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The first love is never forgotten
Empire of Magic is the first work of Mayhem, a software house from the Slovak Republic, specializing in video games.
To present itself to the public, Mayhem has decided to propose itself with a turn-based fantasy strategy that owes much of its inspiration to cornerstones of the genre such as Age of Wonders and the fantastic Disciples 2.
The game opens, after an excellent presentation, with the classic range of options among which we are going to choose the inevitable "New", whose presence makes us presage the existence of a game campaign.
In fact, a volume opens on which the words that present us the situation of the moment flow, we are ready!
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The first love is never forgotten
The game features 2D isometric graphics with the angle of view very accentuated upwards, so as to look like a bird's eye view. In itself, the graphics do not strike for particular beauty but nevertheless performs its task with dignity except for some sporadic difficulties in the correct distinction of the troops and a problem of concealment of the same when they find themselves passing under arches or branches of trees.
The game structure is a hybrid between the management of the army and the management of the battles of Disciples 2 with the addition of the concept of Action Point dear to types of game more oriented towards action tactics such as Fallout Tactics.
Each single military unit can join two others to form an army of up to three units. His movements and his actions will be regulated by the action points that will determine the amount of movement that can be carried out and the number of additional actions such as the attack in battle or the casting of a spell.
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The game
From this it follows a shift of the player's attention towards a careful management of the action points in order to always keep as many as they need to counterattack the enemy in his turn. In this way, however, the game action is extremely slowed down, a slowdown also due to the particular management of the battles.
When two armies collide, the dedicated view opens up showing our row of three and our opponent face to face. The action points consumable during the battle will be what we would have saved during the move and will allow us to attack by selecting one of our units, telling them what action to do, perform the action, switch to our other unit, choose the action, perform action etc ...
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The game
In this way the battle loses all the charm and the tactical peculiarity of the battles, to result only a repetitive and excessively prolonged battle, with the particular statistic that 90% of the time the attacker has the first move and in this first move he manages to take out the opponent.
For the rest, the game presents a management of magic almost identical to that of Age of Wonders and didactic insights into the existence of a mini encyclopedia of the monsters encountered, as well as with detailed summary screens of our units and heroes.
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In conclusion
As the first test of a new software house, the game does not look bad at all.
Surely before the release of the final version it will be necessary to file some balancing problems in the use of the action points, as well as improve the graphic sector a little with the addition of some captivating visual effect.
But apart from that, the game looks a little old in structure and graphics to be able to rival authentic cornerstones such as Heroes Of Might and Magic 4 - Age Of Wonders 2 and Disciples 2, still present on store shelves.
But if Mayhem manages to add that extra touch of personality that, at least so far, it seems to lack, it could certainly prove to be a pleasant game and suitable for fans of the turn-based fantasy strategy genre.
Gabriele "AarnaK" From the River
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In conclusion
Official site: Empire of Magic
Developer: Mayhem Studios
Publisher: Summit Soft
Spanish distributor: Leader
Gender: Turn-based strategy with RPG elements
Exit date: Spring 2003
Screenshots - Preview
The Empire of Magic
Once there was a great empire; this empire founded the foundations of its own being on the powerful flow of magic and those who managed to harness it, thus becoming the most powerful of the magicians, ruled the empire with justice and fairness.
But it is known that peace among men is a consequence of the good will of the rulers, which however failed and the most powerful and resolute wizards began to wage war with each other out of greed for power and dominance.
Of course, when the Empire revealed its moment of greatest fragility, a dark threat appeared on its borders. None of the great wizards wanted to leave the capital and thus get distracted in the relentless struggle for power and so it was up to a lesser wizard, a expendable pawn, to go south to investigate the looming threat.
This wizard was called Artemian and here begins his search and fulfillment of the fate of the Empire itself.
