i'm a big fan of the original game and was really interested in reboot, but when i saw the screenshots, i was concerned. this doesn't really look like improvement from original. the interface looks worse, inconsistent, even ugly (buttons on scrolls? many icons in different styles, cool unit drawings in really small places next to simplified drawings of some symbols, bookshelf on the scroll?), the overall and battle map looks poor and plastic too. the only thing i see that looks really nice here are the drawings of wizards, races and maybe units but they are too small in the screenshots to tell

so my question is there anything that could convince me to buy this game for this price or should i play the original master of magic instead?

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Edit: After playing with my brother (sharing cities & units) & having a blast, I have to amend my earlier views. The game is lots of fun. *However*, there are still lots of UI problems which need to be addressed in patches.

Original message:

As much as I want to root for this remake, I have to admit that the graphical interface is confusing. I really needed some time to find everything. It seems to nowhere explain were I can built cities and what are good places or not. I have to completely rely on my prior knowledge of master of magic & any new player will be lost.

There are several design decisions that disrupt immersion. Which is probably worse than just having a difficult to manage interface.

My advice would be: If you are a fan or want to support the remake, you can buy it for the full price. If not, just wait until it is off a little.

The surveyor button is in the lower right quadrant of the main display. Also, when you have a colonist selected it changes the land display to highlight colonizable locations - a little like civ6, I guess. There are a lot of quality of life improvements and several things that are missing (or I haven't figured out how to find yet). You used to be able to pull up the list of production to get a view of how much benefit you were getting from what improvement. Same with cash production and mana production. Not sure if this is just gone or I can't find it yet.

I will have to spend some time with it and get familiar before I decide if I like it or not. Right now it's harder to play because I don't know it well enough. It would be a shame to base my opinion on my lack of familiarity.

One thing I do not like: the mirror world is too damn dark. I can't freaking see a thing.

Oh, thanks, I'll have to look for the Surveyor!

I guess the game is "almost" there. The issues that remain can be solved with a little update or addon:

(1) Darkness of Myrror
(2) Have the city view/pretty picture activated as standard, give the option to deactivate it. Important for immersion.
(3) Have little population icons as in the original. That's just immersion.
(4) Take the music of the original. The new music is decent, but not really breathtaking.
(5) Add multiplayer to compete with civ
(6) I have to play more to see whether I have other complaints

Ok, other points I noticed:

(7) When units use up their movement points, the game should automatically cycle to the next unit to move. I have always to click on "move army" to get to the next. This is cumbersome.

The game needs a bit more beta testers to give feedback. It has really the potential to be cool, but all these little quality of life things are important.

The remake does some things better and some things worse. Nothing that I consider to be too drastic to detract from the overall experience. However.. the memory leaks and long turn times are really starting to feel like a heavy weight on the game. I'm finding it harder and harder to launch the game because I know that playing it feels like such a slog compared to the original game.

In spite of the quality of life improvements, it takes longer to complete a turn. For a game that takes - how many? - a thousand turns or more, that is a crushing flaw. I like the idea of the construction queue, but it has little value because you can't schedule buildings that rely on earlier buildings in the queue being built.

And I hate how clicking a move through any other unit or city causes a stop or a crazy detour. This is extremely apparent in mirror world where enchanted roads are.

I think the remake is great. A huge improvement in graphics, and it being extremely moddable, I'm sure all of the unliked features will vanish soon.

Buy it at full price so it stays alive.

Wouldn't a Caster of Magic DLC with the new graphics be awesome?

If they address the interface problems, specifically automatically cycling through units to move, I'll wholeheartedly support it.

Everything is there, it just needs a bit more playtesting.

space bar will cycle to the next unit to move.

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Yes, but again, in civilization it cycles automatically. At least give that option to players who want it.

It's just so slow. Every thing is slow. But what is crippling is how long it takes to load a save. It takes a minute to load a save. And if you're a MOM pro and you're doing things like reloading over and over to get the Druid hero while playing a Nature themed caster... that's going to take forever.

Slitherine seriously needs to improve this program to speed things up.