Warlock II: The Exiled

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Warlock 2 is an incredible well crafted game that is easy to bury hours into. Like any other good strategy game it can take some time to find the right strategy that will suit your play style, but that process of discovery is what makes these games so enticing.

VentureBeat / Gamesbeat (82 out of 100)

Island-hopping in a fantasy world felt new to me, and this builds upon the already engaging strategy that exits in Warlock. The Exiled gives the series something akin to a true campaign mode, and I’m eager to give it a try with different Great Mages, different leader perks, and different factions. I do hope that in further updates — the original Warlock received a number of expansions — Ino-Co crafts some truly interesting factions. But even if the developer doesn’t, I trust the mod community to come up with some spectacular homebrewed content. Even giant turtle killers.

GameStar (Germany) (81 out of 100)

Warlock 2 mit seinen Hexfeld-Schlachten und der nicht übermäßig verkopften Reichsverwaltung macht mir eine Menge Spaß. Ich kann große Armeen aus Wegwerf-Kämpfern aufstellen oder viel Geld und Zeit in unschlagbare Elitekämpfer investieren, um die anderen Magier das Fürchten zu lehren und die vielen Welten zu erkunden. Die neuen Elemente wie die zusätzlichen Rassen, Geländearten, Zaubersprüche und viele Detail-Verbesserungen fügen sich sehr gut ins Spiel ein. Optisch ähneln sich die beiden Warlocks wie zweieiige Zwillinge anstatt wie Großvater und Enkel, aber das macht nichts -lieber neue Spielelemente und die gleiche Grafik als umgekehrt. Nur die aufgezwungene Wiederholung der Hauptquests in jedem neuen Spiel stört mich.

411mania.com (8 out of 10)

Warlock 2: The Exiled is still a good game, despite the main new mode being kind of antithetical to the nature of the game. Still, the sandbox mode is a blast, and a lot of the little improvements add up to make Warlock 2 a better playing experience. There are few good 4X games out there, and this is still one of them.

PCGamesN (8 out of 10)

The shard-based game is more than enough to recommend Warlock II. It’s simple to grasp but curve balls and angry demi-gods with a penchant for punching cities should keep mages on their toes. And everything can be tweaked. The editor is magnificently extensive, laying out the whole game, from spells to buildings, and allowing players to change it all. Everything can be modified or entirely new versions made. Lamentably it’s impossible to make units mute. The limited voice acting is so bad that I just had to turn the audio off in the main menu, instead opting to listen to the entirety of Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth on repeat. Warlock II might take place in a silly universe where narrators like to impersonate Sean Connery and kingdoms are ruled by regal rats or chatting skeletons, but Ino-Co has taken its construction very seriously. It’s exactly what a sequel should be, keeping the spirit of the original but improving every aspect.

Games Arena (8 out of 10)

Warlock 2: The Exiled mi-a plăcut mai mult decât credeam. Mai mult decât originalul, deși este în multe aspecte același. E gâdilat suficient de mult încât să ofere o experiență diferită, mai bună, dar fără să îl schimbe în vreun mod fundamental. Tot are neajunsuri majore, pe care nu cred că le vor adresa, precum diplomația. La 30 de euro, nici nu este excesiv de scump, și puteți fi siguri că va avea DLC, a cărui preț va fi cu mult sub ceea ce înțeleg alte jocuri prin DLC.

PC Gamer (78 out of 100)

An entertaining and efficient strategy game that improves on its predecessorjust not all that much.

XGN (7.5 out of 10)

Wat Warlock II: The Exiled dus erg goed doet, is de verschillende aspecten van het spel met elkaar vermengen. De magie, het bouwen en onderhouden van steden en de gevechten met tientallen verschillende units loopt in elkaar over, zit door elkaar gevlochten en werkt hierdoor erg goed. Het is jammer dat de game steken laten vallen met de tutorial en de herhaling van het verhaal, aangezien de game verder vrijwel niets fout doet. Warlock II is daardoor zeker een spel dat de strategieliefhebber een keer moet proberen.

