Art of Magic - Fantasy Strategy Game for PC | Immerse in Epic Battles & Spellcasting Adventures

I experienced this game for the first time and I must warn all of you: Watch out for Bugs!! There are also no official patches for this game (and it was released last October) so don't expect any to come to your rescue. Finally, I have to say that my experiences are limited to the first few campaign scenarios and several multiplayer matches, so I did not complete the game before reviewing (as I think people should) just so you know.The graphics of the game are pretty bad, and moments that should be deep or story-like are often ruined because you'r character looks like a voo-doo doll or emaciated puppet rather than a real person and talks in an annoying scottish accent. Overall the Voice Acting is mediocre, OK at best.Gameplay is a neat idea, though the interface is flawed. Picture it sort of like the game Summoner, although you can't move and cast spells at the same time. The AI can, however, so expect them to do it at you all the time. You have to pause the game to make this happen, while he runs around you throwing fireballs. The first time you experience this, by the way, he has probably 500-700 hitpoints and you have 200 and some change. Real fun!The first few missions are easy enough, but then you quickly run into a near impossible battle against an opponent worlds above you, and you are armed with only two low level spells. It's possible to beat him, but it's one of those battles where you suck so much but he can't heal (well he can, but not that well) so you have to nickel and dime him to death with puny spells. But, the AI will agressively take over the power circles (the only way you can get back your spells) with their more powerful units, and it seems that they can see where the circles are and head for them while you are still stubmling through the fog of war. So they are usually guarded when you find them, and in the case of the match I mentioned above, by something way better than what you can summon. It's grossly unfair.Bugs -- beware of multiplayer! It was fun when it worked, but the sound was choppy and most of the time didn't even operate. I also experienced so much lag I had to shut down my computer to escape it at least twice -- and I'm running it on a brand new Gateway (1.7 mhz) on a LAN for pete's sake. Shortly into our 4th multiplayer skirmish, the AI cheated again -- a bug occurred where they had an invincible elf, at whom my two dragons (!) were hurling fireballs and my wizard lightning for what seemed like hours and he just stood there, with zero hp, shooting and slowly killing us. It was maddening!The AI also seems to be able to summon more units than you can and stronger versions of the same. Don't ask me why my wolf dies by the first spell he throws at me, but his wolfs take three lightning spells to take down. Or how he manages to summon over 35 harpies at me in 5 minutes with only one cricle of power, when I could probably summon 5 or 6 under the same conditions (he'd just started over, too!).If there's anything good to say about, it's that it's a neat idea. It's almost like Magic the Gathering come to life, summoning living walls to take damage for your wizard and fierce beasts to fight for you. Except that the AI usually only casts 2-3 spells, fills the map with hordes, and takes over all the mana nodes if you don't employ the same rush strategy right away. It just sucks all the fun out for me.If anyone has played this game and had a good experience with it, please post a review. I believe my experience was really ruined by the bugs and cheating of the AI, but if you can look past it maybe there are some real things to praise. But not for me... I'm going to try and return it today.