Magic of War: Shadow of the Overlord is an old Russian video game, which is the first project of the developer studio "Tagem Games". They tried to show the world a symbiosis of RPG and RTS. Let’s see what they came up with.

Development history:

2001. Russia. Yekaterinburg. A young graduate student at the Faculty of Mathematics, Stanislav Skorb, who has dreamed of making games since early childhood, gathers around him a team of fellow enthusiasts. Together they begin to work on their own game, already called “War Magic”. The initial stage takes the team about a year. It is worth understanding that the development took place in “Spartan” conditions. But nevertheless, in the end the team was satisfied with the final result. Namely, a demo version of the game, which was intended to attract a major publisher capable of sufficiently sponsoring a full-fledged development. Fortunately, in those years, in Russia, the gaming industry was increasingly gaining momentum and companies such as 1C and Buka viewed the newly formed video game development teams with great interest. Thus, Tagem Games, now a development studio, enters into its first contract to create a game: War Magic: Shadow of the Overlord, under the direction of the distribution company Buka Entertainment. Further work on the game was quite easy and not protracted. The publisher did not disturb Tagem Games with an iron hand, and the young developers created their game with love and without nerves. In 2003, War Magic goes on sale on Russian shelves.

First studio logo
First https://casinoyukongold.co.uk/ reviews:

It is worth mentioning how unfair the rules were in force at that time in Russia, namely, in the gaming industry. The developers lived only on interest from sales, but before receiving their interest, the publishing company had to recoup its costs of publishing and developing the game three times. And only then were the developers allowed to get their money. Thus, many developers were left broke, even though their games were successful. And naturally, the young Tagem Games, which did not really delve into this, also fell under such conditions and agreed with them.

"We were just making games. Did what you always dreamed of." — Stanislav Skorb.
Very soon, Magic of War received its main assessment from the then largest gaming portal “Absolute Games”. Unfortunately, the game was not well received. Everyone pointed out that Tagem Games could not make a normal, well-thought-out RTS? nor a sufficiently dynamic and exciting RPG. “Chasing two hares” – this is how they spoke disparagingly about inexperienced developers. But nevertheless, the game was noted for: good graphics and exciting gameplay. The rating can be regarded as “stretched commendable”. Not very good news, considering how high the expectations of young developers were. But time has shown that players fell in love with War Magic, and found the gameplay not just “fascinating”, but quite interesting, atmospheric and addictive. The case when sales did not regress, but systematically grew upward. In 2004, the game was translated into Chinese, English and several other languages. The game also received the add-on “War Magic: Banners of Darkness”. The addition was a prequel to the main events of the game. But it was received rather coldly and did not attract almost any attention, because nothing new was introduced into the game, and all the old shortcomings remained in place. As a result, the developer studio made a profit sufficient to stay afloat in the industry and create games to this day.

Setting and plot:

The game takes place in a fantasy world, which is a cross between various fantasies that were popular at the time. You will find borrowings from such works and games as "The Lord of the Rings", "Warcraft" and even some from "The elder scrolls". But at the same time, the world is quite standard and poor in revelations for the player. Immortal elves, cunning goblins, stupid orcs and treacherous people – all this is the Magic of War. The game even has lore that takes up a couple of paragraphs on paper. “In ancient times, the world was divided into several dimensions: the world of gnomes, the world of people, the world of elves, etc.d. But one beautiful day, for some unknown reason, they merged into one dimension, and chaos began. What this chaos looked like is not explained. Humans and elves created a crystal that began to maintain peace in the world. But after thousands of years, there appeared wicked sorcerer who serves the dark lord. To the Lord even more evil and dreaming of returning the world to chaos, because so angry life is a joy for the rulers.“At this moment we appear. In the form of a young graduate of the academy of magicians, who will have to save the world from evil. And so begins our journey through this stereotyped, but at the same time, so to speak, sweet and inviting world.

Crystal preventing the world from returning to a state of chaos

Gameplay:

To begin with, we note that the “open world” of the game is divided into several locations in which the player can wander wherever he wishes, following the plot, or completing secondary tasks (which mainly boil down to clearing territories). But at the same time, locations change only as the player moves through the plot, not allowing him to go back a step. All locations are distinguished by their own atmosphere, created by the right musical accompaniment and unique location design. Traveling in this world, even with one hundred percent complete completion of everything, does not have time to get boring. Until the very end, the world will not seem monotonous. This is also reflected in the not very long storyline.