Rage of Mages 2

Rating:
Summary: The box looked cool, but the game wasn't.
Review: Being a novice gamer, and learning on Might and Magic 6&7, which I really got hooked on, I thought I would branch out and learn some different formats. This game looked interesting, but you can't judge a game by the artwork on its box.

I didn't like the way the party moved, especially on a dark map where you don't know what you're walking into until it gets you. Being new at the forms of combat, one character was getting clobbered while I was trying to move one of the others. Part of the time they attacked each other. My archer got killed so many times I gave up having one.

This is small, nit-picky stuff, really. I just didn't like it enough to put more effort into learning how to do it. It reminded me of watching my son play similar juvenile looking games on his playstation. And finally, it wasn't pretty, like Ring or The Wheel of Time. It looked like they used somebody's model train layout without the tracks for scenery. I disliked it so much I even uninstalled it, and I rarely do that with anything. I wish I had my money back.

Rating:
Summary: The box looked cool, but the game wasn't.
Review: Being a novice gamer, and learning on Might and Magic 6&7, which I really got hooked on, I thought I would branch out and learn some different formats. This game looked interesting, but you can't judge a game by the artwork on its box.

I didn't like the way the party moved, especially on a dark map where you don't know what you're walking into until it gets you. Being new at the forms of combat, one character was getting clobbered while I was trying to move one of the others. Part of the time they attacked each other. My archer got killed so many times I gave up having one.

This is small, nit-picky stuff, really. I just didn't like it enough to put more effort into learning how to do it. It reminded me of watching my son play similar juvenile looking games on his playstation. And finally, it wasn't pretty, like Ring or The Wheel of Time. It looked like they used somebody's model train layout without the tracks for scenery. I disliked it so much I even uninstalled it, and I rarely do that with anything. I wish I had my money back.

Rating:
Summary: I really wanted to like this game...
Review: But I just can't. In all fairness to it, it's really a totally bad game. The idea of unit's gaining skill with weapons and spells is both refreshing for a real-time-strategy type game and very well done. As well, the story line by itself would make a great fantasy novel. All the political intrigue between the various factions is wonderful and the world it takes place in seems far more alive than many games.

Unfortunately, this doesn't make up for the game's flaws. For starters, units don't say too much on the field, in fact they only talk when you click on them and order them to move and even then only say two different things TOTAL. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing because I don't think I've ever heard worse voice acting in a game. Honestly, it's beyond bad.

The maps that "quests" (battlefield sequences) take place on are VERY large; which would be swell if it weren't for the fact that your units move slower than dirt. Speaking of unit speeds, while every unit does seem to move slower than leg-less blind man with his hands tied behind his back, some units do move little faster than others do. So what you ask? Well, these somewhat faster units are always you're physically weaker units, you're archers and mages who you're trying to keep back from the front lines. Thus, while your heavily armored warrior is slogging his way through the under brush, you're prize mage (main character most likely) is busy trying to defend himself from five trolls who are very intent on clubbing his head in.

Which is another thing, enemy strength. For some reason, not long into the game and before your units have had a real chance to develop their skills, the enemies suddenly change from a fairly challenging level, to the point where they can kill your best unit in two or three hits. Why this happens is beyond me.

Perhaps you might be able to counter it with better weapons and armor, but you'll find that money runs out REAL fast when you're trying to buy new equipment for just your main character, and normally you've got at least three people who you've got to worry about. It's almost funny really: To get more money you've got to kill things, to kill these things you've got to have better equipment, to get better equipment you've got have more money... see the pattern?

One last complaint (and probably the most major) is about the missions themselves. They are horribly repetitive. No matter if you're main goal is to slay a dragon our catch a thief, it quickly becomes forgotten as you find yourself battling wave after wave of monsters and bandits who, for the most part, simply come running at you out of nowhere. Quite a few times, these monsters will be of a caliber that your units can't handle and you find yourself making a hasty (or rather, a not-so-hasty) retreat.

In all, this game was a nice attempt to try something different that just didn't come out right.

Rating:
Summary: challenging
Review: I do not agree with reviewers complaining about mage/archer dying too soon or impossibly complex scenarios. This game just requires a little bit of micromanagement. Make a soldier with a good sight range to recon first. Put your mages/archers on a high ground or behind trees/rocks and lure your enemy into a trap. The game gives you a lot of chances to prove that you are capable of more then just 'fire and forget'. I spent a good time exploring this world and I'm looking forward for the seque ...

Rating:
Summary: Strategy IS REQUIRED
Review: In this game, you can hack and slash or you can use your skills to your advantage and your enemys weaknesses against him. If you intend to hack and slash, you had better hire mercenarys and forget any mages. If on the other hand you want to use strategy, I have found that a single mage, with proper placement can usually kill off just about anything. This game, as with it's predecessor, deserves a sequal.

Rating:
Summary: Bargain table buy
Review: Rage Of Mages Two could have been a good game. It's not but it could have been if the developers had just spent a bit more time on it. The main problem is that the game play works on the questing buddy theory and the little buggers won't stay in formation. It does not matter to the game if you use auto formation, which is a feature of the game that is TOTALLY USELESS, or if you try to put them in formation yourself. Inevitably your little mage who has a health of like 30 and is only useful in that she heals will run to the front and die a horrible death. After only two days of this I wish that I could hear her scream while she died.

Also, the developers chose to create almost impossible scenarios early in the game before the characters have either the experience or the equipment to fight the swarms of monsters that the developers substituted for creative game play. Who needs creativity for an RPG game when you can just use hordes of monsters.