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Published
by Mastertronic
Developed by Infinite Interactive
Release Date: Out Now
Price: £9.99
The
Warlords series has been around for many years now. My first
experience of the series was Warlords III: Darklords Rising
and even then I picked it up for a measly sum of £5
from a bargain bin in a local game store. Despite the ridiculously
low price though it turned out to be a great turn-based
strategy game. I was surprised when the next game in the
series, Warlords Battlecry turned out to be a RTS. I downloaded
the demo only to find that I didn't like it and have since
ignored the Warlords series. Thankfully the series returned
to its turn-based roots in 2003 with Warlords IV: Heroes
of Etheria.
Those
of you who know all about the Warlords series will know
that it's a blend of RPG and strategy. When you begin a
campaign you'll create a Warlord who you will keep throughout
the game and they will gain experience and level-up so it
pays to keep them alive and it makes the whole thing more
interesting. As well as the campaign you also have 28 skirmish
maps and a random map generator to bulk out the single player
options. Those looking for multiplayer thrills will be pleased
to learn that TCP/IP, IPX LAN, Ubi.com, Hotseat and Play
by E-mail modes are all supported which you have to admit
is pretty impressive.
Whilst
Warlords IV is essentially a good game it does nothing that
makes it feel special. You have 10 different races and 60
units overall with a variety of magic spells at your disposal.
The AI seems good too and puts up a decent fight. However
the battles are mundane picking one band of units at a time
to fight against a band of the enemies units. City micro-management
is really just a case of ordering units to be built and
little else, which is slightly tedious. Some units and attacks
seem far too strong and there doesn't appear to be a way
to pull out of a battle, meaning that if you make the wrong
choice in attacking a stronger enemy you'll lose all of
your units in that group which can be frustrating.
Darklords
Rising was a top-down 2D affair; it was released in the
late 1990's after all. That said however, Warlords IV doesn't
look as good as you would expect for a game that was developed
several years later. The graphics are still mostly 2D and
even the cutscenes use sketches and other still images instead
of full-motion video. The units look far too simplistic
and the buildings look like images that have been cut and
pasted from an older title. The battle view is also far
too basic and looks like it came from a 6 year old game.
Whilst the look of the game is disappointing the benefit
of all this simplicity of course is that the game will run
on a low end system with a Pentium II 450 being quoted as
the minimum CPU you'll need for Warlords IV.
If
you're interested in Warlords IV you'll be pleased to learn
that the game is deaf gamer friendly. The cutscenes are
subtitled and all the tutorial messages you receive are
in text too which is excellent. Any events that occur during
a scenario are relayed via text only, so once again you'll
have no problems. With such good support for deaf gamers
it's just a shame the game wasn't actually a turn-based
strategy game to remember.
Warlords
IV left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand the game
is quite enjoyable to play which of course is a good thing
but on the other hand it doesn't feel as complete a game
as Darklords Rising and that is a disappointment. If you're
looking for a fantasy turn-based strategy title then Warlords
IV is definitely worth a look (and £9.99 is certainly
more appropriate than it's original £29.99 price tag)
but it's by no means the game it could have been. Had Darklords
Rising still been available for purchase I would recommend
it over this without hesitation.
Overall
Game Rating: 2.5/5
Warlords IV is ultimately disappointing and it's no surprise
that it's already being released as a budget title. It's
not a disaster by any means but there are better titles
in the genre more worthy of your money.
Deaf
Gamers Classification:
(Click
the letter or here
for details)
No problems at all as what speech
there is, is subtitled.
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