''Rage of Mages'' is a PC game that combines role-playing and real-time strategy. Produced by

Nival Interactive Nival is a video game developer and publisher founded by Sergey Orlovskiy in 1996. It is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus. History The company was founded by Sergey Orlovskiy on November 18, 1996 as Nival Interactive, and became famous as the d ...

it was first released in Russia under the name of ''Allods: The Seal of Mystery'' (''Аллоды. Печать тайны''). The game was published in April 1998 in the EU by

Buka Entertainment Buka Entertainment JSC () — is one of the oldest Russian video game developers and publishers. Headquartered in Moscow, the company was officially established in 1994. Since 2008, it is a part of the 1C Company. Although Buka produces its own ...

and on October 13, 1998 in the US. It was re-released in 2016 on GOG.com. A sequel was later made in 1999 by

called ''Allods 2: Master of Souls'' (Аллоды 2. Повелитель душ) and published in the west by

Monolith Productions Monolith Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington. The company was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games from August 2004 until its shutdown in 2025. It formerly published third-party games in the 199 ...

entitled '' Rage of Mages II: Necromancer''. An online MMORPG based on the game was released under the name '' Allods Online''. It was published in Russia by Astrum Nival in late 2009, followed by other regions globally by local publishers.

Gameplay

While a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

, the game uses a

real time strategy game Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pl ...

interface rather similar to '' Warcraft II''. The player chooses one of four characters (male fighter, female fighter, male mage or female mage) sent to Plagat, capital of the allod of Uimoir, which is part of the Kania empire. On the journey the player will meet the other three members, and more companions. There will be hirelings available for a fee should a player find any mission too challenging and need reinforcements. Each mission takes place in a game map generally full of enemies. Mission type ranges from rescue to escort to exterminate villains to treasure hunting.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. It was nominated for ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s "Best Game No One Played" award in its Best & Worst of 1998 Awards, which went to '' Battlezone''.

References

External links

Official website
(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rage Of Mages 1998 video games 1C Company games Buka Entertainment games Monolith Productions games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nival games Real-time strategy video games Role-playing video games Video games developed in Russia Windows games Windows-only games