Warlock Retrospective

[Buladelu]

As I understand the game is now complete, no more patches and DLCs. I wonder what legacy does it leave.

I remember good previews and reviews (Angry Joe and Total Biscuit come to mind) though the game holds only 71 at metacritic which is fine but not so good. For me it is a fine game I haven't got fed with (though I am slow player and only now try to get everything from it) with good replayability.

So the big questions to the developers: are you happy with this game? Were sales good? Are publishers happy? What would you do differently, what would you add in retrospective? What have you learned? When will you make us happy with the next strategy masterpiece?

 

[Buladelu]

Also, my impressions from reviews and trying to popularize the game:

- New players immediately think it's a Civilization 5 mod or at least the same engine. Sad.
- Many reviewers think the game is not "deep" enough. Can't really get this but I think they'd want more map options, game mods and difficulty levels.
- My own big regret - no campaign, no scenarios, no specific challenges. I understand that civilization-style sandboxes usually come without it but now even Civ itself comes with great scenarios.
- In the same vein, modding clearly wan't the focus and as community wasn't as big in, say, Total War or Civilization games we didn't get thous great mods they have to prolong game life to infinity.

 

[Buladelu]

Also, comparing to similar games.

Elemental War of Magic/Fallen Enchantress: those games were disastrous obvious beta at launch. They said they'll give sequel (Fallen Enchantress) to those who bought original like I did, but they never did. Metacritic score of FE is 78 which is good but came after 2 years of patching and modding existing game. Also, there's a singleplayer campaign but it's crap, which is worse than no campaign. Maybe FE is good but I don't plan to buy it unless someone will change my mind.

Heroes 6: enough is said about it. Metacritic score is surprisingly 77.

Eador: another great Russian TBS that is closer to Civilization and Europa Universalis but with decent combat not unlike Warlock. 3D remake (which you should buy right now, by the way) had disastrous buggy start (not as bad as Elemental though) but the game is deep by all defenitions. Metacritic score is 70, singleplayer campaign is the main game mod, replayability is great etc. In the perfect world this game would be developed by InoCo and would be as polished as Warlock. Warlock is still better - it's easy to get into, has good UI etc, but in the future Eador may get updates and DLC which would make me choose between it and the next InoCo project.

 

[Modjo]

Eador is pretty broken as well in many places, but it is a good game too. Warlock improved a lot since it came out and InoCo has done a great job at improving the game over the 6 months period following release. Now this project has beed ditched in favor of the next title and that is understandable.

This being said, there may be some cash to be made by releasing an extension that support modding? I'd happily throw another €20 at that game to be able to change a few things meself I also understand how people would be pissed off if they had to buy another dlc to play mods though.

Is there anything planned in the long term about working on a new Warlock title? I would consider this game as a success in term of gameplay and fun, was it a commercial success too?

 

[Nasarog]

Mixed message - lots of potential left on the table with some game breaking bugs. Oh well. Not going to sucker me into buying their products again. SoTS2 is still being updated. I wait for them to finish before I decide if I am moving on from this publisher/studio. It's not looking good.

 

[Buladelu]

Mixed message - lots of potential left on the table with some game breaking bugs. Oh well. Not going to sucker me into buying their products again. SoTS2 is still being updated. I wait for them to finish before I decide if I am moving on from this publisher/studio. It's not looking good.

AFAIK SotS2 was truly broken on release. And I haven't seen any game breaking bugs in Warlock even after release.

 

[Nasarog]

AFAIK SotS2 was truly broken on release. And I haven't seen any game breaking bugs in Warlock even after release.

True, compared to SotS2, W:MotA is a perfect game. Anyways, it's just my opinion and where I plan to spend my money next. Paradox is losing me as customer for all of their products. I have a few of them.

 

[DownTheDrain]

True, compared to SotS2, W:MotA is a perfect game. Anyways, it's just my opinion and where I plan to spend my money next. Paradox is losing me as customer for all of their products. I have a few of them.

Same here...kinda...

In theory Paradox games should be right up my alley.
I really can't think of another developer/publisher that targets my particular niche (strategy, either turn-based or grand scale or both) as much as these guys do.

In reality the titles are rarely released in a state that makes me want to throw money at them, not necessarily super buggy but almost always way short of what they could have been, given enough time and support.
So I end up buying some games much later during a sale at rock-bottom prices, if I buy them at all.

