Warlock: Master of the Arcane Demo Impressions

Finally the output of one of the demo games that Paradox, personally, I think one of the most interesting of those who should be out soon! The game, which should stand as a turn-based strategy similar to Civilization, is set in the fantastic world where humans Ardania, undead and other supernatural creatures follow powerful magicians who fight each other for the title of Warlock!

After numerous videos and pictures the conditions are very good and the game seems to have all the cards on the table to become a little gem that can affect anyone who is fond of Civilization, and even some casual gamers now that was eventually released the demo we will verify if indeed we find ourselves before a quality game or if it was just smoke and mirrors!

In the demo features will obviously be limited we only use the tutorial, a map to conquer, the ability to play only a magician default (called Miralbus) and there we collide only against two other magicians also functions save/load will be disabled but despite this we will be able to sense when playing with the basic game is good and worth it if you really spend money on the day that will be published!

The demo can be downloaded easily from Steam and should weigh about 830Mb (so it's also fast enough to download) while the full game is distributed via Steam for the price of 19.99 Euros!

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a new active-based strategy game set in the fantastic world of Ardania, popular franchise in majesty. Warlock: Master of the Arcane invites players to take on the role of the Great Magician and build a powerful magical kingdom, enter mighty Mage the exercise ability to control armies and magic to wage war against each other as they compete with other assistants of Warlock.

Features:
Research and mastered dozens of spells, magic enchantments strong powerful spells and find out combinations. Using the powers of three races, along with cargo and Fierce Creatures. Innovative urban management system with less routine activities. Epic battles with large armies marching across the landscape.

System Requirements:
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Pentium IV 2.4 GHz
Memory: 1 GB (Windows XP) / 2GB (Windows Vista / 7)
Hard disk space: 700 MB
Audio device: compatible with DirectX
Graphics: ATI Radeon 1800 or NVIDIA GeForce 7800 X

Key Features of Warlock: Master of the Arcane Demo:
Feel the Magic: Research and master Dozens of spells, conjure Powerful enchantments and discover awesome spell combinations.
Ready an army: Command to expansive range of units, all with unique abilities. Mobilize the forces of three races, along with special Summoned troops and wild creatures.
Choose your strategy: There are Various Ways to Achieve victory: by military, diplomatic or even magical means.
Fight your enemies: Engage in epic battles with large Armies marching across the landscape. Players may Develop Their Own tactics and learn to use a large number of units' special abilities. Add some magic to this, and you will experience a true symphony of war.
Command the game: Enjoy an innovative city management system, where there are no routine actions, and every decision counts!
Have faith: Fight on the side of one of the eight gods. Their complete quests and their temples spread across the lands. - Or throw aside all gods and Become One Yourself!
Follow the Traditions: Warlock - Master of the Arcane inherits all the best elements of the famous turn-based strategies of old. It has modern feel and look, but deep down it is a classic game where each player may master His or her own magical kingdom through military and skill.

I tried the demo to the end, and it seems that despite the UI taken from civ 5 has its own personality, some, not so much in the setting but rather in the speed of the gameplay and in the importance of exploration. Management of the city seems very simple, but the "flavor" fantasy is given by the quantity and hazardous nature of monsters, which together with the portals seem the real stars. There is also some gem, like the archers almost ineffective against skeletons. Remains to be seen whether the AI ​​is at least decent.

I just downloaded and played the demo of the new game from the legendary Paradox Interactive Warlock - Master of The Arcane.

The demo lets you play for 50 rounds in a world pre-calculated.

This is a strategic turn-based, fantasy-style, belonging to the vein of Civilization and Master of Magic. Already from the first round you can see the strong resemblance to the latest incarnation of the Civilization series. Warlock takes it to the interface hexagons and city management Civ 5. I'm not sure but I think the two games share the graphics engine. But we go in order: the game opens with an absurd false entry to be characterized by a wise old donut terrifying that welcomes you to Warlock: Master of the arcane. I have not misspelled, it’s says "master". Unfortunately, the voice will read also the tutorial screens scattered throughout the game.

Party of the real game you find yourself faced with a nice and clean graphics, with an intelligent interface that covers very little of the beautiful game of strategy map. Affects the choice of the hexagons, but if you saw their amazed Civ5 too. Unlike the classic strategic, here the city is spread directly on the map, with buildings that are placed in hexagons adjacent to the city center. Good choice, eliminating the need to upgrade around the map with specialized units (workers, engineers, settlers) and to make an abstract representation of the city. Another novelty is really surprising is that it is not possible to stacking of the units: in each hexagon there can be only one.

This is a choice that left me puzzled when I saw her in Civ5. Introduces an element of tactical battles and old Civ were purely abstract. Unfortunately, the implementation leaves much to be desired: in fact the movement of armies becomes very complicated. Although the units have many movement points, with penalties for difficult terrain you find yourself making moves in a single box, and soon we remain stuck in the narrows of the map. To conduct an attack becomes an exercise in logic and remove from the front of the damaged units to make a rotation with fresh ones is virtually impossible. For behind the finish line first shooters (radius 2), which help to make the chaos even more complicated. The result is that an enemy with a nearby town, he uses more freedom of movement, to stop long monstrously superior armies. This idea of ​​the hexagons and the no-stacking to take no loser. I do not see how it can be considered fun playing a game of conquest in which the most difficult part is to move your units. The old Master of Magic had the tactical battles, the same the next Fallen Enchantress of Stardock, or Age of Wonders. If you just do not want to introduce a similar level (which is actually another game) it was better to keep the old implementation of Civ, perhaps putting a limit on the stacking.