Masters of Magic is a "traditional" city building game in the family of the civilization type. But with a twist. It takes place on the world of Arcanus and the magical alternate world of Myrror. The player assumes control of a Wizard and aims to build up his/her empire and assume mastery of the magic or eradicate the enemy wizards with the help of troops, magical beast and spells. Magical abilities divided into various spell schools; Chaos, Nature, Death, Illusion and Life. Schools which should be familiar to "Magic the Gathering" players. The player builds up his empire by building up cities and advancing them and building troops (different troop types for different races) akin to how it happens in Civilization and those games. But outside this the player has access to a wide array of magical beasts (different beasts per school) which can be summoned. The player can hire heroes and equip them with magical equipment obtained either by summoning or by conquest and exploration of the caves and dungeons of the world. Heroes and troops increase in experience and becomes increasingly powerful. Magical abilities can be enhanced by leeching magic from magical nodes throughout the worlds. Combat takes place in a tactical overview with rules for flying, ranged, city walls. Unfortunately - the game's age does means some game breaking bugs and a couple of "easy" and cheesy strategies, but the game still provides countless hours of entertainment to this day. It can be incredible difficult if played at the highest settings as well, so it isn't just a walk in the park if one does not want it to. Masters of Magic is a deep and rewarding game, build inside a simple interface with many nuances. It is second only to Civilization 1 when it comes to this genre of building game. It is a great mixture of some RPG elements and city building. If one hasn't tried it but enjoyed Civilization or a spin-off, this game is a must buy. No doubt, no questions, no regrets.
Well.... mixed feelings on this one. The game is good enough, the story is interesting and fun, some of the characters are very well thought out - others not so much. Intrigue and plots and all that. Definitely a well thought out game with a solid story. The combination of stealth and action, both fighting and racing around, is a good mix and the game can be difficult at times, but never so bad that you actually get stuck for prolonged period of time. The camera option is a fun little gimmick for earning money as well, and provides a nice twist. The combat is basically okay , but it does lack diversity and options in my book. Fast click, slow click or "power load up" the weapon when in melee makes combat little more then a click fest. Hovercraft combat is pretty much the same - fast click or power up. However - and in my book it is a huge however. The controls and especially camera is atrocious. It causes unneeded frustrations, especially when sitting on a PC with a keyboard+mouse control combination. A lot of the time the camera can not be moved, causing problems when you have to navigate either fast between obstacles and/or enemies - or sneak around trying not be be seen. It just feel like a lazy port to the PC from a console, because you can clearly feel the limitations of the consoles controls even when playing on PC. Another annoyance factor is with the stealth aspect. It is something which plagues most stealth games, but it is also in here. 2 enemies can look at each other turn around for a moment allowing you to take out one. The remaining one will then look to face his now missing comrade and - lo and behold - not notice something is missing. Another thing which annoys me is the save point system. You can only save in specific terminals - sure enough they are littered somewhat around the maps, but it is a stupid limitation. At least on death you'll respawn a bit prior to the fight, but it can still be frustrating that you do not decide when to save. Also a thing which annoys me is the inventory system and how I'm keep being told what a specific item does even though I pick up the hundred of it. Yes, I heard it the first time. Lastly - I am not a huge fan of the graphical style. The human and alien characters are well made and fits together nicely, but then you get humanoid pigs, cats, rhinos and what not - all in a Japanees graphical style. Not my cup of tea, but that is of course a subjective opinion. (like anything else here). Had the camera been much more flexible and had the controls been more responsive (likely due to camera limitations), then this game would have scored a solid 4 on story and game play alone. But as "interesting" as the game is - those things do detract so much in my own enjoyment - that the game doesn't IMO deserve more then 2/5 on the PC (on a console, I'd properly score it higher). The game is solid, but the surrounding circumstances bring it down from its true potential.
