14 DAY TRIAL // 
Sorcerer King is a game about what comes after the end of a traditional fantasy world, when a dominating and evil wizard is determined to make things even bleaker for the survivors and even his most immoral commanders question his motives and long-term plans.
The interesting starting point for the narrative is coupled with a series of traditional turn-based elements but also some innovative ideas to create a strategy game that makes each choice matter and asks the player to carefully consider whether their end goals excuse the means.
Sorcerer King will certainly appeal to those who have played previous titles in the Elemental universe, but it is much more focused and easy to understand and play than War of Magic or Fallen Enchantress.
Story
Sorcerer King takes place in the Elemental universe, which Stardock has fleshed out in its previous turn-based strategy title, but no prior knowledge is required to understand the action and the rather hopeless situation that gamers will have to deal with.
The titular Sorcerer King has basically managed to become the dominating force in the universe, defeating all the heroes that challenged him and pushing all other major political entities to the edge, surviving in inhospitable areas or getting ready to become allied to him.
The player needs to chose from an array of characters, each with his unique style and powers, and will become a minor viceroy, tasked with managing a backwater, even as he hides bigger ambitions.
Sorcerer King is seeking to cast a spell that will make him a god by turning all other living beings into mana, and pure self-interest is driving the heroes of the game to try and stop him, which means working with former enemies and acting in an amoral manner as long as the goal is within reach.
The writing in the new Stardock title is a pleasant surprise, walking a fine line between traditional fantasy elements and a parody of them, especially when it comes to some of the weirder side quests that gamers can explore.
Gameplay
Sorcerer King is a turn-based 4X strategy title that offers a lot of twists to the traditional formula and encourages players to be very involved in the micro-management of their kingdom, their heroes, and their strategies.
The offered heroes each have a focus and can be customized before the start of a campaign, as can maps, and once a few initial choices are made, gamers have a small group of units and a starting town that they need to develop in order to rival their almost mythic opponent.
Exploration is the first order of the day, with gamers having to secure resources that can allow their kingdom to develop and magic shards, which power mana generation, skill advancement, and lore evolution.
The world is dotted with treasure chest, roaming enemies (some of them very dangerous right from the start), and with locations that trigger events that can result in either short text-powered adventures or in battles.
When combat starts in Sorcerer King, the tactical layer takes over and gamers will need to exploit a square grid to move their units and deploy their special abilities to take out enemies, who are well managed by the Artificial Intelligence.
Positioning is very important, and the game rewards players that can keep a solid frontline and split enemy forces.
Solid use of special abilities for each type of creature can also have a big impact, especially when the main player heroes are involved or when the enemy has a solid spellcaster ready to rain destruction.
Spells launched by the sovereign also come into play, but they use the precious mana and have relatively long cooldowns, so players will have to carefully choose when they are needed.
Sorcerer King will contact the player from time to time, offering to deliver some help, in the form of resources or units, in exchange for an increase on the Doomsday counter, which tracks how close to oblivion the world is.
Shards play a major role and gamers should move quickly to secure them with outposts in order to benefit from their rewards and deny them to the Sorcerer King.
Once simple survival is taken care of, gamers will have to begin to decide how their sovereign and their heroes evolve as they gather XP and what kind of items and armor they want to create for them to wear into battle.
There are also quests to complete and decisions to make about where to settle new cities and how to deal with the other small kingdoms that have survived the onslaught of the Sorcerer King, which can become solid allies, but in time can also be won over by his dark charisma.
“The new Stardock turn-based strategy experience gives players a lot of choices and possibilities to move towards their ultimate goal, but the game also delivers plenty of challenges, especially when it comes to the battles.”
Early on, there are many groups of enemies that can easily take out player forces, even if they seem flimsy and underpowered initially.
Archer and mage heavy forces specifically seem a little overpowered at the moment, while some of the bigger fantasy creatures deliver a smaller amount of damage than many players would expect.
I have also found it hard to get the other factions to work with me rather than the Sorcerer King, even when using the easy setting.
These are relatively minor criticisms, linked to the balance rather than the core mechanics, and Stardock will likely fix them relatively quickly once the community offers feedback.
Graphics and audio
Sorcerer King is a game that combines a highly-conceptualized paper cloth map for gamers who want to simply get a strategic look at the situation of their campaign with the ability to zoom in so that they can check out details about individual units and world units.
The Stardock team is using a clean and informative interface and a simple and effective art style to make it easy for gamers to understand what they have to do and how the various mechanics work, although it sometimes takes a moment to identify exactly which unit is set to move during combat sequences.
The music and the sound design for Sorcerer King are also very well aligned with the fantasy theme and enhance the whimsical tone of the entire experience.
The Good
- New take on traditional fantasy story
- Player choices
- Variety of potential strategies
The Bad
- Battle difficulty spikes
- Diplomacy is hard to conduct
Conclusion
The included sovereigns, the heroes, units, items and spells can be combined in a variety of ways by the players as they seek to find a way to grow in power fast enough to take out the villain of the story before the Doomsday counter signals his victory.
The game is hard, and while a single mistake early on will not compromise a campaign, there's a tendency for the first few games to end in failure as players try to understand the core mechanics.
But after a few hours, Sorcerer King becomes one of the most focused strategy titles of the past few years and finding solutions to the various strategic and tactical challenges is a pleasure.
The title also includes full support for modding, which means that the community will be free to deliver more content for the title in the coming months.
With this new fantasy-themed title, and the previous science fiction-themed Galactic Civilizations III, Stardock has managed to corner the market when it comes to turn-based strategy, delivering a solid mix of both classic and innovative mechanics.
