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Req.: P3 450, Win 98/ME/2000/XP, 128MB RAM, 16MB 3D card, 900mb Reviewed On: P4 2.5ghz, 256MB, GeForce 4ti, SB, Win XP Pro | |||
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Trying to get the jest of Shadow Magic within the first few dozen turns will surely turn most people off, since its appearance would make it seem like a straightforward strategy title where A beats B, and B beats C, but C beats A; instead, there's a multitude of factors that are involved, including: diplomacy, terrain, city placement, god appeasement, heroes, spells, and, of course, resource management. In an oddly refreshing take on diplomacy, the objectives of each level do not have to be accomplished on top of complete domination, but instead, the player can actually gain favor of some of the other factions and leave them to their own devices so that they may fight onwards to victory. While that should work the same way in every offering that has diplomacy as a feature, it usually doesn't. Factions can offer and break alliances, trade buildings, units, and resources. Actually forming an alliance is rough, and it's often necessary to wait for the computer to offer first, but it's always advised to take them up on their kind gesture; I do wish, however, that my offerings would've gone farther with them, or at least beyond a flat-out rejection. I do appreciate the fact that an offering of peace can cut a mission's playtime substantially, even if they opted to keep their forces out of the larger battle. Making nice with others will go a long way, but a decisive victory will only be achieved through careful management of resources and a solid grasp on unit functionality. More so than most other strategy titles, simply throwing units in mass at an enemy does not guarantee victory; in some cases, it doesn't even guarantee that they will even lose a single unit. Creating the buildings to train these units will cost gold, and thankfully, Shadow Magic limits its resources to that and mana. Collected similarly to most other turn-based strategy titles, the player will control their hero - who represents their army - and moves them over a gold mine, mana crystals, or random goodies, to claim them. Constant means of harvesting - mines and crystals - can be lost by an enemy who successfully maneuvers one of their armies over it, so vigilance is crucial when watching the other characters during their turns. During the course of the levels, spells and skills can be researched; both take up mana and the ratio of magic points going towards casting spells and towards research can be adjusted for maximum effect. The spells encompass offensive attacks on the battlefield and world map (including summonings), soldier enchantments, spells that can attack and enchant cities and also alter the world's landscape. Managing spells is fairly important as summoned units will detract from incoming mana until they are destroyed, and other spells, like turning water into ice on the world map, can be crucial for troop movements and more beneficial than something that might seem more worth the resources - like learning the spell to create a poisonous cloud of gas around enemies. Utilizing spells in combat is, as one would expect, a crucial element in victory; however, for the ability to be there, the battle must either involve a hero or be within one of the attacker's domain, which ties in to careful planning when moving units around and the placement of settlements. As we all know, though, it's the troops who will carry the day and create order. Maintaining a solid and varied army is, again, more important in Shadow Magic than it is in other titles. The skills of the soldiers is a key element in the game's design, as there's an emphasis on variety and balance that's pretty fine-tuned; for instance, an expensive unit that's beefed up with a large amount of attack and health points may be easily taken down by a few carefully placed blasts from a mage that costs a third of the resources. Also, similarly to mana, trained troops will constantly detract from incoming gold, making troop management essential. Battlefield terrain also plays a large part in combat, as units are restricted to how many moves they can take per turn (which is represented by a line that uses green, yellow, red, and gray to symbolize what can be done after the initial movement) and troops with projectile attacks will have to deal finding a way around or over rocks, trees, hills, and man made obstacles. Taking it up a notch is siege warfare, where long-range units hammer away at walls and doors, while the sturdier troops prepare to rush in and lay waste to the defenders inside. Getting inside these structures isn't always easy. That isn't to say that they will always be hard, either; there are various towers around the map that will give the owner an increased line of sight, but also offer a little protection with its minimum defenses. Initial cities aren't going to put up much of a fight either, since they will simply be an area with tents. As time goes on, with merchants and citizens will settle within the city's hastily built wooden walls, and the means to construct upgrades will become available, eventually turning that wood into stone and so on. Magic will also play a large role in cities as walls can be enhanced with a force field that will injure invaders and wizard towers provide a free attack at the beginning of each round, but more importantly, towns can be enhanced with teleportation portals that can make reinforcing a quick task. Cities serve a multitude of purposes; not only do they train troops, build structures to advance, and increase the player's domain, but they can also be planted via pioneers in key areas to act as choke points against enemy progression. A fairly big plus is that cities can also be switched to different races, after certain criteria have been met. The player can opt to have other races immigrate into the town, causing everything from troops