Warlock: Master of the Arcane

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 229 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 160 out of 229
  2. Mixed: 50 out of 229
  3. Negative: 19 out of 229

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  1. Madroxmultiply
    May 10, 2012
    7
    It's a fun and addictive game with the combat and units. You get obsessive about being able to eventually make the highest tier of units (court werewolves are overpowered with buffs). Plus if you find special resources on the map, you can build unique buildings on it which can either give a resource bonus, an upgrade to all your units, or a whole new unit can be built. Very fun combat andIt's a fun and addictive game with the combat and units. You get obsessive about being able to eventually make the highest tier of units (court werewolves are overpowered with buffs). Plus if you find special resources on the map, you can build unique buildings on it which can either give a resource bonus, an upgrade to all your units, or a whole new unit can be built. Very fun combat and upgrade gameplay.

    Points where the game can be improved: (1) Better AI combat (they can defend fine but they don't seem to be upgrading their units and they don't get aggressive unless you wage war). (2) Better diplomacy system (you can only declare war, make peace or trade one resource for another. Plus trading resources can be super biased in your favor because the AI is stupid). (3) Summary UI elements (Currently you can only see what the town has built by going into that screen and hovering over each hex. It gets confusing once you have upwards of 10 towns. You don't know which town can build what unit). (4) Objectives path (The game doesn't tell you how you can win or the progress you are making towards it. You just sorta romp around doing stuff until otherwise dead).

    It's a decent game with potential. I just hope successive patches will flesh out the content until it's a better game than what it already is.    … Expand
  2. Thunderkat
    May 25, 2012
    7
    If you like the game Civilization, (CIV) and you like Fantasy/Magic you will probably love this game. It's fun, it's simple, it's inexpensive. Yes it can become a little tedious with the massive amount of troops that you can generate, but all in all, it's a fun little game. I haven't gotten the DLC yet for this game, and am looking forward to trying that out. Cheers!
  3. Xardon
    Jun 8, 2012
    7
    The Civ game that is a stripped down and casual version. If you are a fan of the Fall From Heaven mod for Civ 4, then this game is probably not for you. The Civ games are far more in depth with city management, but this game does its job if you just feel like relaxing on the couch, watching some TV and playing a lite strategy game. For me, it's nice to take a break from the microThe Civ game that is a stripped down and casual version. If you are a fan of the Fall From Heaven mod for Civ 4, then this game is probably not for you. The Civ games are far more in depth with city management, but this game does its job if you just feel like relaxing on the couch, watching some TV and playing a lite strategy game. For me, it's nice to take a break from the micro management of the Civ games and play something like this where you can just beat up on some other Great Mages (basically factions). As long as you aren't looking for a Fantasy version of Civ, then you will like this basic strategy game at a cheap price. Hopefully, in future DLC's or updates they will expand on things like Diplomacy, AI, and give the players the options for a more in depth game. This series could really benefit from the player deciding how much micro management they want in their strategy game, since the framework for a basic game is there and works.… Expand
  4. Dhelio
    May 16, 2012
    7
    Warlock: Master of Arcane (WMA from now on) is inspired to the unforgettable Master of Magic, forefather of the 4X games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). Taking the role of a Great Mage, the player fights for supremacy in a randomly generated world. The game inherits the impressive lore of the Majesty games, thus giving all the creatures ingame a background that helps theWarlock: Master of Arcane (WMA from now on) is inspired to the unforgettable Master of Magic, forefather of the 4X games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). Taking the role of a Great Mage, the player fights for supremacy in a randomly generated world. The game inherits the impressive lore of the Majesty games, thus giving all the creatures ingame a background that helps the players immerse themselves in the role of the Great Mage. When