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Rage of Mages
Page 2
Mages and Fighters
In Rage Of Mages you can choose between 4 characters. Well, 2 would be more correct because the Monolith chaps (girls and boys) hate discrimination and they have created male and female characters. Isn't this sweet? Yeah, it is. Equal opportunity for every race :).
Anyway, 2 of them are Mages (male and female) and there are also 2 Fighters (archer included), also male and female, what did you expect? I bet you thought it would be filled with gorgeous females!. Well, ehm they are pretty good looking if you ask me.
Of course every character has it own strengths and special abilities. Also, you can equip your character with any weapon that you desire, from the weapon list of course. This list contains some very impressive weapons.
If you pick a fighter you can choose between a crossbow, spear, spiked club, mace, axes and more. For the mages, there isn't really a weapon list. You can choose between several cool spells like Fire, Water, Air, ... About 300 types of weapons, spells, armor and potions are included in this RPG/RTS game. Impressive! But those can't be found on the ground or anywhere else. No. During your quest you can pick up money or when you defeat someone you will gain money as well. With that money you can buy weapons, armor, spells and so on in the several shops.
A nice feature that the Mages have is auto-healing. Once enabled they will heal your other heroes if their health is low.
 
How about the Graphics?
If you already have took a closer look at the several screenshots you will notice that they are NOT 3D-accelerated.
Rage of Mages does not use any 3D-acceleration so if you got a 3dfx or D3D card, you won't have to use it.
In fact, I found the graphics quite enjoyable. Rom doesn't need it really but the scenery however is fully rendered in 3D. So are the objects and your characters. I noticed that everything is well animated and I must say that the developers of this game has done a splendid job.
Rage of Mages also supports several resolutions. From 640x480, 800x600 to 1024x768, it all looks good. I noticed also that the several character portraits are extremely detailed and each time when you equip something your portrait changes.
From an overhead 3D-view you will see that you have a map that is similar to every RTS game. There is also the well known fog-of-war, line-of-sight and a little mini map where you have an overall view of your full map.
Let me also point out to you that Rom also uses detailed shadows and dynamic lighting. There is even an option to turn on day/night changes.
Sound, music and controls
The sound effects are pretty good. Each weapon and spell has its own unique sound and so are the several enemys when they are under attack. Voice-acting and the conversations are also good.
I found that the music used in this game could have been better. Rom doesn't use any digital music ... it's MIDI. And I thought that MIDI was outdated! Guess not. Sometimes I found it quite annoying and there where moments when I just disabled the music. But I guess, there will be gamers that will be very pleased with this classic MIDI style.
Rage of Mages uses a very easy control method. With your left mouse click you can select all your units and just left-click again on the place where you want your units. Even for attacking another unit, just point your mouse on the enemy and you will see a little sword. Now, left click again and your character will battle.
Does this game supports Multiplayer modes?
Of course every modern game will have Multiplayer support. You might be surprised but 'Rage of Mages' has it too.
Full multiplayer support through modem, LAN, serial or the Internet is available. However, the game does not allow you to speed up its default play speed during the available multiplayer missions.
I didn't had a chance to test the multiplayer aspect of this game so I can't and I won't comment on how good or how bad it was.
Conclusion
Rage of Mages from Monolith Productions is probably the most surprising title that we got this month for reviewing.
I was pretty amazed by its excellent gameplay and it high detailed graphics. It's also very addictive and you will spend long hours and days before you complete this game.
After all, it's a pretty good RPG and RTS game that combines the best of those 2 types.
For anyone that loves the classic RPG with a bit of RTS, Rage of Mages should be yours.
-Bjorn
Ratings
Manual:
n/a |
Graphics:
80% |
Music & Sfx:
72% |
GamePlay:
81% |
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This game scores
 
on our 5-point Rating System
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