of Mishakal. Only this can defeat the Queen of Darkness and restore the balance between Good and Evil.

Based on the later parts of the Dragon Lance book Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the heroes are descending into a ruined city in search of the disks of Mishakal.

The gameplay consists of horizontal fighting with a maze like map using doors to change the view. The party consists of the 8 Heroes of the Lance, using one at a time and you can switch between them at any time. Each character has different types of attacks and spells making them more suited to fighting different enemies as well as acting as lives.

One of the AD&D games that make a break from the usual RPG style. This is very slow and monotonous. Plenty of characters to play with but with even the combat scenes boring, there's not much hope.