to buildings to switch to the style of the new occupants. One thing I wasn't fond of was that an enemy can pass within a city, making their benefit as choke points less useful and requiring the player to constantly adjust troops so that the enemy would be forced into combat if they chose to try to make their way past the borders. I would've preferred a small area around settlements to be zones that would require fighting if walked into, or some other deterrent to keep wondering enemies at bay. Heroes are an important factor in Shadow Magic, but their role isn't one of absolute necessity as in WarCraft III - not counting the main characters. Their main benefit is that they can have specific advancements (ex: increased resistance, more health, etc.), which makes them more powerful than the standard veteran trooper. They also have the ability to carry around the player's magical domain around them. With the ability to use spells, tables can be turned as the hero can call down impressive spells onto the enemy or even onto cities prior to an invasion. Another ability that the heroes have is that they can carry items that can significantly increase their abilities. These items can either be found on the battlefield, won after fighting a NPC within a level, or constructed at a city's forge. With a multitude of slots available to place items, heroes have the potential to be incredibly powerful and strong enough to take on fractions of an army by themselves. While the previous Age of Wonders titles had the player combating in two planes - above and under ground - Shadow Magic introduces a third realm, the shadow world. The shadow world is a pain because any unit within the world, and not protected by magic, will incur significant penalties due to shadow sickness. The only salvation they have is that movement is increased a great deal and there are plants that can cure the sickness for a few turns, but fighting in this tends to take place towards the end of the levels and by that time, the player should have enough mana to enchant their invading forces with a spell to ward off the ill effects. The Shadow Demons, new with this release, are an interesting lot with units that range from giant floating brains to nightmarish brutes that look like a nightmare crossed with an insect. They can be a pretty significant challenge to go against, but they're also fun to use, so I would chalk their addition up as a positive. Also new to the series are the Nomads. They are a fast moving people whose key benefit is that they can pack up their cities, without losing any upgrades or enhancements, and take them anywhere they need to and plop them down. I didn't use this much in the single player campaign, but it was useful in making some areas unattractive to the computer and at the same time bolstering a hot spot. They can also use slaves (how risqué!) to utilize as cheap labor, and slave pits also have the benefit of providing a four-armed, Goro-esque Pit Guard and a Slave Trader that can stun units. Also new are the Syrons, shadow world folk who were enslaved after losing to the Shadow Demons, as well as new units and upgrades for the races from the previous titles. Complementing the single player campaigns is a robust multiplayer component that features internet, LAN, and even play by email. For those wishing to forego random encounters, there are also a large number of scenarios to choose from and an impressive map generator that can create levels based on combat, spell casting, city building, and an epic option that goes all-out. As much as I enjoyed my time with Shadow Magic, there were some things that I didn't like. Cities have units that are suppose to look after them for the player and bring building changes and suggestions to their attention, but I found them to take up too much time with needless details and would've preferred if the build and research limit of 5 could've expanded in a tree form, or of a certain overall preference of what types of buildings take priority like in Alpha Centauri. There are also sub-stories of sorts that play out during levels, and some parts where the player is given options to decide if they'll do something or not, and while I enjoy these extra bits that help to enhance the game, I found that there was also a good deal of humor in these sections that didn't fit in with the game at all. It isn't that the bits weren't funny, although I found most of those parts not all that funny, they were just very untimely and weren't befitting to the overall theme and tone with the rest of the game. Letting the computer handle the battles is also an unwise decision since it seems to be very inept at making command decisions; I really like using auto combat features in games like this, especially since the maps are fairly large and sessions can go on for hours, there are bound to be some fights that would preferably be skipped, but unless you have a very significant advantage, it isn't advised. There
were also some control choices that I had problems with, but the one that really
affected gameplay was the inability to see units on the battlefield. Since the
game is played with a static view, and units aren't highlighted or intrusive units
aren't transparent, it can be extremely difficult trying to manually pick a unit
out of a crowd and then choosing which enemy to attack; the game's close balance
made that even more of a problem. Graphics: 7/10 Sound:
8.5/10 Overall: 8.5/10 [ top ] |
Merlin
is victorious! Unfortunately, Shadow Magic begins with him being captured
as portals being to open and Shadow Demons pour out, wreaking havoc on the land
of Man, Elf, and Dwarf. Fearing that the mages are to blame for the outbreak of
the strong and elusive beasts, all practitioners of magic are persecuted for their
alleged involvement in the recent troubles. The player takes control of the Elf
mage, Julia, and the Nomadic Ke-Nan, to unite the lands against this new menace
in Magic and Triumph's excellent new offering to the turn-based strategy genre.
