Warlock II: Wrath of the Nagas Review

Warlock II: The Exiled is a 4X turn-based strategy video game developed by 1C:Ino-Co Plus and published by Paradox. Like its predecessor, Warlock II: The Exiled is set in the magical fantasy world of Ardania. In this world you will pick a Mage and fight against rival Mages as you lead your army to victory. The game’s campaign is interesting enough to keep you playing, however it’s the fighting execution that makes playing Warlock II: The Exiled for days without sleep acceptable. Following its success 1C:Ino-Co Plus has released its very first expansion, Wrath of the Nagas.

Before entering the battlefield of Warlock II: Wrath of the Nagas you are presented with much more content right off the bat. When asked to select the game’s settings options you are given a few new Great Mages to choose from. The mighty Gorgon Sfeno and the Naga general Rhin-gaa-rook are playable leaders in this expansion. One thing I found rather inventive about playing as Rhin-gaa-rook was that you actually got to play on the battlefield as a leader. I got to walk around almost as a floating city, but more like a bad-ass dragon surveying the land for battle strategies. No other Great Mage gave you this unique opportunity and I felt like I was more connected with this dragon character than any other leader.

The Naga race is a new unique race who builds the majority of their buildings on water tiles. Most of their units are of an amphibious nature and I found the art presentation rather decent and fun to watch. The Nagas will always be lurking on the fringes of the many worlds given to you, and they are always waiting for an opportunity to strike. The Nagas are a proud and powerful race and it will take a lot of battling know how and cut-throat strategies to take them down. A fun attitude to adapt to when fighting the crazed race, each fight led me closer to my end goal but like any good strategy game, each victory was met with another complication.

In this expansion you are also given the option of two brand new lords to choose from. One of them is the swift and cunning Ace Harpy, the other is the powerful and mysterious Secret Physician. Either can be chosen as starting perks or can be encountered in-game, they made for great additions that varied the gameplay. The “before game settings” was set up with few confusing applications and were much easier to navigate through, and the Warlock community might be happy to know they finally gave a option for minion respawn times, which was without a doubt the largest criticism of the original game. While playing Warlock II: The Exiled I would find certain areas that would have an insane number of enemy spawns which made the game extremely unfair at times. Though I must give the people working on the expansion credit for listening to the feedback and adding this feature in the settings.

Overall Warlock II: Wrath of the Nagas was a very creative and exciting expansion to the original game. The new campaign seemed as long as the original game itself, which was a huge surprise to me. If you are a fan of Warlock’s lore then the expansion is just the right size for you, if not then the campaign might seem to drag on at times. Though if I were to look at it from a distance I think the length is not what you would be paying for, but rather the additional before game settings and exciting new Naga race. Seeing the watery figures attacking my forces was intense and fun to watch. Though I do feel that $14.99 is a steep price for what you're getting, I can see why it might be worth it to hardcore fans of the original.