Posted September 07, 2010
I missed Master of Magic when it first came out, having just graduated from college with a limited budget and spending most of my time playing X-COM on my roommates computer.
There's a surprising amount of information packed into the UI, having to survey land with the cartographer for the best city points, manage relationships with a cantankerous group of wizards that eventually wall in your empire, and managing your city in a very intuitive city building screen that either borrowed a lot or was borrowed from by the Civilization series. Speaking of which, this little gem can go toe to toe with whatever Sid has dreamt up in CIV5.
There are heroes with their own personalities, whom you can name after your family members or people you work with, and spell classes that ACTUALLY differ from other schools of magic and make a substantial difference on the field of battle. The combat UI, though sparse, still gives you room to strategically set your units up, buff them with magic as you see fit, and sally them forth to do battle with the enemy.
I'll eventually get CIV5, but I'll never ever be able to put it on a thumb drive like Master of Magic and play it where ever I want.
I'm so very thankful I was able to find it on GOG.COM and relive what should have been the glory days of fantasy based kingdom building. Maybe someone can tell me what the wizard in the tower says during the opening sequence, it sounds like he has marbles in his mouth....
There's a surprising amount of information packed into the UI, having to survey land with the cartographer for the best city points, manage relationships with a cantankerous group of wizards that eventually wall in your empire, and managing your city in a very intuitive city building screen that either borrowed a lot or was borrowed from by the Civilization series. Speaking of which, this little gem can go toe to toe with whatever Sid has dreamt up in CIV5.
There are heroes with their own personalities, whom you can name after your family members or people you work with, and spell classes that ACTUALLY differ from other schools of magic and make a substantial difference on the field of battle. The combat UI, though sparse, still gives you room to strategically set your units up, buff them with magic as you see fit, and sally them forth to do battle with the enemy.
I'll eventually get CIV5, but I'll never ever be able to put it on a thumb drive like Master of Magic and play it where ever I want.
I'm so very thankful I was able to find it on GOG.COM and relive what should have been the glory days of fantasy based kingdom building. Maybe someone can tell me what the wizard in the tower says during the opening sequence, it sounds like he has marbles in his mouth....