first starting a game, the player will notice a good world customization gui: size, type of map (islands, continents,..) number of Great Mages and parallel worlds are all configurable to the player liking. When thrown ingame, veteran players of Civilization V will feel right at home: infact, the similarities with said game are many, from the hexagonal map to the Gui, almost anything seem to recall (and perphaps revere) the Hydra of turn games. There are three races in WMA: humans, beasts and undeads. The humans are the usual civilization, comprehending all kinds of classical medieval/renaissance units: so knights, cutthroats, catapults, and so on. The Beasts are an inusual alliance between many different creatures: goblins, werewolves, minotaurs, but also gnomes and dragonkins. Finally, the undeads are what you will expect: skeletons, zombies, vampires, and all kinds of evil creatures you may think of. The races are different not only aestethically, but also in creatures stats and building. In every city is possible, after reaching a certain population, to build certain structures. The structures must be phisically on a tile, thus adding an other strategic variable (What should I build? Where should I build? Is it better to build this city near this one, so I'll colonize this island rapidly, or should I build it farther, granting me additional space in a few turns?) Every unit in WMA will gain skills through experience (may it be from killing evil creatures or to skill/spell related benefits). Note that the skills are all stackable, letting you create true war machines, so powerful they can destroy entire enemy armies. This, along with the one unit per tile limit, in some way discourages the creations of enormous armies, encouraging the possesion of few powerful units that compensate each other. Just think at the Holy Trinity: Tank, Dps and Healer. However, nothing stops the player from ammassing an impressive army, maybe through spells. Yes, because there are LOTS of spells, in WMA, ranging from the classical fireball, to city blessings, to armies evocations. There are multiple ways to receive the spells: research, quests or events. The spell-tree, though, isn't completely clear: there are always 5 possible spells to research, but seems that there isn't any correlation between the previous and the next ones, forcing the player to choose randomly between the available five. As said, there are also quests, usually concerning the disposal of an enemy unit. Quests can be given by people of the realm, or by the gods themselves: there are, infact, 8 gods in WMA, each one with its own avatar and special units. Through ingame actions the player can influence its relation with the gods, granting their benevolence (and thus units and resources!) or their hate (that can even bring the god to declare war on the player! And that is one though opponent;) However, despite the good general gameplay and the vast variety of units, buildings and events, WMA suffers from a lack of AI, that isn't really challangening even on the highest level of difficulty, just sending in waves of units, more or less experienced, to their demise. Technically speaking, WMA shows good graphics, rich in colors and mildly detailed, with nice artistic choices (love the Count Werewolves and the Magic Towers!). In the end, WMA is a good game, taking all the epic feel that 4X games give, and adding its own flavour. The deficitary AI and the few bugs are easily resolvable through patches, and if the future DLCs will add additional civs and features, then we will really have a game to remember for many years to come.… Expand
  5. g0ing2f4st
    Oct 24, 2013
    5
    Decent turn based strategy game with clunky controls. Only 3 races to choose from and with game play elements picked from so many other different titles. You are better off with a better game
  6. MartialDoctor
    May 19, 2012
    6
    I will agree with a lot of the positive reviews here on the merits of this game. It is a combat-focused 4x game with elements of master of magic thrown in there. The game mechanics themselves are quite well done and it's interesting to see the range of spells, units, and upgrades available. Basically, the core of a good and fun game is there. It's not very complex, which is both goodI will agree with a lot of the positive reviews here on the merits of this game. It is a combat-focused 4x game with elements of master of magic thrown in there. The game mechanics themselves are quite well done and it's interesting to see the range of spells, units, and upgrades available. Basically, the core of a good and fun game is there. It's not very complex, which is both good and bad, and, yet, is satisfying to play.

