Review by: Brian Clair

Blood & Magic is the latest installment in TSR’s popular Forgotten Realms series of computer games. Staying true to it’s fantasy roots, the game presents you with a wide range of creatures and a rich magical background. The game itself plays like a storybook, you choose which “story” you wish to play and then the game presents you with background and missions to complete. Between each mission, the story unravels a little more and each piece is presented just like a set of “flipping pages”. Unlike other games, success isn’t required – its just a branch in the story, so if you lose a mission, it’s nothing to worry about and you get to choose which side to fight for at the start of your story (effectively doubling the missions in the game).

The overall story begins with the discovery of the Bloodforges – powerful magical devices which can conjure up entire armies for whomever controls them. Of course, in the Forgotten Realms such items draw quick attention by the nobility, powerful wizards, and criminals. Soon wars begin to break out as those in control of the Bloodforges attempt to gain control of others – because just one is never enough. In the end, no one controls more than 1 of the artifacts and this is where the game begins…

Gameplay is very straightforward, you must destroy something of your opponent’s before he/she destroy’s yours. This could be a structure or just the slaying of all your followers. Which brings us to the question of just who are your followers? Simply put, they are the creatures you summon from your Bloodforge. To begin with, you summon several Basal Golems. These are automatons that can harness mana (which you use to summon creatures, cast spells, and transform creatures), fight, and be transformed into higher-level creatures. To create a higher-level creature you must control a special structure which is built on a magical foundation. You have the choice of building an: Arbor Lodge – which allows you to create creatures of the wild, like Druids; Barracks which allows you to create veteran combatants, like warriors; Crypt which allows you to summon the undead to fight for you; Runestone which allows you to summon magical creatures like Stone Golems; and Temples which allow you to summon virtuous followers, like Clerics (which can heal your troops).

The game is played in real-time so you’ve got to be able to think quickly. To help you along, the game contains a very detailed encyclopedia – which contains information on literally every game item. Areas of the game map which you haven’t explored before are shaded out so that you can’t see them. This makes exploration an important aspect of the game as you may quickly find yourself attacked by your opponent. Although the most important aspect to Blood & Magic is your Basal Golems. You use them to do everything in this game and without them your game is most likely headed for a quick end.