Warlock: Master of the Arcane

[eRa]

New fantasy Civ V look alike Warlock: Master of the Arcane is out now on GanersGate, Steam version will unlock later in the day.

I, for one, am intrigued, the price is pretty low too. Anyone tried it yet?

[jnx]

The demo was very solid. This review tells very well what's it about and how it plays. I wonder why the 7/10 score since he mainly just praised it o_O

[NathanH]

It looks a lot like Civ 5 but the mechanics are more like Master of Magic meets Fantasy Wars with a couple of Civ 5 ideas and a similar interface to Civ 5. The demo impressed me. Will provide more detail when I get home.

[TillEulenspiegel]

I like Tim McDonald. He's generally reliable. It sounds like Warlock isn't the deepest strategy game, though (he uses that dreaded word "streamlined"), which was kinda my impression from the demo. I'll pick it up, but I'm not expecting a full successor to MoM.

[Vexing Vision]

The demo impressed me. I like the map and the way cities grow organically.

Could do with a few more factions, and I'm very much looking forward to the multiplayer patch down the line, but the price of admission left absolutely no doubt about an instant-purchase.

[UncleLou]

Bought it earlier on GG after the good demo - just gives you a Steam code though. I don't mind that per se, but I am not a fan of GG claiming it's "out now" when in reality it won't be unlocked for another 10 hours.

[jnx]

The demo impressed me. I like the map and the way cities grow organically.

Could do with a few more factions, and I'm very much looking forward to the multiplayer patch down the line, but the price of admission left absolutely no doubt about an instant-purchase.

I too would like to see more factions, but it's a valid argument that it has more factions than Civ 5, since that essentially has just one in comparison. The factions in Warlock are far more varied.

[apricotsoup]

I can easily see more factions as dlc and it's something I look forward to.

Pre-ordered the game this morning :]

[Stormbane]

I have no time for this goddammit. My body is ready for Diablo 3 next week!

[vurogj]

Played the demo a fair bit and, while it's not the true successor to MoM I'd dearly like it to be, it will certainly scratch that itch at a reasonable price.

[b0rsuk]

It looks like a decent and fun game and I will probably end up buying it, but it's not a Master of Magic substitute. Reasons:

- few perks for wizard customization, and those present are unimaginative (+10% research, +10% income, +10% mana...)
- all spells are open to everyone. You have little influence over your research direction. You don't choose books like in MoM, instead you will get everything eventually. Exception: spells given by gods. It's difficult to say how important they are, but people haven't been amazed with them. Devs have stated god-granted spells are meant to work like magic schools.
- fairly boring magic. +20% damage of color X, +20% damage of color Y, +20% damage of color Z. Deal element X damage to a creature, deal element Y damage to a creature, deal element Z damage to a creature. Summon creature X, Y, Z. Harvest Blessing, +% food production. Water Walking stands out as a creative spell among these.
- no actual parallel planes (worlds) according to posts on the forum. Each plane has only 1 entrance and is quite small. More like treasure caves you can build a few cities in.
- MoM had some great treasures guarded by tough monsters. Treasure hunting is not important in Warlock.
- cities are numerous, densely placed and individually weak.

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is much closer to Master of Magic in my opinion.

[alset85]

Didn't they see what Elemental did wrong? Bland magic was a huge reason it failed. I don't understand why they don't go for the ameritrash school of design instead of fucking eurogames.

edit:actually I'm not surprised, Majesty 2 was very bland compared to the original and they mostly didn't understand what made it great.

[jnx]

What Elemental did wrong, was to suck on every possible front and run like a zombie snail on top end rigs. I agree that magic is lackluster in Warlock, but it's a quality product. Something Elemental could only dream about.

[pakoito]

I was in beta, and it's pretty much what b0rsuk said. It feels more balance-pvp because no content does excel in any area. Creatures are RPS, spells are straightforward, economy is easy to balance for everyone. It is more of a gateway/fast game for this genre.

[NathanH]

Getting battered somewhat by nasty undead so far. Started right next to a Great Mage!

[NathanH]

It feels less like Civ 5 the more I play this. It is also absolutely chaotic and a constant bloodbath.

[alset85]

This game really needs a comprehensive manual and tooltips. The only thing you can right-click for info are units, so I can't see the stats of ground tiles, resources you don't control on the map, buildings on the map etc.

The obscurity of everything when coming from Civ is really grating. And there aren't any player resources yet because it's a brand new game. Why don't people make manuals for relatively complex games anymore ?

[Ravelle]

Crusader Kings an an bible for manual and guide and still I didn't understand how that game worked. ;p

[trjp]

I'm interesting in this but the demo was a flaky sunofabitch - basically either not running or taking EONS to start (we're talking 2-5 mins of black screen) so I'm really dubious about spending money on it as it would annoy the crap out of me if the game did that.

Few other people seem to have the same issue - some people it worked OK for a while and then started doing this (basically it hammers 1 core of your CPU solidly for several mins for some reason) - hmmmm

Also - being Paradox, it will be patched to 'working' by the time it has it's first sale!? :)

[Fumarole]

Why don't people make manuals for relatively complex games anymore ?

I haven't checked it out myself but the Steam store indicates a manual is available.