Warlock has some good ideas, but some stupid design choices leave a bad taste in my mouth.
The Good:
-Civ style strategy game in a fantasy setting. Think Civ 5 merged with Heroes of Might and Magic.
-3 (4 if you have the elf DLC) varied factions.
-Some nice customization for your faction leader.
-The "outworlds" concept is neat.
The Bad:
-Some stupid design decisions almost cripple the game's fun.
-Limited options at game setup.
-Too simplistic.
This is a game that could have been great, but instead its merely "ok.
Basically, Warlock is a Civ clone that takes place in a fantasy setting.
One of the big problems with the game has to do with it's premise. Warlock according to its creators is suppose to be different from games like Civilization in that it focuses on combat instead of empire building. This means that things like city building, empire managment, and diplomacy don't really exist except on a very basic level.
The problem with this premise is that Civ style 4x games aren't very good combat games. Sure, combat has always been A PART of games like Civ, but combat itself has never been the primary element (unless you count Civ 5 without the expansion, which is easily regarded by most Civ fans as being the weakest in the series). Wanting to make a 4x game in the style of Civ where only combat is important is completely missing the point of the 4x genre.
Simply put, you cannot try to make combat carry the whole game in a game of this kind. But the game tries anyways, and as a result the gameplay is too simplistic and gets old very fast.
However, those aren't the game's main problems. If the game had done everything that it is trying to do well it would probably have been at least a solid game even if it had not been great or fantastic. The biggest and worst problems with the game is the weak AI and the almost game breakingly annoying random monster spawns.
I will start with the AI...
Simply put, it doesn't put up a respectable fight. Its not hard to beat it and if you have the DLC that allows you to have heroes in the game that you can basically take over whole kingdoms with nothing but heroes if you have a bunch of good high level ones.
The second problem are the monster spawns. To increase the challenge (perhaps to make up for the bad AI?) monsters will suddenly appear out of nowhere all over your kingdom and the game will tell you when this happens with a in-game message. These can be very powerful monsters and there is nothing you can do to stop this from happening. They don't even spawn outside your borders, but inside them meaning your border defences are completely useless against them a lot of the time.
I remember this once where I had spent dozens of turns plotting an invasion of a rival kingdom, but just as I was about to invade the game presented me with a "OMFG monsters have spawned in your empire!!!" message and powerful monsters attacked me out of nowhere. My whole plan was ruined as a result . Events like that make me not want to play the game.
The game does offer some customization, like the ability to customize your hero at the start of the game, and there are some options for choosing the map that you will play on as well. But generally speaking the options are pretty limited at start up.
Overall, Warlock isn't as good as it could be. Its not horrible, but some bad design choices and a misguided premise (civ style 4x strategy game with no real empire management?!?) make the game kind of mediocre as a result.
Thankfully the game isn't expensive, so if you can get it for a low price it might be worth checking out. Otherwise avoid.
-Hardcore_gamer.