Some of you may be scratching your head thinking that Master of Magic: Caster of Magic sounds very familiar. Well, that is because this is an expansion for a game that came out in the mid-90s! It is kind of crazy it has taken this long for a game to get an expansion, but there is kind of something cool about that. You do need the standard, Master of Magic to play the Caster of Magic expansion.
How to Download Master of Magic: Caster of Magic
You can download the expansion, as well as the base game from GOG or from Steam. Click on the Download button at the end of the review and make your choice. If you live 4X games, check out also our review of Civilization VI.
The Game Review
Before we get into Caster of Magic, let me remind you what Master of Magic is. This is a classic style 4X grand strategy game that has a randomized world where you play as a wizard trying to dominate two worlds. The fantasy setting is kind of cool and if you like things like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, you will enjoy the lore they have here.
One of the things that is cool about Master of Magic: Caster of Magic is that this started life out as a mod. A mod that was so popular it was given an official release and some extra polish so I think that is pretty cool. It manages to add many of the things that you would expect in a modern strategy game, but it keeps the charm of the classic game.
You now have tons of settings that you can play around with to tinker many things such as difficulty, land size, opponents and so on. The wizard you play as is now more of an extension of your own personality thanks to tons of customization options. While the original game had a fantasy setting, Caster of Magic is even more so.
The reason I say that is because they have added many new spells. These are cool in that they have different effects, but they also add to the scope and scale of the game. This along with the new creatures that are included make this feel much more like a real fantasy epic and that is something I really do like.
The maps in the game are more varied (which is impressive) and each world feels unique. I like the way cities look in this expansion much more than the base game. It just helps make the steaks you are fighting for feel more real if you get what I am saying. Speaking of fighting, this game has many different difficulty options.
I know I already mentioned this, but it does deserve special attention. The AI has been greatly improved and I say this because the AI gives you a real challenge now. Not only that, the challenge feels fair and even when you fail you will probably learn something that you can use in your next session.
As far as the presentation goes, I do like it. It looks like a game that was released in the mid-90s and that is cool with me. As this is an expansion and not a full new game there was only so much they could do with the presentation. I like this, but I can see why for people new to this game it may seem a bit basic.
The Bottom Line
Overall, I think the fact we have gotten an official expansion for the game that is over 25 years old is awesome. Master of Magic: Caster of Magic is a great throwback and honestly it makes what was already a fun game a million times better. It offers you far more to do and it is the kind of game you can lose many hours to.
