Wastelands Interactive has finally released the long awaited Worlds of Magic onto Steam Early Access. The game is the spiritual successor to the 1994 classic, Master of Magic, which was one of the first 4X games.
At Least He Still Has Chicken: Leeroy Jenkins Nerfed In Hearthstone
20 years later and the soul remains the same, but the body is much improved. Worlds of Magic is an incredibly deep game, bordering on obtuseness. Per the official release, "By combining classic elements, like randomly generated world maps and powerful heroes, with new game mechanics such as the D20 OGL rule set and expanded features, (like seven planes of existence), the game is a perfect choice for those that used to spend long hours playing the original classic."
Worlds hews true to the 4X principle: explore, expand, exploit and exterminate in a combination turn-based and real-time strategy fantasy world. The sheer amount of customization you can find in both the worldmap settings and the real-time elements is staggering.
Clash Of Clans Adopts The Lava Hound
How staggering? Let us count the ways. Worlds of Magic includes:
8 playable races
7 planes of existence in a procedurally generated universe maps of up to 256x128 tiles (per plane)
Over 10 terrain types
Almost 30 world resources to exploit; I feel overwhelmed with just minerals and vespene gas
D20 battle combat mechanics
Units gain experience
Over 80 military units
Over 40 wandering and summon-able units
Over 40 world features to explore and conquer
40 heroes and champions
Over 400 spells divided into 13 spell circles
Cast tactical, strategic, and global spells
Create powerful artifacts to equip your heroes with
Choose from 13 pre-made Sorcerer Lords or make your own
Think of the balancing! Think of the math and numbers and equations involved! If it sounds intimidating, it really is. The developer has released a series of videos in honor of the Steam launch and they are a bit dry. They have to be though, this is information dump at its peak and there is a lot of information to be take in for Worlds of Magic.
The Early Access version is available now for $39.99 for PC, Mac and Linux. The full version, which will double the current race count, add in all remaining units and spells, terrains, planes and everything, will be released sometime Q1 of 2015.
