Much to my not-entirely-surprise.... MASTER OF MAGIC by Matrix!!

[ArizonaTank]

I'm keeping my eye on that link :/

optimistic about this one...but holding fire until feedback comes in...

[CJReich46]

Ditto. Because I get an anniversary coupon!!

[FarAway Sooner]

Any time a "new" title that hit a home run before is released, the nostalgic fans pile on for the first six months trying to burn it to the ground for not living up to their expectations.  It happened with Distant Worlds 2 and with Vicky III in the last six months, it happened with Master of Orion III more than a decade ago, and it ain't going to stop any time soon.

I'm excited to see what the title offers.  It'll clearly be a well-funded Fantasy 4x, and there can never be too many of those for me.  I'll be curious to see what innovation (if any) it brings to the table.  There has been a ton of innovation in the Fantasy 4x realm, whether you look at the turn-based tactical combat of the Age of Wonders series, the complex city dynamics of Deity Empires or Endless Legend, the foraging system of Thea: The Awakening, the RTS battles of Total War: Warhammer, or the crazy complicated magic system of the numerous Dominions titles.

Putting a new skin on MoM won't likely do much.  The game system probably needs some time to work the kinks out, but I'm excited to see what the Devs deliver.  I'm just not going to pay much attention in the first few months of the game, because the haters will likely be out in force.

[devoncop]

Any time a "new" title that hit a home run before is released, the nostalgic fans pile on for the first six months trying to burn it to the ground for not living up to their expectations.  It happened with Distant Worlds 2 and with Vicky III in the last six months, it happened with Master of Orion III more than a decade ago, and it ain't going to stop any time soon.

I'm excited to see what the title offers.  It'll clearly be a well-funded Fantasy 4x, and there can never be too many of those for me.  I'll be curious to see what innovation (if any) it brings to the table.  There has been a ton of innovation in the Fantasy 4x realm, whether you look at the turn-based tactical combat of the Age of Wonders series, the complex city dynamics of Deity Empires or Endless Legend, the foraging system of Thea: The Awakening, the RTS battles of Total War: Warhammer, or the crazy complicated magic system of the numerous Dominions titles.

Putting a new skin on MoM won't likely do much.  The game system probably needs some time to work the kinks out, but I'm excited to see what the Devs deliver.  I'm just not going to pay much attention in the first few months of the game, because the haters will likely be out in force.

You got this spot on. It must make developers pull their hair out.

I never played the first one but they have been totally transparent that the game is 95% a graphical and UI update of the original game and NOT of Caster of Magic which was the mod developed over several years adding extra factions/wizards and balancing.

They have changed some battle movement rates and adjusted a couple of spells but it is essentially the original game with better graphics and a full colour well written pdf manual.

Needless to say the haters are piling on for in not having made more changes whilst the traditionalists want the old UI back 

The Devs are going to add a Steam Workshop very soon I believe and that will maybe quieten a few halfwits down :)

[Grim.Reaper]

Never played the original myself so I'll have nothing to compare.  At some point, will likely pick up but nothing urgent for me at the moment.  Will give me time to learn more about it.

[JasonPratt]

I suspect "Caster" will be DLC eventually. This is Matrix after all. ;)

[FarAway Sooner]

Yeah.  If it's simply a reskin, I'll likely hold off until some additional content has been released.  I downloaded Caster of Magic about six months ago, but couldn't get past the UI.

I'm still hopeful.  But I need to be patient here.

[Gusington]

I also never played the original and I like what I am seeing here. Price is a little high so I'll wait for a discount but this looks worth a buy to me.

[ArizonaTank]

Reading through the lukewarm reviews, it strikes me that almost all of them are just comparing the game to the past.

I guess what I really want is to know how the game stands on its own...I don't really care much about its lineage.

Does it create that 'oh my gosh, its 3am but I have to do one more turn' effect?

There are a ton of great games in this genre, including the original game; gussied up really nice for Steam a few years back.

I have had a long running multiplayer game of Age of Wonders III with JasonPratt and a few others, that has been going for a couple of years now. AoWIII has grown on me, and scratches the 'magical 4x' game itch nicely...so its going to take a bit of 'magic' to convince me to open my wallet for $39.

[Gusington]

In the back of my mind is also the imminent release of SpellForce: Conquest of Eo, which looks awesome and a level or two above this new Master of Magic as far as production values. And I did enjoy the other SpellForce games.