This game is a decent adventure game. It does suffer somewhat from one of the main problems with adventure games - illogical puzzles and item combinations. But mostly it isn't bad enough that it ruins the game as it can if too excessive. There are also some logical based puzzles which help a bit overall, as those puzzles makes more sense and are solvable without the "trial/error" approach. The game does in this version still contain a few bugs though, and especially two I found can be game-halting where you couldn't advance, so save often and save in different slots. And it does detract a bit, but like the illogical puzzles, not enough that it overall hurts the game. The graphics is decent for its time and things are clearly visible as what they are supposed to be, so only rarely will the mouse have to scan the screen to find objects. So that is clearly a plus - the style still works. The main problem with this type of games is longevity. Because once you've solved the problems and puzzles, most of the lure of a game like this vanish. So it isn't a game you buy to replay many times. So buy if you haven't played it (in a long time). Overall - the game is a fun, detective type game, with some minor set backs. If a fan of adventure games you can't get around the great value of the game. Even if it is a one time through type of game. 4 out of 5.
This game is brimmed with pure action and plenty of challenges if you so wish. The premise is simple for the single player tournament. Violent matches against enemy opponents (bots) is the sport of the "day". Contains deathmatch, domination (keep control of control points), caputure the flag, assult (attack, then defend, objectives). The bots can be quite challenging at higher levels indeed. And even at lower levels can push you around a bit. A fun array of weapons, from running around with double pistols, rocket launcher and sniper rifle. And the ever fun remote controlled nuclear missile. All weapons have at least dual mode, either faster, more inaccurate, fire - grenades instead of rockets, pulse instead of projectile and so on. Few more things are more fun then running around, preloading 5 rockets in your rocket launcher only to have your enemy pop up right in front of you and have your weapon shoot off. The graphics hold up fine enough in this day and age even if not pristine anymore. You can clearly see what things are and what they aren't. UT is a great buy, a fun trip back to the days of origin of pure "arena" multiplayer games. Buy it, play it, love it. :)
This is a strange game. Basically - you're taxed with the assignment of creating a name and fortune in the 1400 and onwards. So this game is primarily an economical game - simulator if you will (although simulation might be taking it too far in my book). However then there is the combat aspect, thieving aspect, political aspect, family aspect etc which provides additional challenges. The game is fun, but frustrating at times. It takes some time to get into, so don't expect to jump into the game and just play. That in my book is refreshing though, so it is a plus that the game actually expects you to play and decide. The game can quickly seem tedious, but at the same time it does contain this "just one more turn, then I'll go to bed/work/do the dishes, just one more trip to the market, just one more building improved". The game is not for everybody, but if you like economical simulators, dashed with inspiration of many other elements - then I'd say try it out. This game can keep you busy for weeks, if not months. Something rare with games that comes out in this day and age. The only reason this game is a 4 and not a 5 is that there are (were) room for improvement. The navigation is difficult to master which provides a frustrating element which needed be there, the interface suffers a bit and making trade routes (so far) is not intuitive and at times it seems the carts forget what they were supposed to do. But the game is definitely worth the price - definitely. Now excuse me while, I'm off to start another game.
The game is a good little adventure game, although somewhat illogical puzzle solving/progress at specific times. This illogic approach can provide frustrations on how to advance however and due to the dated graphics, some things can be easy to overlook and also help add to the frustration. However most of the time you forget these frustrations fast and if you ever were into adventure games, this game is absolutely worth the download and the time it takes to complete. It isn't terrible long, but the hours are mostly well spend. The humor in the game is the main selling point in my opinion. It is very well done, a lot of the time with great Monty Pyton-esque timing and some funny sequences which can make you laugh out loud. So definitely worth the download and trying it out. If nothing else for the "nostalgia" or simply to try out an iconic game in the genre. Be vigilant player one.
Fallout 2 is a must have for any RPG fans. The game is a game which can provide you with many challenges if you dare to step outside the mold. The humor is tremendous both supported by the dialogue but by the developers writing, the game play and replay value is surpassed by very few other games in my book. If you like the more genuine and "old school" Role playing Experiences, you owe it to yourself to try it out.
I played this game originally when it came out. It is a quite good game, and the start - expansion phase is very fun, getting to find a good site for your first city and building it up. The combat is fun to a degree but the "game board" is a few squares too small for it to be a huge selling point. The problem with the game is in my view that it lacks long term perspective. It gets dull a little too fast for my liking.