 

[Buladelu]

In reality the titles are rarely released in a state that makes me want to throw money at them, not necessarily super buggy but almost always way short of what they could have been, given enough time and support.
So I end up buying some games much later during a sale at rock-bottom prices, if I buy them at all.

True, Paradox games aren't Blizzard quality (though lately even Blizzard games aren't Blizard quality) but they're working on it. Compare older titles like EU3 or HoI3 with CK2 or Warlock. In Warlock it's hard to find a bug, I haven't seen any yet - though I've heard about a couple known. Developers like Matrix Games or Ageod gave us great games - somitimes even more polished - but the price is graphics and UI from 1995. Maybe I'm too tolerant but I like Paradox direction and I am very much intrigued by InoCo next title.

Also, Warlock is not the game you're going to play forever like Civilization or Europa Universalis, so development cycle is much shorter.

 

[DownTheDrain]

True, Paradox games aren't Blizzard quality (though lately even Blizzard games aren't Blizard quality) but they're working on it. Compare older titles like EU3 or HoI3 with CK2 or Warlock. In Warlock it's hard to find a bug, I haven't seen any yet - though I've heard about a couple known. Developers like Matrix Games or Ageod gave us great games - somitimes even more polished - but the price is graphics and UI from 1995. Maybe I'm too tolerant but I like Paradox direction and I am very much intrigued by InoCo next title.

CK2 is the reason why I mitigated my statement somewhat, it's all that and a bag of chips.
Had all the DLC content been included in the original game it could have easily been a 90+ on metacritic.

That said, I don't mind subpar graphics and UI.
What I cannot forgive is a lack of depth and being nickeled and dimed with mini DLCs that should have been included in the initial release.

 

[Efyian]

Buladelu:
Just about Fallen enchantress...
I purchased Elemental: War of Magic, and they sent me emails telling me about the free copy of fallen enchantress I got, and I also got a steam key (again, in my stardock account which they sent me an email about) to Fallen enchantress: legendary heroes.

Are you sure you just didn't forget which email you registered your EoM game with?
I know several other people who bought elemental as well who are playing legendary heroes on steam too, which they got for free.

And about that game: Elemental was a mess. Fallen enchantress had promise, but was frankly still a bit of a mess. Legendary heroes still has problems, but it's still surprisingly fun despite that. And knowing stardock, they'll continue to work and polish the game, so I only expect the game to get better, and I will buy their next stand-alone / expansion to fallen enchantress.


I played Eador for a good 60 hours or so, but I'm already bored of it. Too many shards, too much repetition of doing the same thing, and starting each shard over from scratch.
Fallen enchantress is more fun in that sense, since there are all sorts of viable methods to play and win, even on the higher difficulty levels like insane world / insane AI opponents.

 

[Fenryder]

Different strokes for different folks. War of Magic/Fallen Enchantress/Legendary Heroes has been one endless pay to play beta. Stardock should be honest and call it a TBS MMO in the way you pay a monthly fee for an MMO to get new versions/updates every few months. Between that and the hideous graphic engines of much ripping and tearing I'd suggest people wait on this one. They completely redid half the games systems in LH to make it more appealing for the media and metacritic..whether actual players liked the old ones or not..lord knows what they'll change next but the suggestion will likely come from the internet gaming media.

 

[Grygus]

You appear to have no idea what you're talking about, because that isn't true in any sense. Pay-to-play? If you bought War of Magic then both Fallen Enchantress and Legendary Heroes are completely free to you. If you didn't buy War of Magic but did buy Fallen Enchantress, then Legendary Heroes was half price for you. In addition, Fallen Enchantress is almost a complete remake of War of Magic, not a small expansion or MMO patch. Most times a bad game comes out, you're just out the cost of a game, but here they gave you free games while they completely re-worked it. In the end, Legendary Heroes is actually a good game despite (or perhaps even because of) its origins, so complaining about the process just seems bizarre to me; most bad games don't end up with a you owning a much better game, so surely this way is better for both gamers and the industry. Even if Legendary Heroes isn't your cup of tea, you should be happy the way this turned out, or at least stick to actual criticism of what exists, instead of making up irrational garbage about monthly fees. None of the games are perfect, you could have real criticism, but that post is just nonsense.