Game News Warlock: Master of the Arcane is Out

Fuck, it's past 3 am here and I have work tomorrow.
I dunno yet if this game has enough depth to stay interesting in the long run, but it certainly has that "one more turn" effect that we know and love in classic turn-based games

The guys that made this were responsible for the fantastic Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy series so I was always hopeful. They also made the mediocre Majesty 2 series but it's clear that their expertise is in in TB hex strategies so it should be a welcome return to form.

Only thing is not to really count it as MoM clone as it's more of a new Fantasy Wars with a strategic layer added. It doesn't have tactical combat or the all encompassing depth of MoM. Of course knowing it's a Paradox published release there is the likelihood of constant expansions adding stuff along the way.

There's a a 50 turn demo on Steam (game is Steamworks, anyway) and some of us have been discussing the game itself in this thread. Overall it isn't anything amazing -- budget title that's a Majesty universe clone of Civ 5. I'm sure I'll pick it up for $5 sometime down the road. Just seems like they left a lot of core mechanics out of the game and it looks like they might have an excessive amount of DLC.

i can't judge the quantity of content, but it looked like an early beta, just the base of a game with a terrible interface. it's just absurd that i have to click on a button on the side of the screen and then click on another button on the other side of the screen just to order a single unit to stay put for a single turn.

While the interface is incomplete, having a unit stay put a single turn requires one click after you select the unit. The Sentry mode is different from "pass", it's more like "fortify".

I think the interface is fine. The game is simple, but paying the low price they want for it warrants the 3 playtroughs (One for each race) that it offers before becoming boring and repetitive. I've spent about 20 hours on the game, so I consider this a worthwhile buy.

If you expect to play this more often then civ5, then there's something wrong in your head. This is not Dwarf Fortress or A-Train 8, and doesn't try to be. It reminds me somewhat of Sengoku (Paradox): A simplicistic game in a genre known for over the top depth and insane complexity (sengoku still more complex; But then, EU3 is more complex then any CIv-Clone ever).

Sure, there's a weird lack of complexity, documenation and depth, and some UI choices are less than ideal. But it does have a working UI, with some minor annoyances, that quickly vanish once you get the mouse movements remembered after playing for half an hour or so.

I might add a fourth play trough, just to see if the highest difficulty really does not make a difference, as the all knowing internet virgin boys proclaimed.

Difficulty indeed doesnt change much. AI needs a fix since it kind of falls asleep. After that it should be quite competent - even right now it can fight decently.

And 3 games? Wont agree, it has a lot more depth and replayability.