PC Games (Germany) (74 out of 100)

Der Vorgänger aus dem Jahr 2012 war so etwas wie meine Wiedereinstiegsdroge in Civilization-ähnliche Spiele: Komfortabel, zugänglich und nicht allzu komplex. Warlock 2 folgt diesem Erfolgskonzept und fügt dem gewohnt motivierenden Zug-um-Zug-Spielprinzip ein paar neue Kniffe hinzu. Dass ich jetzt endlich gezielt neue Zauber erforschen kann, war wirklich überfällig! Zusammen mit den Helden und dem neuen Spielmodus hat mich das wieder eine ganze Weile an den Bildschirm gefesselt. Doch genau wie beim ersten Teil wirken sich der Mangel an Komplexität im späteren Spielverlauf und die lachhafte Gegner-KI negativ auf die Langzeitmotivation aus. Das Zusammenspiel mit menschlichen Widersachern und die Fan-Erzeugnisse aus dem Karteneditor könnten jedoch für Abhilfe sorgen – ich hoffe auf die Community!

GameSpot (7 out of 10)

Warlock was a creative game that tried a few interesting new things--namely the global spells and extra dimensional planes--and Warlock 2 takes them all a step further. Making the multiple dimensions a priority instead of a side bit refocuses play toward direct combat and exploration. The small army sizes prevent floods of units from taking and holding all points on the map and necessitate greater care with movement and empire expansion. Together, this creates a slow but focused style of play that's unlike anything else on the market.

Multiplayer.it (7 out of 10)

Sinceramente siamo un po' in difficoltà di fronte a Warlock 2: The Exiled. Nonostante la buona quantità di novità, è impossibile non percepirlo come una grossa espansione di Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Gli sviluppatori hanno puntato moltissimo sulla nuova modalità e sullo strumento per realizzare mod per convincere gli appassionati ad acquistare il gioco, ed effettivamente se avete amato il primo Warlock è probabile che siate già convinti. Rimane il problema di fondo delle molte caratteristiche rimaste identiche, tra le quali alcune difettose che non sono state sistemate. In effetti, se non avete apprezzato il precedente capitolo, di motivi per amare questo ce ne sono davvero pochi, a meno che non collezioniate mod di sviluppo. La struttura di gioco è rimasta identica, così come la gran parte delle meccaniche di gioco. Insomma, si tratta di un prodotto dedicato ai fan e nulla più.

4Players.de (67 out of 100)

Warlock 2 – The Exiled hat gute Ansätze, scheitert aber in der Kür. So überzeugen die Balance aus Komplexität und Übersicht im Ressourcenmanagement, der an Civilization 5 angelehnte Städtebau und die Rangaufstiege sowie Upgrades der Einheiten. Auch das ordentliche Kampfsystem gefällt und der Weltenscherben-Ansatz erschafft angenehm abwechslungsreiche Umgebungen. Allerdings vermiesen die schwache KI, das völlig vermurkste Diplomatie-System und die oberflächliche Religion den guten Eindruck. Dazu kommt, dass vieles während des Spielens einfach nervt: Sei es die unübersichtliche und ungenaue Bedienung, die viel mehr Klicks erfordert als nötig wären, seien es die ständig neu erscheinenden Monster oder sterile Menüs mit fehlerhaft eingebundenen Texte. An einigen Stellen wirkt die Rundenstrategie unnötig sperrig, nicht durchdacht und sogar unfertig. (...)

Games.cz (4 out of 10)

Warlock 2: The Exiled lehce inovuje formuli prvního dílu, ale na silné ani slabé stránky výrazněji nesahá. Zaměření na boj, stejně jako nevyváženost obsahu i jednotek, zůstává, přibývá ale podivná příběhová kampaň a hlavně se objevují rozčilující a hru kazící omezení.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun N/A

The only thing that may stop me is the hokey humour, exhausted Monty Python references and the consistently annoying Sean Connery impersonator Paradox uses for the many games set in the umbrella fantasy setting of Ardania. I guess that stuff's proved popular with someone, and admittedly it is dialled back a significant notch here, but it nonetheless makes an otherwise accomplished game come across as far cheaper and ropier than it is. Clearly voices can be turned off, but I really do beseech the producers to think again next time around. If you want a reputation as one of the strategy greats, sticking a clown wig on top of all your smart ideas is a bloody funny thing to do. That aside, Warlock 2 is a smart and appropriately chaotic strategy game which really feels as though it has an identity of its own, rather than being made up of borrowed parts (er, other than its own).