    However, the one aspect where this game fails quite miserably is the AI. After playing about 6 hours into the game now, I can surely say that the AI, even on the highest difficulty level, is passable at best. It makes far too many mistakes and doesn't understand some key concepts about how to play the game. It can be suicidal and stupidly aggressive, losing massive amounts of units for no real reason at all.

    Because of the AI, this game is pretty much going to sit on my desktop, unused, until it is addressed.

    So, if you are one like me, who feels that a competent AI is needed to make a good game, then I'd say wait on this. Hopefully, future patches will address the AI issues and this game will become challenging. If this does happen, I would easily put the ranking up to an 8 or, possibly, even a 9. It has the core ideas down, it just needs the AI to back it up.    … Expand
  7. Latrec
    Feb 17, 2013
    5
    I can understand why people like this game; the concept is great and the interface is simple. It took me 1 game to figure it out and 2 to get bored. Unfortunately the focus on warfare has led the developpers to miss out on several key strategy game concepts.

    1) Poor AI: the computers in this game simply suck. They have little strategic concept and will suicide powerful units to take out    I can understand why people like this game; the concept is great and the interface is simple. It took me 1 game to figure it out and 2 to get bored. Unfortunately the focus on warfare has led the developpers to miss out on several key strategy game concepts.

    1) Poor AI: the computers in this game simply suck. They have little strategic concept and will suicide powerful units to take out basic footman. The diplomacy sucks as well, and the ai will break an alliance multiple times, only to renew it again 2-3 turns later (offering you gold/magic each time). Stupid AI.
    2) Empire building/planning: theres honestly no real point in planning your empire at all. Little city placement is required and it doesnt matter really what you build in your cities. You focus on a resource and focus on a unit type requiring that resource. Thats about it. Theres macromanagement or micromanagement required when building cities. Oh... I almost forgot: most cities are already randomly placed as neutral cities, meaning you dont have much freedom of expansion. You only conquer them.
    3) Research: There are no techs in this game, only spells. You research them and use your magick resource to cast them. Problem is that 1/2 to 3/4 of these spells are just plain USELESS! Honestly why even bother researching something I'll never use EVER? Early-mid to mid game my spell book just becomes cluttered with useless or outdated spells. Frustrating.
    4)Unit commands/strategies: Unit commands are non-existant; move, disband, wait 1 turn, or wait until enemy is spotted. The game spawns enough monsters/ai enemies/levels up ur unit that you find yourself issueing wait commands every 2-5 turns at best. It makes for a fairly boring turn. Theres also little strategic value to units other than their strength (spears do not get bonus vs cav, theres no flank bonuses, etc). Therefore the only useful strategy is to mass and swarm. Somewhat tedious after a few turns (and some 50 units on your side remember to make the inactice ones wait!)

    Overall, the game concept is great! A fantasy Civ! Unfortunately, the strategy game mechanics are severily lacking and make this game come way short of the actual Civ franchise. I got bored of this game after logging 9-10 hours on steam (as opposed to my 150+ on Civ 5). Its just not a quality game...     … Expand
  8. suneater
    Dec 13, 2012
    5
    Combat-oriented turn-based strategy game structured like Civ 5. There are a 3 races (plus summoned units) and hero units which have a lot of punch with their own equip and special upgrades. Instead of research you learn spells; however, there doesn't seem to be a tree for them so it can be frustrating trying to unlock a specific spell you need. Diplomacy is really shallow and the biggestCombat-oriented turn-based strategy game structured like Civ 5. There are a 3 races (plus summoned units) and hero units which have a lot of punch with their own equip and special upgrades. Instead of research you learn spells; however, there doesn't seem to be a tree for them so it can be frustrating trying to unlock a specific spell you need. Diplomacy is really shallow and the biggest disappointment in the game for me because you can't have an allied conquest victory. The non-conquest victory conditions are really hard to complete but hopefully they will allow allied victory in the future. The devs have been hard at work on patches for Warlock and seem to really care about it. Multiplayer was added recent along with hero units and bug fixes. If you enjoy Civ-styled games but want a fantasy twist then this is worth picking up.… Expand
  9. Klewer
    Oct 12, 2013
    7
    A very solid game in a similar style to the Civ series. While it lacks a lot of depth this game is very enjoyable if you want to get straight in to action and can be a good challenge on harder modes.
  10. ThePCGamer101
    Jun 24, 2015
    7
    A wonderful strategy/simulation game, this is almost like Sid Meier's Civilization V but changed to include Wizards, monsters, creatures and other mystical beings
  11. Voyou
    May 20, 2021
    5
    Mister Tutorial talks a lot but doesn't explain much. Or he explains too late. Similarly, the interface is bloated but never offers the info or command you want. It all makes the rules unnecessarily long to understand. And the game certainly doesn't present anything that you haven't seen many times before.

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 22 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Worth Playing
    Jan 22, 2013
    70
    Despite not explicitly saying so, Warlock: Master of the Arcane serves as a decent entry game for those who want to dabble in 4X strategy. Thanks to the lack of a decent tutorial and in-game instructions, the game still has a steep learning curve, and the lack of attention paid to the diplomatic aspects of the genre will leave some players overwhelmed once they move on to something with more substance.
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  2. PC Master (Greece)
    Aug 31, 2012
    75
    Warlock does not offer something truly new to the genre and the components borrowed from Civilization far outnumber its renovations. The gameplay options offered may feel many, but are in fact, very limited: combat is over-simplified, diplomacy is poor, the religious element is non-existent and the actions you take in one turn are 90% the same. Despite that, the 'one more turn' magical effect can be felt at times. [July 2012]
  3. The Escapist
    Aug 2, 2012
    90
    A well-crafted, easy-to-play game with an entertaining fantasy bent, Warlock will have you staying up nights taking one more turn to blast King Rrat to kingdom come.
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