Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a turn-based strategy game that was developed by Ino-Co Plus, whose previous titles include Majesty 2, Fantasy Wars, Elven Legacy, and many others. The game borrows heavily from the current turn-based strategy king Civilization 5 and even borrows some elements from the DOS based MicroProse classic Master of Magic.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane features solid gameplay, great sound design and an insane amount of replayability. However, the game is not without its issues. The look and feel is pretty much a blatant ripoff of Civilization 5. Will that quirk lead to a bad game? Let’s take a look at what’s Hot and what’s Not in our review of Warlock: Master of the Arcane.
HOT
Gameplay
Warlock is all about dominating your other great mages and vying for control over Ardania. This means the game is mainly about war, while there are other paths to victory you may not know about them unless you read the game’s guide or visit the website. These victory conditions include seizing all Holy grounds, killing God’s avatar and absorb his power, and casting the great spell ‘Unity’. These other conditions are hard to come by only because most of the elements in the game favor war.
The game features basic elements of economy, research and religion. All of these elements are crucial in producing units that help you in your struggle for power. You will use research to learn new spells. These spells can buff your units, increase production and even cause harm to emery units. Although, the damage is not large enough at the lower and middle stages to justify its use. You use the economy mechanic to recruit armies and construct buildings that allow you to recruit more armies.
Besides fighting your other rival mages you may find yourself trying to appease one of the many gods in the game. There are a bunch of ways to do that. You can build a temple to them on holy ground, which is hard to find. You can also complete quests from them. If you complete a quest from a god you will receive favor with them, gold, and a special spell. If you refuse a quest or you do not complete it then you will lose favor with that god.
All in all, the gameplay in Warlock is very solid and very streamlined. I find it easy to just pick up and get into a game.