About World Of Magic:
I kept thinking this game would eventually work out the bugs, because I desperately wanted to enjoy it. I played MoM more than just about any other game back in the day, and the thought of a real successor was a huge draw. Unfortunately the game has never lived up to MoM, or multiple other current games in the genre for that matter. Every build tends to introduce a new bug requiring a restart, or a new CtD. The devs rarely respond to feedback unless it’s completely positive, even going so far as calling owners stupid on the forums. My biggest regret was that I picked it up in EA as soon as it was available and played each update to provide feedback, so I had too many hours played to get a refund when it was “released.” Save your money and your time, avoid this title. I had a hard time deciding between a “Yes I recommend this game, but…” and a “No, I don’t recommend this game, but…” opening to this review. After some reflection, I opted for a “Yes” since the amount of fun I had in 15 hours of play did outweigh if only by a narrow margin the frustration.On the up side, I’m really glad someone finally made a serious attempt to update Simtex’s wonderful 1994 game, Master of Magic. On the down side, I wish they hadn’t done it so scrupulously as to imitate the bugginess that came with the original MoM release back in ’94. It was a hair-pulling disaster 21 years ago until the version 1.3 patch. A bad game with bugs puts you out of its misery pretty quickly as you move on. A good game with freezes, crashes and aggravations like roll-over pop-ups that only work sometimes is a torment that’s hard to escape. Other reviewers have already accurately detailed both the good and the bad of this game. Based on the reviews, I held off buying until there was a price reduction. I hoped most of the negative stuff would turn out to be idiosyncratic and related either to the reviewer’s temperament or their rig. Mostly it’s not. But the good stuff is also there. It’s got enough of the MoM ethos to please devotees of the Simtex masterpiece. Even a non-MoM fantasy-based 4X fan will find much to like. I’ve played lots of Age of Wonders III, Fallen Enchantress, Endless Legend and Warlock. World of Magic is in their league albeit dragged to the bottom of the table by its flaws.