Warlock - Master of the Arcane
Once upon a time, when PC games still came on 3.5" floppy disks, Microprose released a 4X game called Master of Magic. It had a gameplay somewhat resembling Civilization, but instead of technology you researched spells, and your units where fantasy creatures. While Microprose's other 4X games like Civilization or Master of Orion had many sequels and remakes, fans have been waiting for a remake of Master of Magic for nearly two decades. This year Paradox Interactive released Warlock - Master of the Arcane, which I had on pre-order since I heard that it was a remake of Master of Magic.
Now remakes are always tricky, and there was a definitive risk that Paradox would take MoM and turn it into an overly complex mess. But at €19.99 full price on Steam (and subsequent promotions selling the game at €9.99) that risk was well worth taking. I paid full price, but got the DLCs as pre-order bonus, so I wasn't totally miffed at there being a half-price offer so soon.
Last weekend I finally got around to actually playing the game (too many games, too little time), and I am happy to report that Warlock - Master of the Arcane is all I hoped it would be. For once Paradox managed to make a game which doesn't require a week of study of the manual before you can even start playing. If you every played Civ5, you can play WMotA without a handbook or tutorial. Which is good, because there isn't a tutorial, except for some "advisor" screens.
Warlock - Master of the Arcane plays very much like a modern version of Civilization with spells and fantasy units instead of technology and historical units. This being Paradox, there are a *lot* of spells and different units. City management is somewhat simpler than in Civilization, because you don't have to deal with population happiness. What remains important is how you place your cities with respect to the resources on the map: Special resources allow your city to build special buildings; for example if you have a donkeys resource in the area controlled by your city, you can build Stubborn Knights cavalry there. Other resources allow you to build buildings with which you can give "perks" to all of your units, for a price. The spaces without resources can be used for buildings that produce gold, food, or mana, and you need to balance all these resources.
Already in your initial expansion phase you will meet neutral monsters threatening your cities and units. Later you will probably engage in warfare against the other great mages. The map is divided into hexes, and there is no unit stacking, so you need to move your units one by one. If you are attacked somewhere where you don't have enough troops, you can summon monsters to fight for you, but these require a mana upkeep. Regular troops also need upkeep, in the form of gold and/or food and/or mana, so you need to balance your army with your production.
Just like the the original Master of Magic, Warlock - Master of the Arcane has the concept of there being parallel worlds which you can access via portals. The parallel worlds have more powerful neutral monsters to guard them, adding another strategic layer to the game.
I haven't played long enough to fully evaluate how good the AI is, as that was a problem with the original Master of Magic, which had to be repeatedly updated with patches. Fortunately patching games has become easier since the early 90's. Right now I am having a lot of fun just exploring the game, discovering the various spells and units, and doing tactical hex-based combat. The game is as addictive as Civilization ("just one more turn!"), and the fantasy element is a definitive plus. Recommended!
Now remakes are always tricky, and there was a definitive risk that Paradox would take MoM and turn it into an overly complex mess. But at €19.99 full price on Steam (and subsequent promotions selling the game at €9.99) that risk was well worth taking. I paid full price, but got the DLCs as pre-order bonus, so I wasn't totally miffed at there being a half-price offer so soon.
Last weekend I finally got around to actually playing the game (too many games, too little time), and I am happy to report that Warlock - Master of the Arcane is all I hoped it would be. For once Paradox managed to make a game which doesn't require a week of study of the manual before you can even start playing. If you every played Civ5, you can play WMotA without a handbook or tutorial. Which is good, because there isn't a tutorial, except for some "advisor" screens.
Warlock - Master of the Arcane plays very much like a modern version of Civilization with spells and fantasy units instead of technology and historical units. This being Paradox, there are a *lot* of spells and different units. City management is somewhat simpler than in Civilization, because you don't have to deal with population happiness. What remains important is how you place your cities with respect to the resources on the map: Special resources allow your city to build special buildings; for example if you have a donkeys resource in the area controlled by your city, you can build Stubborn Knights cavalry there. Other resources allow you to build buildings with which you can give "perks" to all of your units, for a price. The spaces without resources can be used for buildings that produce gold, food, or mana, and you need to balance all these resources.
Already in your initial expansion phase you will meet neutral monsters threatening your cities and units. Later you will probably engage in warfare against the other great mages. The map is divided into hexes, and there is no unit stacking, so you need to move your units one by one. If you are attacked somewhere where you don't have enough troops, you can summon monsters to fight for you, but these require a mana upkeep. Regular troops also need upkeep, in the form of gold and/or food and/or mana, so you need to balance your army with your production.
Just like the the original Master of Magic, Warlock - Master of the Arcane has the concept of there being parallel worlds which you can access via portals. The parallel worlds have more powerful neutral monsters to guard them, adding another strategic layer to the game.
I haven't played long enough to fully evaluate how good the AI is, as that was a problem with the original Master of Magic, which had to be repeatedly updated with patches. Fortunately patching games has become easier since the early 90's. Right now I am having a lot of fun just exploring the game, discovering the various spells and units, and doing tactical hex-based combat. The game is as addictive as Civilization ("just one more turn!"), and the fantasy element is a definitive plus. Recommended!
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