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CaptainCat

Warlock: Master of The Arcane - Let's Get This Magic Party Started

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The demo released yesterday on Steam so let's get this discussion started. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself immediately addicted to this game. I had very low expectations going in given its $20 price point and nearly identical UI to Civ V. But good god this game has a joyful unique spirit of its own and regardless of its UI similarities most definitely satisfies an unmet need for me in the TBS genre. Warlock's systems are almost immediately graspable and, sorry I hate to say this, simple fun. I felt like a child playing with a really neato toybox of fantasy tropes. I enjoyed that my decisions felt a little less important than they do in Civ V. There seems to be more breathing room to just play around rather than agonize over every decision. Sure, the whole point of playing a TBS is making interesting decisions. Warlock's decisions still feel important -- they just feel less stressful.

I definitely see Warlock being a solid beer-and-pretzels strategy entry in TBS aficionados' catalogs.

Troy, congrats, on handling the PR for such a cool game. Can't wait to play the full version next week.

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The $20 price point is going to get me. I don't really want to buy this game; Diablo 3 is only a week later and Ascension is supposed to be dropping a major new expansion on iOS this month. Throw in Guild Wars 2 beta events finally starting and I'm actually good for stuff to do right now.

But no, they have to make it a measly $20. How am I supposed to resist that? I enjoyed the demo, expect I'll find the game to be too simplistic but I'm a sucker for fantasy TBS, so sign me up I guess.

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I also enjoyed the demo but also worried a little about the simplicity. I quite enjoy Civ and the fantasy elements they're bringing to the basic formula here are neat, but the choices you make definitely don't seem as impactful. I'm curious to see whether a longer game ends up being more interesting.

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I also enjoyed the demo but also worried a little about the simplicity. I quite enjoy Civ and the fantasy elements they're bringing to the basic formula here are neat, but the choices you make definitely don't seem as impactful. I'm curious to see whether a longer game ends up being more interesting.

My problem with Civ V was the jarring mis-match of that micro-manged combat and the grand strategy of 'Civ' - played one game, said 'meh'

Picked up Warlock yesterday - played for six hours already

I think the light tone, focus on combat and simple management suits a stackless hex-grid

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Just an alert to anyone considering buying this right now, it's not fully working. Of the 4 victory conditions the Avatar killing is buggy and sometimes doesn't show up or not for dozens of turns after it should, and the research method (spell of unity) does not appear to be player castable right now, at least not that anyone can find. The AI can still win with it though if you don't counterspell it.

Dev communication on the matter is distinctly lacking.

I'm still enjoying what there is of the game and still think it'll do to get me through to Diablo for $20, but if it weren't for my low expectations going in I'd be mighty ticked right now.

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