Warlock: Master of the Arcane Review

[Halcyon.]

For over two decades the Civilization Emperor has ruled on the throne of turn-based strategies. On its squared or (more recently) hexagonal shores many adversaries have gathered over time, some of them very respectable, but somehow swallowed by the mists of history (Alpha Centauri), others resembling many politicians, full of promises, but mostly incapable or full of defects (Elemental: War of Magic).
Not caring to try new formulas with which to tackle the greatness of Civilization, Warlock: Master of the Arcane directly targets many of the characteristics of the last game in the leading franchise, even so much as it seems to herald the rebirth of a ’90s trend, when the “Doom clone” category was very close of becoming a genre of its own.

What’s striking after the first few minutes of wizardry rule is how much is Warlock… inspired by the last Civilization. The division of the play space in hexagons is not really the most direct clue, in any case no bigger than the very detailed and similar graphics and interface, which comes with some dubiously similar looking elements placed exactly in the same way the source of inspiration has. If I would have seen images from Warlock without knowing its name, I could have sworn on a diplomatic victory that they are from a Civilization V mod.
Here, the illustrious ruler is a very powerful wizard, which can originate from three races: human, beast or undead. Although the available units differ for each race, the differences between them are really not that important, regarding mostly the necessary quantities of resources for unit upkeep and they tend to level after enough gameplay time.
What’s pleasing is the fact that you can summarily customize your avatar before starting the game, with the help of a few perks (like Treasury, which gives you 100 Gold) and some level-varying spells, this being an aspect that for me is unfairly missing from the last Civilization. Sadly, even with these there is still no essential modification of gameplay, as the effects of the customization options gradually lose their value after some time.

On the way to victory you start with an already built town and some basic fighting units specific to your race. The first available buildings are the farms, granaries, two offensive/defensive towers and a building that has the purpose of gathering mana necessary for spells and units.
Here we have the second very good idea in Warlock: the buildings are not just placed in the space occupied by the center of the city; all of them must be manually placed in their own hexagon. However, it would have been even more interesting if you could directly attack these structures, because their placement would have been a major element in the administration of the cities. But only the offensive ones and the center of the city can be attacked, and when you lose the latter, you also lose the buildings that were in its boundaries.
The neutral settlements don’t have quite the same role as the city-states in Civilization V and are treated very simply. In that they are always hostile. On the other hand, their consistent number (which cannot be chosen before the start) offers a military alternative to the spamming of settlers. In their absence you can “obtain” new cities using only combatant units. The settlements can be captured no matter their race and the race of the conqueror, an element that will although guarantee diversity in gameplay style (especially military) also contributes to the gradual removal of differences which should come with choosing a specific race.

The groups of hostile creatures po[CENSORED]te the map in a big enough number so as to allow the upgrade of your units before tackling the wizards that also seek world domination. But their AI seems either extremely simple or heavily scripted, because every time you bring units in their line of action you will be attacked, regardless of their chances for success.
This is partially balanced by the fact that those units are sometimes aerial (and in the first few turns you will have to run from them if you lack any aerial attack units) and by the last difficulty level which places on the map, even from the start, very powerful creatures. But even on this difficulty, the AI doesn’t take very good care of them: it’s enough to attack with naval units to see how the enemies dumbly stroll over the same two hexagons while waiting for their demise.
The same situation applies when you create towns too close to hostile creatures. The AI will sometimes siege them with extremely weak creatures that you can eliminate stress-free in two turns. There have been moments when I’ve lost towns to a high-level creature, but only because it was placed in the creature’s line of action. Mostly, the low/mid-level creatures migrate on the map while the very powerful ones remain idle until you get close enough, even on the highest difficulty level.

I understand the justification for this kind of scripting – the assurance that you won’t lose all your cities to neutral creatures – but seeing two-three high-level beasts just standing there without any semblance of life is not the most interesting sight in regards to the AI.
Similarly to Civilization V, combat elements are the most evolved and those of you who favored that particular battle system will get right down to business, helped a lot by the map’s visual familiarity. The positioning of units on hexagons allows for attacks from multiple directions and, just like in the eternal source of inspiration, in the lower left you get an approximate report of a fight together with any bonuses given by unit type or terrain type.

