Worlds of Magic (PC)

Worlds of Magic speaks right to the heart of many a veteran of classic turn-based 4X strategy games, which is presumably why the Kickstarter campaign was able to pull together enough money to fund its development. It’s essentially meant to be the spiritual successor to 1994’s Master of Magic, but with an all-new look and a modern interface. As fate would have it, Master of Magic was one of the very first PC games I spent an excessive amount of time playing. And so I’ve been following the development of Worlds of Magic with a watchful eye. When I was given the chance to write this review, I already knew enough about Worlds of Magic not to approach the title with very high expectations.

I Wanna Rule the World

Worlds of Magic is a turn-based 4X strategy game. Like in all such games, you have to explore the map, exploit the resources you find, expand your realm, and exterminate your enemies if you have to. It’s a timeless gameplay concept that always seems to offer new challenges. There’s a lot to do in each round, and you have to carefully weigh your options, such as whether you’re going to invest your resources in creating more troops to explore the world or improving the infrastructure in your cities – even at the beginning it’s hard to do both. Like in Might and Magic, most of the interesting spots on the map are guarded by armies, which means you’re going to need to raise up troops of your own if you want to investigate them and exploit them for your own use. Personally, I prefer this way to how it works in Civilization, where you can explore the entire world with just a few units.

An Epic Playground

The world map is where Worlds of Magic is most like its predecessor – before you begin, you’re able to set the parameters of your new world down to the smallest detail. In addition to the map size and the number of opponents you’ll face, you can also have different planes of existence. Each plane acts as its own unique map for you to explore and conquer. Earth is just one of several of these planes; the others go by the descriptive names of Air, Fire, Water, Paradise, Shadow, and Prime. If you push the map complexity to its limits – 7 planes, 12 opponents, and the maximum amount of resources – you can create a truly epic world and play it for hours and hours.

After you create your world, you pick your race and select a sorcerer lord. There are eight different races to choose from, each with their particular units and abilities. The Orcs, for example, excel in melee combat and population growth, while the Dark Elves feature weak, but extremely powerful magic units and a population that grows very slowly by comparison. You can choose your sorcerer lord from among 13 pre-set characters, or create your own from the ground up.

The Opposite of Well-Made? Well Intentioned.

Now I can tell you about the game itself – combat, city management, graphics, sound, tutorial, controls, accessibility, localization, etc. But I’m going to be brief: It’s all pretty damn bad. I don’t know why they even bothered to localize the game, as most of it is incomprehensible (I played the game in German). The tutorials are extremely superficial and don’t tell you much at all. A beginner would be completely overwhelmed, without the faintest idea of what they’re supposed to be doing. Of course this is more or less irrelevant, since the AI is so bad that it’s pretty easy to dominate your opponents, even at higher difficulty levels. The controls are not intuitive at all, and the game often won’t do what the player wants it to do, for no apparent reason. The graphics and sound feel like they're stuck in 2002, but this wouldn’t be that big a deal if the game actually worked. But it doesn’t.