Developer: Wastelands Interactive
Publisher: Wastelands Interactive
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Worlds of Magic – Review
In Worlds of Magic, you are a sorcerer-lord in charge of your new favorite Magic faction. Choose between 6 different factions/species with their own strengths and weaknesses. Enjoy an infinite amount of battles, worlds and strategic options. Anyone who played Masters of Magic with a devoted passion will certainly like this game.
Story
You are a sorcerer-lord, a master of magic and leader of your people. It is your task and destiny to conquer the worlds of magic using your strengths in the most nifty way possible and make sure your weaknesses are not used against you. With a total of 7 playable races (Dark Elves, Draconians, Dwarves, Grey Elves, High Men, Myrodants, Orcs and Unhallowed) you must build out your cities, expand your armies and fight some exciting battles. Make sure to form alliances with some neighbors because early on you will not be able to handle every single opponent on the map all by yourself. On some random places throughout the magic world you can find certain portals to other dimensions or worlds for you to visit and maybe take over, this gives the game an almost infinite amount of playable worlds and new enemies or allies.
Graphics
The graphics in Worlds of Magic are very decent with detailed unit, city and world graphics. The most amazing part of the game when talking about the graphics are the artworks. Simply amazing are the only words that come to mind when looking at the different artworks from units and buildings in the different menus, with the high amount of detail en vibrant colors. Those certainly add a lot of value when playing. The game offers 8 different unique environments that all bring a different mood. Each faction has its own units with their own features and distinct looks that match the amazing artworks.
Sound
Just like in any strategy game, the sound is more a mood-set, and not the most important feature of the game. In Worlds of Magic there is a constant music on the background and some ambient and notification sounds but nothing more or nothing less.
Gameplay
Worlds of Magic is a 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) type of strategy game. Worlds of Magic is created to be the “spiritual successor” of Master of Magic. With the combination of some classic elements like randomly generated world maps, powerful heroes and some new game mechanics, such as the the D20 rule set (a battle mechanic to simulate medieval fights) the designer hopes to give the best of both worlds.
When starting a new single player game, you need to select a couple of options, like the possible terrains worlds can generate. Every map has a number of different terrain tiles, each terrain type has unique bonuses that affect your play-style. Certain races receive specific bonuses from a particular terrain type. Afterwards you need to select your faction and create your sorcerer-lord and spells. Creating a sorcerer-lord can be quite the hassle and especially when playing the game for the first time, luckily there are some presets you can choose from. It might be nice to test out some shorter games with different settings to get a feel for the game and the possible options before starting a grand campaign to dominate the Worlds of Magic. Choosing a faction that matches your play-style is another key feature when it comes to ruling the worlds, things like production, unit types, unit speed and population growth affect your game drastically. Before you can finally enter your game you have one more setting to tackle: your spells. Those starting spells will pave the way for your first 100-200 turns. Later on you can research new magic spells in game. Some spell categories are connected to others and make some interesting combinations.
When you are in game you might notice the fact that there is no tutorial of any kind, the game only has some sort of tip box that is not always as helpful and easy as intended. This is one major problem for the entirely new players who don’t know the first thing about this game genre. But when you finally get a hang of the mechanics of the game, you are set for an adventure. Game aspects like which buildings to build next, keeping up with your production of trade goods, natural resources and the training of troops can be found in all the different tabs, and may take some time to find. When starting off you might appreciate the end of turn warnings that help you notice some essentials that you might have forgotten. Your main occupation when playing Worlds of Magic is managing your resources and time. Training your troops and planning your population growth in advance is necessary because this game is all about time management. Building and expanding your cities unlocks new troops and abilities. Researching new spells can give you an edge in battle but take up workers that could be more efficient elsewhere.
In game you work with multiple tabs for city management and troop management, those are all pretty obvious and easy to manage. It is a turn based game so after every action of yours it’s the AI’s turn. Your units movement is via square tiles and sometimes the game reminds you about a never-ending game of chess.
Conclusion
Worlds of Magic offers a versatile turn-based strategy game that you just can keep on playing. When played correctly it works quite addictive in a way that it might keep you awake rethinking possible starting options or strategy you can try. The game has come a long way and is worth adding if you are a strategy-game lover. The high replayability and many in-game possibilities might make it a worthy successor for Masters of Magic.
No Comments