A well-crafted, easy-to-play game with an entertaining fantasy bent, Warlock will have you staying up nights taking one more turn to blast King Rrat to kingdom come.

After realizing that Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a strategy-title and not a Civilization-clone, I'm left with a well-crafted game about fantasy warfare. The game eases me in with a clear interface and then opens up a deep well of varied content to explore. Multiplayer is unfortunately missing, but the AI is a surprisingly competent opponent and if you like your 4X games to focus on strategy, you will find Warlock to be one of the top alternatives today.

Very playable and entertaining, but AI still needs work. It would be nice to lose once in a while. [June 2012]

Warlock - Master of the Arcane is a good turn-based strategy game which is lacking only multiplayer modes. It's a modern Master of Magic and a solid and lengthy game.

Quotation forthcoming.

Is it surprising that InoCo Plus' turn based premiere can't keep up with Civilization? Not really. But for just being a "Fantasy Civ" it offers surprisingly good strategic entertainment.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a well-packed turn-based strategy game, with a deep and captivating gameplay. Still, the lack of a structured campaign and of the multiplayer mode is a big letdown, and the graphical engine does not shine.

For all of its flaws, it's still a remarkably fun game with plenty of character. When you're commanding armies of dragons and giants to annihilate cities protected by ghost ships or rat snipers, it's easier to overlook the game's shortcomings. I know that I'll certainly be playing a few more campaigns, and once the multiplayer gets added I'll play even more.

The lack of depth does wear thin over the long-haul after you've played a bunch of match to their conclusion, but you may find yourself reluctant to let go until you've fully experienced into each faction's magical might.

There's clearly room for improvement, including a more aggressive AI, but over 30 hours later and I'm still playing it. Not bad for a simple take on Civ with some dragons thrown in.

Warlock does not offer something truly new to the genre and the components borrowed from Civilization far outnumber its renovations. The gameplay options offered may feel many, but are in fact, very limited: combat is over-simplified, diplomacy is poor, the religious element is non-existent and the actions you take in one turn are 90% the same. Despite that, the 'one more turn' magical effect can be felt at times. [July 2012]

Some of its more unique spin on things do shine through, such as City management, but others like the added adventure/discovery element just get lost amongst the need to survive.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane's emphasis on combat makes it feel fresh in the 4X strategy genre. It just needed some fine-tuning to be truly great.

Similarly to Civilization V, combat elements are the most evolved and those of you who favored that particular battle system will get right down to business, helped a lot by the map's visual familiarity. The positioning of units on hexagons allows for attacks from multiple directions and, just like in the eternal source of inspiration, in the lower left you get an approximate report of a fight together with any bonuses given by unit type or terrain type.

But Warlock is colorful and entertaining, and it's budget-priced, so as long as you can stand some bugs and quirks, and as long as you don't mind that it doesn't break any new ground, then Warlock might be a game for you to consider, perhaps after waiting for a patch or two to come out first.

Despite not explicitly saying so, Warlock: Master of the Arcane serves as a decent entry game for those who want to dabble in 4X strategy. Thanks to the lack of a decent tutorial and in-game instructions, the game still has a steep learning curve, and the lack of attention paid to the diplomatic aspects of the genre will leave some players overwhelmed once they move on to something with more substance.

Exploring is fun, resource exploitation is basic and extermination is tedious. [July 2012, p.84]

A good game that lacks certain things we hope to be included through patchers or modifications. Its gameplay base is good and fun, but we miss too many things, especially more diplomacy and religion options.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a highly addictive and entertaining game, although it would not meet the need of a nicely-updated Master of Magic. The game perfectly fulfills the expectations raised and offers good content at an affordable price. And this is quite important these days. If it keeps growing in the right way (through some DLCs) it would become an unforgettable game, but needs to improve its AI and add more options.

So yes, Warlock is a streamlined strategy game, at a cut price, and that is absolutely no bad thing. It has a few unfortunate quirks, but if you fancy something a bit lighter and a bit more combat-focused than the usual fare, then you'll get at least a few dozen hours of entertainment from this rather enjoyable title.

Warlock is a combat-focused empire builder that can be quite addictive and enjoyable. It doesn't quite have the depth that would give it the kind of replayability we get from classics such as the Civilization-games, but it's fun while it lasts.

It's certainly not about to reach out to anyone who doesn't like wargames, nor appeal to anyone who wants the broader scope of the Civilization series, but it does a perfectly good job as a tombola of fantasy combat nonsense, full of new and wonderful and silly surprises.

Fast paced turn-based strategy with lots of options on the one hand, weak diplomacy and absence of any multiplayer on the other. [July 2012]

It's decent fun for the $20 price point, but good graphics and a nice interface aren't enough to mask poor AI and a complete lack of depth.

All in all, I think Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a decent little strategy game. It has some problems, but that didn't stop me from putting in over 15 hours into it. If you want to be really good at the game, you'll need to become a rather hardcore player. This game is not really for the newcomers to the 4X genre, but if you enjoy a good challenge in the same vein as Civilization, you can still have a good time game for the inexpensive $20 price tag.

Warlock: Master of the Arcane brings you a magical world where winning battles gives you a pretty good feeling. The diplomacy part of the game is pretty shallow and the lack of a multiplayer mode is just a shame.

As fun as combat is, it's not enough to have me engaged in Warlock beyond my professional obligations.

At a bargain price point, Warlock: Master of the Arcane will be just enough to keep those fantasy fans entertained without breaking the bank.

Warlock is just a failed attempt to reproduce Master of Magic.

Tuning issues aside, Warlock is a fantasy strategy game that's more than just Civilization with dragons and elves because it's not Civilization at all. Far too many strategy games rely on Sid Meiers' classic formula, often bogging down in the process. It's nice to see a developer getting back to the basics and down in the trenches with goblins, werewolves, skeletons, dragons, clerics and the odd angry fireball.

Develop and cast magic spells in this turn based strategy game. It's not as complex as many other games in the same genre and sometimes it feels more like an ambitious mod than a full priced game.

Dedicated and studious players might be able to look past the limited information on how to play if they're familiar enough with the genre and don't mind learning by trial and error, but less patient newcomers will be left on the proverbial sidelines.

If you're searching for 'fantasy Civilization' and can look past complete lack of any story within the singleplayer campaign, you may want to check Warlock out. [August 2012, p.80]

A game that is mostly oriented towards new gamers that would like to take their first, bold steps into the realm of Turn Based strategy games.

A pleasant surprise for all those fans of the genre, who play the Civilization game mainly for its battle component - those players will get their satisfaction here. However, the rest of them will strongly feel the absence of the other gaming elements. On top of that they will most likely dislike the game's cheating AI, no hotkeys availability along with the game's very few options as to how to win the game.