My shortest summary ever: Civ light!
What makes Warlock worth reviewing - and maybe even playing - is the fact that it is a stripped down version of Civ missing many features.
There are no workers improving your cities, only rudimentary diplomacy, and not even a tech tree!
Or, in other words: Warlock rids itself off all the micromanagement in hope of attracting casual strategy gamers.
And this concept nearly worked out! By infusing magic into the gameplay of Civ, the gameplay concentrates on combat and allows for many different strategies here, for example by casting some protective spell on you trusty dwarven warriors before they have to engage those pesky fire elementals.
Warlock also offers some unique features to make combat and exploration more interesting, like the existence of "parallel worlds" accessible via teleporter and filled with many big, strong, ugly and mean guys.
But i said the concept NEARLY worked out. Unfortunately this game was like so many others pushed out into the open in an unfinished state.
There are not too many bugs but they are quite annoying. The minimap vanishes from time to time, and whenever you exit the diplomacy screen the game won't register any more mouse clicks - hint: click on the minimap to resume control.
Also the GUI isn't worked out well. There seem to be no keyboard shortcuts at all, which is a bad thing when the button "cycle to next unit" is on the far right of the screen and all those buttons needed to order this unit are on the far left of the screen. Unwanted scrolling inclusive i'm afraid.
But that's nothing a well-made patch or three could not bring into working order and my ranking up to 7.0 at least.
Yes, i would really enjoy to be able to recommend this game as it should be, a "Civ light" well thought out, charming and rewarding.
P.S.: For a good laugh, check out the .pdf manual on your disc.
P.P.S.: Should you be a fan of the Civ 4 mod "Fall from Heaven", don't expect any similarities. So to say, the magic in Warlock is completely different.