Sign in to follow this  
Rob Zacny

Episode 491: Master of Magic

Recommended Posts

Three Moves Ahead 491:

Three Moves Ahead 491


Master of Magic
This week we are going all the way back to 1994 to discuss Master of Magic. MoM, though not quite as popular as its bovine counterpart, was a very forward-thinking game. It offered many levels of customization not yet seen in gaming and inspired classic modern series like Dominions and Age of Wonders. Listen in as Rowan Kaiser, Jon Bolding, and Troy "Do you like what I've done with my hobbit hole?" Goodfellow discuss Master of Magic, sci-fi vs fantasy, and why generic magic isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Master of Magic, Elemental, Dominions, Age of Wonders

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Troy's nicknames are back, yay!

 

Haven't listen to this episode already, but I'm certainly looking forward to it. I must have played Master of Magic way back in 2010-2011 and I'm not even sure how I came across the game. It was one of those slow holidays were you don't have much to do and you just install a random game that you've came across without nothing much about.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the graphics and how I was able to stumble my way through it without needing to open the manual (which I didn't had, so...). I do recall not understanding the battles but also not needing to as the battle AI was very basic and, to me, the best part f the game was growing your town(s) and marveling at the graphics.

 

Edit: Talking about the lack of episodes, I saw that Rob reviewed DOOM: Eternal, which leads me to believe that in the next episode we'll have Rob, Julian  and Tom Chick discussing this new, hot, strategy game and how come it is a strategy game. Hint! Hint! it makes heavy use of resource management and resource allocation.

Edited by Khan Khomrad
Added a bit there at the end

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think, that one reason we see more spiritual successors of Master of Orion than Master of Magic, might be because, MOO had such "traumatic end" with MOO3, which create this space where you have two good games and on tragic bad one, making people both wish to bring back the previous game and make a proper sequel. Master of Magic on the other hand, never had that. Also, I guess that a lot of people only came aware of it, much later by playing game such as Age of Wonder, ect.. At least, that what happened to me.

 

When you guys talked about "World of Magic" it kind bring vague memories, like "I remember hearing about this, but I have zero idea what exactly is or was", I had to check out, and I still only have vague memories hearing about this game only it was disliked a lot.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm surprised there was no mention of Deity Empires, it's about the closest thing to a "modern" remake of MoM that I'm aware of.  It's not that well known of a game but anyone looking for Master of Magic type games should run across it's name pretty quick.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wasn't MoO just more popular than MoM thus spawning more successors?

 

Also yeah, there are plenty of great successors. They've mentioned Age of Wonders but it seems like they aren't that found of the series. Both AoW and Heroes do what Troy talks about - through all the fantasy stuff into the mix. Heroes more so before 5, since 5 they are more similar to AoW in world building. Before Heroes 5 every fantasy creature is its own unit. If there's an elf it's a specific unit (elf archer). Since Heroes 5 they have an elf with swords, an elf who casts spells, an elf with a bow and so own, much more similar to AoW. Still, AoW3 has a lot of types of units. Plus there's great commander customization both with stats and appearance. I still agree with Rowan and Sid that they shouldn't have made a separate tactical battle but that brings me to the love for Total War Warhammer. For some reason all those reviewers like it more than AoW3. It's clear they've played AoW3 too. They saw it has real tactical battles while TWWH are pretty straightforward. They saw how you can play the grand campaign without waiting for end turns for hours. Still AoW3 is a footnote in discussions like this and TWWH is one of the most discussed games on 3MA.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this