Master of Magic

The Good
First off, I grew up with this game. I have played this game probably more times than I care to admit, and I still find it infinitely entertaining. The fact that I also love Civ games probably didn't help matters either.

But really, that's what this game comes down to. It's a Civilization game but with magic. There are very few turn based games out there that allows you to play an empire building game with this level of freedom.

One of my personal favorite parts of this game though? The exploration and the heroes. Sure, fighting other wizards is fun and all, but sending your heroes to go around and exploring dungeons and what not? For some strange reason, it made the game for me.

I especially like the fact that you can have your multiple heroes, and deck them out from head to toe in full battle gear that you crafted yourself.

The addition of spells also means that your tactical choices are not as simple as you would with most Civ games. Civ games have you discover techs to unlock units. In MoM, your spells unlock not units, but tactical options.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the game is not without it's flaws.

For starters, there are a staggering number of bugs in this game that render a large number of powers and abilities simply useless.

second, there was little in the way of game balancing and proper AI control. The AI will know how to overwhelm you with forces (by basically cheating like crazy just like any Civ-like game), but they won't know how to combine them to make them more effective. (Or rather, how to undo some tricks that you might employ.)

The end result is that you'll have situations where a single nightstalker (the night elf unique unit) defending the city is more than enough to hold off a 9 stack unit, as the AI does not know how to handle an invisible unit that is intrinsically invisible. So it will sit around until the clock runs out and end the battle in a stalemate.

It is also the reason why late in the game while you're running with storm giants and the like, your foe could still be sitting around with spearmen.

And then we have the game balance issue. Races are not created equal, so god help you if you picked the kracken or the lizard folk as your starting race, you'll be spending the rest of the game trying to get another race that doesn't suck quite as much.

But even more infuriating is the diplomacy model. Or rather, the lack of it. Sure, you can try to create treaties with other wizards. but quite honestly, their personalities are so volatile that said union will probably dissolve in a matter of rounds in a orgy of schizophrenic messages. There is no point to it. And really, the only effective purpose of diplomacy in this game is to just make a treaty so that they don't attack you for now. Can't say how long that will last though, as these computer wizards seem to have a wild mood swings that makes a bipolar clown look sane by comparison.

The Bottom Line
Civilization in a fantasy setting

The Good
Everything! From the excellent never-seem-outdated graphics to the moody atmospheric music to the extremely diverse magic and summoning system to the unlimited gameplay and replayability, this game is going to be eternal! The only strategy game that is so close to perfection on itself, except some very nasty bugs... This is the game that really trascended Civ series and mixed RPG and strategy element just right, and I just cannot stop playing it again and again!

The Bad
Some VERY nasty bugs! From the disruption of music to nasty crashes to system lock-ups... And the game can appear to be a little bit too easy when you completed it the 100th time (but then it really doesn't matter alreay :)

The Bottom Line
The must-have for every gamer, the really instant classic from Microprose with extremely fun gameplay and replayability. This game will be eternally remembered for its closeness to perfection and a horde of nasty bugs...

The Good
No game has made me feel like being a cybernetic extension of the mouse as MoM. Play the role of a sorcerer in a fantasy world struggling to conquer your fellow mages, an do so by raising armies of fantastic creatures, expanding your territory, funding and developing cities, recruit heroes to lead your army… and making use of magick, of course. More than 200 spells are your powerful magical weapons: extremely varied, well designed and well fitted in the game. Enhance magically your armies, conjure creatures, throw balls of fire, cover the entire map with titanic enchantments… add to that the possibility of designing your mage through 5 schools of magic and lots of magical abilities, and the sum is a true epic game.

The system will be very familiar to Civ players; in fact, MoM can be called Fantasy Civ. However, there are substantial differences. There is no tech to research: instead there are spells. You can win by conquer, but instead of building a spaceship you can research and cast the Spell of Mastery. And wonders have not a place, although there are heroes (and magical items for them to use). But there’s something, and I don’t understand why Civ2 and SMAC didn’t take the idea. Guess what? Yes! Tactical combat. The combat rules are very well designed: each unit has attack and defense values, like in Civ, but in battle they roll for attack and defense simultaneously (I mean, defenders do not wait hoping their armor will protect them from the attacker’s blows, like in SMAC). Creatures (and heroes) can have also a lot of special abilities for both overland and tactical game. Creature size is also taken in consideration, as in a square cannot be as many skeletons as storm giants, for example. And ranged fire is now true ranged fire. Oh, and spice all this with spells. The variety of strategies to use, combining your armies and heroes with magic, is limitless.

Each game (a random map!) promises an epic fantasy campaign. Not only exploring the world, but discovering ancient ruins, dark dungeons and magic-filled nodes… and fighting their jealous guardians, not so eager to give you their treasures. Oh, you think a world is not enough? Well, how about two? MoM has two planes of existence to explore and conquer. I could go on explaining, but there’s only one way to get an idea: playing it.

The Bad
Bugs.

I can’t remember so painful blow in the stomach like the game crashing when fighting Wraiths or Shadow Demons, or trying to cast a Disjunction. I don’t understand how those bugs weren’t detected. Fortunately, patch 1.31 fixed them.

Apart from bugs, unfortunately MoM was purely a game about war. Even with the AI improvement provided by the patch, was nearly impossible to maintain peaceful relations. Merely meeting another wizard was enough to be at war, and a long-standing one. That was sometimes very frustrating. Also, diplomatic model was even more simplistic than in Civ. Very, very few options, and lack of spies or diplomats.

City management was also simplified, as you cannot place citizens at will to exploit resources, and there weren’t revolts except as random events. Terraforming was also gone, except for roads. And so was government and corruption. Well, this is a Civ fan’s point of view, and comparisons are inevitable in “cousin” games like Civ and MoM. However, MoM has features Civ doesn’t (tactical combat, character customisation and many others…).

Sincerely, I fear an hypothetical MoM2 (which was planned before Microprose went out!). I think a really good, well designed sequel of this game can truly be the ultimate strategy game, but… Hope if anyone ever makes MoM2, does a really good work, in the spirit of the original, full of good and new ideas, and keeping ALL that made MoM the masterpiece it is. MoM doesn’t deserve less.

And the music… well, no comments.

The Bottom Line
Master of Magic is THE classic of all fantasy strategy games, and one of the classics of strategy in general. No other fantasy strategy game has reached its level, even many years later. And that’s one of the points that define a classic. If you’re a strategy fan, don’t wait anymore and get it.

But don’t forget to get the 1.31 patch too!