Master of Magic
- Master of Magic (1985 on Commodore 64, 1986 on ZX Spectrum)
- Master of Magic (2022 on Windows)
Description official descriptions
The plot of Master of Magic is to become the dominant wizard on two 'planes' of existence, the normal Earth-like one and the fantasy based plane "Myrror". You can do this by destroying your competing wizards (up to 4 computer players) or by casting the Spell of Mastery.
Game play is carried out in a 2D top down perspective. You move your armies around the board, fighting monsters to get treasure, and more importantly 'nodes'. Once you control a node you can summon a spirit to meld with the node and gain mana from it. You also must build up your cities so you can support and train your army. City management is very much like Civilization. You also must allocate your mana for use, or research. You must research to learn new spells. You can do battle with the enemy in a quasi-isometric perspective or you can have the game simulate the battles.
The game ends when your home tower is destroyed; you banish all the other wizards (by destroying their home tower) or someone casts the Spell of Mastery.
Spellings
- ć·ć“ć£ć¶ć¼ć éč”ć®ē³»č - Japanese PlayStation release (Japanese spelling)
Groups +
- Console Generation Exclusives: PlayStation
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Halflings / Hobbits
- Fantasy creatures: Orcs
- Fantasy creatures: Trolls
- Games with randomly generated environments
- Master of Magic series
- Powerplus releases
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
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Credits (DOS version)
48 People (46 developers, 2 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 79% (based on 19 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 119 ratings with 11 reviews)
The Good
The game has incredible depth of play. The sheer number of inventive and interesting spells that can be researched and used transforms what would otherwise have been a mediocre 4x game into something classic. At the start of each game the player is able to choose what kind of spells they would like to concentrate on (life, death, chaos, nature, sorcery), what special powers they will use (alchemy, warlord etc) and what mythical race they will command (Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and about a dozen others), each with their own units and buildings, abilities and handicaps. For instance the Dark-Elf race can build the special Warlock unit, but have a higher rate of rebellion. The Klackon race is highly productive but cannot build Universities to advance your spell research. The races are much more specialised than they are in the Civ titles, and make a great difference to how you play the game.
This combined with customisable maps and random opponents means that each game is very different from the last. Add to that the traditional Civ-like exploration, war/diplomacy and city building and you have a very addictive game with loads of replayability.
The Bad
The graphics were adequate at the time it came out, and today it's looking badly dated. Really in need of a revamp. The diplomacy is pretty much redundant as every opponent wants to wipe you out. They will stay hostile and defiant even when they have one tiny unit left and are facing your army of dragons. And it can be buggy unless you treat it just right, though that could be a result of running it in a Dos-box environment.
The Bottom Line
Transforming a game like Civilization into a fantasy realm is not as easy as it seems. But MoM managed to get the balance right and retain all the addictiveness. If you like classic 4x games like Civ and Master of Orion etc, then you have to give this a try. Tons of interesting spells, powerful mythical units to fight with, and interesting realms to explore and conquer. Despite being rather old and having poor graphics, it has so much gameplay that it will still keep you hooked in this day and age.
DOS · by StJude1 (4) · 2008
The best of the Civ-like games
The Good
While some say it ripped off Magic: the Gathering with its game style (it did), the combination of the spell research and the civ-style play is the best I've ever played (much better then Master of Orion, IMHO).
Also, unlike other games that break down when it goes into tactical combat, this one really shines, even when you let the computer fight for you (well, when the odds are in your favor.)
The Bad
The Win98 update/sequel was never completed!
The Bottom Line
Civ meets Magic: the Gathering!
DOS · by Tony Van (2797) · 1999
The definition of āclassicā is āMaster of Magicā
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 armyā¦ 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 enchantmentsā¦ 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 thereās something, and I donāt understand why Civ2 and SMAC didnāt 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 attackerās 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 nodesā¦ 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 thereās only one way to get an idea: playing it.
The Bad
Bugs.
I canāt remember so painful blow in the stomach like the game crashing when fighting Wraiths or Shadow Demons, or trying to cast a Disjunction. I donāt understand how those bugs werenāt 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 werenāt revolts except as random events. Terraforming was also gone, except for roads. And so was government and corruption. Well, this is a Civ fanās point of view, and comparisons are inevitable in ācousinā games like Civ and MoM. However, MoM has features Civ doesnāt (tactical combat, character customisation and many othersā¦).
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, butā¦ 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 doesnāt deserve less.
And the musicā¦ 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 thatās one of the points that define a classic. If youāre a strategy fan, donāt wait anymore and get it.
But donāt forget to get the 1.31 patch too!
DOS · by Technocrat (193) · 2002
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Dragonsword has moved to Realms Beyond | Hans Noe | Oct 23, 2010 |
MoM unofficial patch v1.40 | kyr ub (1) | May 16, 2010 |
Active fan site at dragonsword.com | Hans Noe | Apr 24, 2010 |
Trivia
References
One of the merchants may try to sell an item called "idspispopd". This is a cheat for Doom.
Release history
The original game had an onslaught of bugs that almost prevented playing. Microprose released a patch and later a completely new version of the game (which had a different manual and disc). The original disc and manual can be considered a collector's item.
Unofficial patch
There is an fan-made, unofficial patch (v1.40) that focuses on the correction of many bugs still left in the 1.31 version and tries to improve the game's AI performance. The download link can be found in the related links section.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) ā #141 in the "150 Best Games of All Time" list
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) ā #13 Most Rewarding Ending of All Time
- May 1997 (Issue #154) - Introduced into the Hall of Fame
Information also contributed by Andrew Grasmeder El-ad Amir, and kyr ub.
Analytics
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Related Sites +
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Help Site for Master Of Magic
This is an interactive guide on Master of Magic. For those who do not have the manual paper because they download abandonware version of this video game. -
Master of Magic: Hero Page
A site dedicated to everything about heroes in Master of Magic, including cheats, oddities and descriptions. -
Sector 5, Ratai's Realm
Master of Magic Online Guide. Has other things like chat rooms and custom wizard submission.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Tomer Gabel.
Windows added by Picard. PC-98 added by Trypticon. Linux added by Lugamo. PlayStation added by Yanis Lukes.
Additional contributors: Andrew Grasmeder, Kalirion, Laey'zur Tiberius Hawke, Thibault Droulers, 6ā of Nine, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Yanis Lukes.
Game added August 10, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.