Warlock: Master of the Arcane Critic Reviews

After realizing that Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a strategy-title and not a Civilization-clone, I'm left with a well-crafted game about fantasy warfare. The game eases me in with a clear interface and then opens up a deep well of varied content to explore. Multiplayer is unfortunately missing, but the AI is a surprisingly competent opponent and if you like your 4X games to focus on strategy, you will find Warlock to be one of the top alternatives today.

A well-crafted, easy-to-play game with an entertaining fantasy bent, Warlock will have you staying up nights taking one more turn to blast King Rrat to kingdom come.

Warlock - Master of the Arcane is a good turn-based strategy game which is lacking only multiplayer modes. It's a modern Master of Magic and a solid and lengthy game.

Very playable and entertaining, but AI still needs work. It would be nice to lose once in a while.

Quotation forthcoming.

Is it surprising that InoCo Plus' turn based premiere can't keep up with Civilization? Not really. But for just being a "Fantasy Civ" it offers surprisingly good strategic entertainment.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a well-packed turn-based strategy game, with a deep and captivating gameplay. Still, the lack of a structured campaign and of the multiplayer mode is a big letdown, and the graphical engine does not shine.

There's clearly room for improvement, including a more aggressive AI, but over 30 hours later and I'm still playing it. Not bad for a simple take on Civ with some dragons thrown in.

For all of its flaws, it's still a remarkably fun game with plenty of character. When you're commanding armies of dragons and giants to annihilate cities protected by ghost ships or rat snipers, it's easier to overlook the game's shortcomings. I know that I'll certainly be playing a few more campaigns, and once the multiplayer gets added I'll play even more.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane's emphasis on combat makes it feel fresh in the 4X strategy genre. It just needed some fine-tuning to be truly great.

Some of its more unique spin on things do shine through, such as City management, but others like the added adventure/discovery element just get lost amongst the need to survive.

The lack of depth does wear thin over the long-haul after you've played a bunch of match to their conclusion, but you may find yourself reluctant to let go until you've fully experienced into each faction's magical might.

Warlock does not offer something truly new to the genre and the components borrowed from Civilization far outnumber its renovations. The gameplay options offered may feel many, but are in fact, very limited: combat is over-simplified, diplomacy is poor, the religious element is non-existent and the actions you take in one turn are 90% the same. Despite that, the 'one more turn' magical effect can be felt at times.

Similarly to Civilization V, combat elements are the most evolved and those of you who favored that particular battle system will get right down to business, helped a lot by the map's visual familiarity. The positioning of units on hexagons allows for attacks from multiple directions and, just like in the eternal source of inspiration, in the lower left you get an approximate report of a fight together with any bonuses given by unit type or terrain type.

But Warlock is colorful and entertaining, and it's budget-priced, so as long as you can stand some bugs and quirks, and as long as you don't mind that it doesn't break any new ground, then Warlock might be a game for you to consider, perhaps after waiting for a patch or two to come out first.

So yes, Warlock is a streamlined strategy game, at a cut price, and that is absolutely no bad thing. It has a few unfortunate quirks, but if you fancy something a bit lighter and a bit more combat-focused than the usual fare, then you'll get at least a few dozen hours of entertainment from this rather enjoyable title.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a highly addictive and entertaining game, although it would not meet the need of a nicely-updated Master of Magic. The game perfectly fulfills the expectations raised and offers good content at an affordable price. And this is quite important these days. If it keeps growing in the right way (through some DLCs) it would become an unforgettable game, but needs to improve its AI and add more options.

A good game that lacks certain things we hope to be included through patchers or modifications. Its gameplay base is good and fun, but we miss too many things, especially more diplomacy and religion options.

Exploring is fun, resource exploitation is basic and extermination is tedious.

It's certainly not about to reach out to anyone who doesn't like wargames, nor appeal to anyone who wants the broader scope of the Civilization series, but it does a perfectly good job as a tombola of fantasy combat nonsense, full of new and wonderful and silly surprises.