Who Will Master The Worlds Of Magic?

News by Adam Smith Former Deputy Editor

Published on Feb. 11, 2013

Wastelands Interactive, developers of such strategic wargames as Strategic War In Europe, reckon Worlds of Magic will be "a genuine spiritual successor of Simtex's 4X Master of Magic", and bless my boots if the picture above doesn't resemble the introduction to Simtek's aged wonder-work. These chaps have done their homework, that much is clear, but will their Worlds have a similarly splendid intro, with the most memorable vocal performance in a game, save for the vendor selling frozen treats in Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe? I don't know. I do have a feature list though and I've posted that below, along with Master of Magic's intro.

Warlock and Fallen Enchantress were the two fantasy strategy games that I spent time with last year, and Warlock cleaved closest to Master of Magic, although it wasn't entirely similar. There's definitely room for a "genuine spiritual successor" though and, as always when I think about MOM, I'm reminded by the sheer amount of things that the game contained. Races, spells, unit types, enchantments - there was an abundance of everything. I wonder if Worlds of Magic will follow suit.

D20 System - Units, Spells and Heroes will all draw from the D20 rule set during the battles.

4X deep playability - Explore, exploit, expand and exterminate in a world of magic, diplomacy, and war.

Hero Units - Recruit heroes to lead your forces into battle.

Twelve Spell Circles - Focus on depth in a single school, or gain the ability to cast incredibly diverse spells.

Unique Races - Each race offers the ability to create exclusive units, with peculiarities, weaknesses and strenghts, but also balanced.

Settle Powerful Cities - Control production, research and even magical power, in order to create powerful armies.

Multiple victory conditions - War is not the only way to conquer the world; make treaties, establish trade routes or use peace as a tool for domination.

Unique races and spell circles is certainly a good start, and as soon as customisable item enchantments for heroes are concerned I'll officially be 'hyped'.

Leszek Lisowski, Director of Wastelands Interactive, has this to say:

"Worlds of Magic is the game we always wanted to make, a true recreation of Master of Magic. For all the years in game development creating such game was my dream. When we have meet with Aaron and realized that we have got similar idea and destination I knew this gonna be something special. We will do our best and work hard to make a game which will give the 90's feeling in terms of gameplay but in an appropriate presentation."

Is this presentation appropriate enough?

There is a Facebook page for the game that may receive different updates than the site linked above. I just don't know at this point.

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