Combatant units can benefit from three types of upgrades once on the battlefield: first, the experience accumulated during conflicts (faster regeneration, better experience gain, more move points, etc.), then perks that become available with special buildings (better armor, more powerful attacks, etc.) and lastly they can be upgraded to a new unit type, which must also be available through certain buildings.
Although the military victory is not the only one that can be attained, the game doesn’t go to any lengths to make this clear. There is a small (but pretty efficient) tutorial system, which unfortunately doesn’t cover more than the basic combat aspects and the various administrative screens. It’s not the end of the world that it’s simple and short, but an explanation or at least mentioning the victory types would have been welcome. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if all I have to do is throw as many armies on the battlefield as possible or if the end of a match can be attained any other way.
Moreover, in the current state it’s not even clear why exactly does an opponent win. What is clear is when it’s not a military victory (because your empire is still standing), but apart from that you get a simple window that says “This or that wizard has won” you don’t get any additional info. You’re not told why exactly he won, let alone being presented with statistics that detail the evolution of the game – after clicking OK you’re thrown in the main menu and godspeed.

Meeting the other wizards is also completely devoid of interesting interactions. You can declare war, demand gold or mana, sign a non-aggression pact… and that’s it. Absolutely every time I’ve met one they wouldn’t accept the pact on the first try (again, difficulty doesn’t seem to matter), a problem that supports, to my great disappointment, the idea that the aspects pertaining to combat and military victory have received the most attention.
Neither is their range of manifestations any richer. You can wander around a lot on their territory, although it can be said that they remember you for this, because you won’t get any direct reaction from them. I only understood that going through another wizard’s territory can get you in trouble after I saw a number being modified in the Diplomacy screen, number that represents your relation with that particular wizard. Otherwise, they are completely silent.
If you’re not a big fan of the military approach, Warlock won’t give you much room to maneuver, if at all. The other wizards operate on a very predictable and boring pattern: they ask for resources immediately after going broke (it would be interesting to know if the AI opponents exchange anything between them), a situation that immediately throws you in an important dilemma.
Either you go along or declare war. Not because you expressly desire that, but because you have no choice. There is no other way to refuse their demands except by starting an armed conflict. Sad. And with that came my complete lack of interest in interacting with the other suitors to world domination after so many omissions.

Religion is timidly present through eight gods, the gratitude of which can be sought or ignored and that periodically ask for simple favors: the construction of a certain building, the elimination of a stray group of creatures or the creation of a specific temple that also comes with a proprietary unit of that god. Some of these quests don’t have any penalties, others will negatively affect your relation with the gods if they are not accomplished, an aspect that will also modify the relation with your opponents.
One of the best ideas in Warlock is the more direct involvement of the leader in conflicts through spells, which also make the subject of research. The number of spells is substantial and covers a big range of attacks, protection, healing and creature summoning.
There are a few that will enhance the food production of your cities or sabotage the output of an enemy settlement, but you won’t find too many occasions to use them since the offensive ones are much more practical and the healing ones have a much more direct need. Although the system seems to be intact, I can’t shake the feeling that much more could have been done with it.
A more diverse spell system, with options that would be more suited to the administration of your loyal subjects or the mani[CENSORED]tion of neutral and hostile ones could have gone hand in hand with a system of empire management that unfortunately is completely absent.

No types of laws or administrative policies are available and apart from the directly usable resources – gold, mana, food and research points – there is no statistic that needs supervision. It’s not an enormous downside by any stretch, but without it, the relation with your empire is very dry and there’s little reason to care about it at all.
And speaking of your own empire, no roads or other means of transportation can be built, but your troops automatically receive more movement points while inside your borders. And the naval transport of ground units is automatically done in an “inspired” way if you have at least one dock in your empire (the boats are created automatically).

Another poorly exploited idea is the presence of parallel worlds. Besides a map filled (even excessively) with very powerful hostile beasts – dragons are of course present – there is no essential feature to them. They are practically combat arenas for the moments in which you’ve gathered a powerful army and getting bored looking at it. So the portal to these worlds should not be passed if you don’t have very powerful creatures or many units that are ready to enter in the same turn, otherwise you send them to certain death.
On the downsides list I can also mention the fact that the audio replies of the units are extremely annoying. With a hand placed on my dictator heart I can declare that after reducing the voice volume completely (good thing it can be done) I enjoyed Warlock considerably more. And then there’s the interface, uselessly colorful and full of all kinds of gradients that reminded me of some personal websites from 10-15 years ago, when burning titles were all the rage.
Multiplayer is not present in the current version, but has been promised for a later release. But turn-based strategies have always sported a good replay value, so it might not be that big of a problem until the designers feel it’s ready.

Thus, there are two major problems with the game in its present state. It tries to threaten a space that is dominantly occupied by Civilization V (especially after the many updates it has received) but without being able to oppose anything essential, apart from the more direct involvement brought on by the spells.
And secondly, it shares with it another very important resemblance: it’s full of holes that predict a considerable number of patches and DLC (a problem that partially plagued Civilization V at release date), as all its systems are lacking some very useful features.
I can’t deny that in a few months time, Warlock: Master of the Arcane could become an important pretender in the turn-based space, but right now, the competitor which it tries to emulate is a much more consistent alternative.