Okay, last month's game pick may not have been to everybody's tastes. To my own fault I guess I could have described it a little better, and made a point to express that it may not be a game that everyone would be interested in. This month's game however...I should be able to describe with ease.
While Legend of Grimrock was a difficult nut to crack in trying to fully explain the game mechanics and how the game plays, Warlock: Master of the Arcane is far simpler. It's Civilizations 5, with magic instead of technology.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a game that I had second thoughts going into. I mean, I have never been very good at turn based strategy games, but the prospect of being an all powerful warlock commanding an army of minions in addition to having a slew of spells at my beck and call was all too awe inspiring. And for the most part, I found myself improving as a turn based strategist. I start better figuring out what routes my opponents could take, and how I could stop them from advancing and achieve my own victory.
Now in the game there are three different types of resources, Gold, Food, and Mana. Now no matter what of the three armies you are playing (Human, Monster, or Undead) you will always need gold to recruit units, upkeep your army, and build advancements to your city. However, if you choose to use Undead as your army a bulk of their units decrease your mana stores instead of your food stores for upkeep. Yet this doesn't mean you can abandon your food resource all together. Without a high food store, your cities will not increase in size very quickly, meaning you will be very limited in what buildings you can construct. All in all, you have to learn to balance all three of your resources with your army so that you can have a large enough army, you don't get easily destroyed, but you have enough resources you can quickly recover from anything unfortunate, as well as continue to expand. It's a lot of brain work, and I love it.
Now unlike Civilizations 5, Warlock: Master of the Arcane has a magic upgrade system instead of a technology upgrade system. The problem however is there isn't any linear progression with this system, meaning what spells you get after researching other spells isn't exactly predictable. You basically need to do your best to go along and pick whatever of the 5 spell options you have that you think will benefit you the best. It's a little disappointing, but at least the spells do have nice visual effects and actually feel powerful.
In the end though it is a very fun game and I think all those who enjoy turn based strategy games can find some enjoyment in this title. If you want to get into turn based strategy, you really can't do any worse than getting a good game in the genre for $20 either.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane is available on Steam at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/203630/
-Adam