[JasonPratt]

To be fair, the Spellforce games are WAY different in many regards, since they're a combination of RTS and 1/3p action RPG.

Like AzTank said, and I think as I've said before upthread, I don't know why I would buy this when we have AoW3 and some other games now.

Long ago, I would often say -- when complaining about broken and buggy attempts to be the MoM successor -- that if someone would just straight remake MoM with up to date graphics and some UI improvements, they'd be their own successor and people would flock to them. (Similar to XCom.)

But we've had good successors now for years.

Some key innovations which have long since passed MoM by, so not currently included in the faithful update:

1.) the player/wizard now being a character in the game and thus active and vulnerable as an asset on the strategic and tactical maps. Some players could legitimately not wish to bother with this, just having the 'effect' of the player move around between cities through appropriate buildings, but the feature should at least be an option.

2.) win conditions beyond 'remove all allies' or 'cast the I Win spell'.

3.) Diplomatic options have improved generally.

4.) More good map details which make an effect on the game (not only aesthetic).

5.) City sieges don't necessarily affect only one wall direction anymore.

6.) Modding tools.

7.) Story campaigns.

8.) Independent factions not led by the equivalent of a player NPC (wizard). (MoM does have basic indy cities.)

Those are off the top of my head.

[SlagDog]

I'm sort of feel mixed on this title. I really love the unit art work (I think it's spot on!) that they have done and the UI lay-out, but the world map is 'meh' for me. I love the unit mechanics and how they level but there does not seem to be anything unique about the the units that I saw in the Let's Plays. The game play seems (from Youtubers that I've watched play it) sort of generic to me. In my mind I can see myself playing this game as a 'relaxing' sort of game. More of a time to chill out due to what seems like a more simpler style of play. I'll probably end up buying it but I doubt it will replace any main-stay games that I play regularly like Age of Wonders 3. Now with all that said I'm hoping that some innovative and creative modders do some really cool work in creating some fun and interesting mods. That would be what I would hope for! 

[JasonPratt]

One thing MoM still does better than most of its successors, is having 14 factions. They sometimes don't seem very distinct, but expert players who have worked out the mechanics under the hood will know that they do play differently (though not absolutely in any case).

(And yes I know Dominions is fondly laughing at how cute only 14 distinct factions are; I did say "MOST".)

Picking special abilities for your player-wizard is usually more detailed than MoM's successors, tooYES DOMINIONS I CAN SEE YOU CHORTLING, YOU'RE A VERY ADVANCED MOM SUCCESSOR, I KNOW!  :P


One of my favorite test-channels, SplattercatGaming, has a typical start for the full release:

I should note that he does not seem to appreciate the two somewhat-subtle superiorities to most successors.

[JasonPratt]

Anyway, if you haven't played the original, or don't recall it well, and you don't want to tie up cash on Steam (or maybe GoG) in credit or lag-time for returning to your pay-source: buy the original MoM -- if Matrix has made it available, but I think they have on Steam at least?? -- DO NOT get the CasteroM free upgrade yet -- play that for an hour-45 minutes, keeping in mind the UI won't be as good.

If you like it enough to feel it has worth compared to modern MoM successors today, but want to pay premium for much better effects and some UI quality improvements, then refund that and get the new version.

[al_infierno]

I went ahead and picked this up.  I played just a tad of Master of Magic back around when it got a GOG release, but I never got as deeply into it as I did Age of Wonders II and III or Dominions 5.

Personally, I dig the laser-focus (or one might say "simplicity") of this game compared to other titles that have been mentioned.  There's only a couple resources for me to worry about, and balancing them is straightforward but not necessarily easy.  I don't know why, but I like the magic and traits system of MoM a lot better than Age of Wonders.  It reminds me more of Dominions where the core system is the magic itself, and the focus of your character creation is how you want to split your investment in different schools of magic.  Want to take Fire and Death, or go all-in on Death for those sweet high-level summons?  Obviously Dominions is a much more fleshed out version of this idea, but the return to traditional hex-based 4X is a nice breath of fresh air compared to the region-based system in Dominions, which is fine but not as exciting as chit shuffling IMO.

We'll see what I think when I've had more time with the game and gotten my butt handed to me a few times, but I'm happy with this so far as someone who always wanted to get into MoM but never really did.  That all said I do miss some improvements and QOL features other commenters have mentioned.  Being able to attack a target with multiple stacks at a time is a pretty big one.