"Fabulously Addictive"

Master of Magic is another of SimTex Software's excellent 4X games. It is also quite possibly the best one in the fantasy genre.

Master of Magic has a similar interface to other SimTex games: a panel on the right showing information and a row of buttons to bring up other windows in the main panel. Why mess with an interface that works perfectly well for 4X games? It's efficient from a size point-of-view and very easy to navigate.

Management of resources and production is handled on a city-by-city basis. On the city screens you can allocate your population to be workers or farmers (there are also rebels if you tax too much or that race doesn't happen to like your primary race).

Buildings (and some spells) enhance the production of your cities either by directly adding some set amount of production or by giving the city a multiplier to the total production. Depending on what spells and race your chose, developing cities might be the only way to victory.

Of course, other selections may have you rampaging around the two worlds with hordes of troops. Your army can consist of anything from summoned Angels, Demons, Undead, Hellhounds, Chimeras, and Giants to the more prosaic Swordsmen and Bowmen. Each Race gets its own specialty units. Some get a whole bunch of them (Beastmen, Nomads) others just get one (High Men, Halflings). Units from some of the races get special bonuses: Troll units all regenerate, Halflings are all lucky, Draconian troops fly, etc.

The AI, to put it bluntly, sucks for a SimTex game. Master of Orion, Master of Orion 2, and especially 1820 all blow it out of the water. It's solid, but like swiss cheese there are holes in its logic that you can drive a Mack Truck through. Diplomacy has all the options you need (except for my oft desired and seldom acquired 'Broker a Peace' option), but at higher difficulty levels the AI doesn't want anything to do with you while at lower levels it is simple to manipulate. Speaking of higher difficulty levels, the AI will ream you out at Impossible if you don't exploit those afore mentioned holes in its thinking.

There are a couple ways to win the game (by casting the Spell of Mastery or by conquest). There are literally tons of setups you can do at the beginning. You get to burn 'picks' and buy either spell books or advantages with them. There are lots of different paths to victory that you can take.

Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:

Gameplay: 7

Good AI combined with the intuitive interface make Master of Magic a joy. There are some bugs to watch out for (especially in earlier versions) and the AI does silly things, but it's still a lot of fun.

Graphics: 6

Master of Magic's graphics were great for the time (early 90's), but of course have faded over time. They are still more than adequate and some of the spell pictures just look cool.

Sound: 4

The sound effects suck. The intro movie's sound is cool, the rest sucks. Trust me, the sound effects suck. The music on the other hand is a little above average. It's not particularly good music, but it works well with the fantasy theme and isn't annoying.

Replay: 10

Like all other SimTex 4X games, there is so much replayability here that you cannot even think of shaking a stick at it. The myriad choices you can make in the setup and the two overarching ways to win ensure that no two games will be the same.

Other: N/A

I honestly can't say where you'd get a copy of this game from a store these days. Maybe you can get a friend's copy. If not, I guess Abandonware sites are your only hope.

Overall: 8

This game, despite its flaws, is addictive. I once spent 65 hours playing it with only bathroom breaks taking me away from the computer. You'll easily get sucked into the ''one more turn'' syndrome: especially when you're cranking out undead legions to swarm over your foes.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/02, Updated 08/05/02