……人们已经开始对不同类型的游戏有了刻板印象，而每个玩家都会套用那些刻板印象来看待（以及游玩）我们这个游戏。因此，战略型玩家会把它当作一个战略游戏——当然，它也不可避免地缺少一些大家认为是战略游戏标配的元素；对于 RPG 玩家来说同样如此。到头来，我们无法让这两类游戏的硬核玩家相信战略和 RPG 能够很好地融合在一起，反倒是吸引了一个介乎两者之间的玩家群体。

[...] People had already begun to form stereotypes of genres, and each player saw (and played) the game through those stereotypes. So, strategy gamers played it as a strategy game, and, of course, it lacked some elements that had come to be considered standard for the genre – the same happened to RPG players. In the end, we weren't able to convince the hardcore fans of either genre that the mix worked, instead catching a smaller group in between.

Serge Orlovsky,
Nival Entertainment CEO

Serge Orlovsky,
Nival Entertainment's CEO

在商店中，你能买卖数量惊人的各种装备——所有的类人怪物都会掉落装备，你会搜刮到非常多的战利品。不过，你只能为自己的 4 个英雄更换装备，而他们在游戏中的作用将很快被削弱。

当任一英雄被击杀时，任务会自动失败，因此你需要保护好他们，将他们安置在远离前线的地方，至于脏活累活就留给佣兵来做。出于某些原因，你的战士英雄会比雇用的士兵更弱，所以过不了多久，你就只剩两个魔法师还有用处了，毕竟他们拥有足足 24 个不同的法术，如果你能在合适的时机果决施展，它们足以决定一场战斗的走势。

游戏的过程比较漫长。前面几张地图可能只要花上几分钟时间，但某些靠后的地图却大得离谱，可能要用几个小时才能探索完毕。有时候，你也会遇到一些预设的事件、简短的对话、甚至只是几句沙雕发言。配合质量颇佳的过场 CG，它们共同推动了整个游戏的叙事进程。

《愤怒的魔法师》同样有一个简单的联机模式，内容基本就是在指定的地图上和队友一起打怪并提升自己的角色。

At stores you'll find an impressive amount of equipment to buy and sell. All humanoid enemies drop their equipment, so you'll get plenty of loot. However, you can only change the equipment of your heroes, and their role in the game decreases quickly.

You automatically fail a mission if a hero gets killed, so you will have to protect them and take them away from the front lines while the mercenaries do all the hard work. For some reason, your warrior heroes are weaker than the hired soldiers, so after a while only the two wizards will remain useful thanks to the variety of spells; there are 24 of them which can be absolutely determinant in a fight if you're quick enough to use them in the right moment.

The game is long, and while the first maps can be resolved in a few minutes, some of the last maps can be ridiculously huge and take hours to explore. Sometimes there are also scripted events, short dialogues or just really silly jokes. Those, along with pretty decent CG videos, carry the narrative of the game.

这款游戏有一部续作，名为《愤怒的魔法师 2：死灵法师（Rage of Mages 2: Necromancer, 1999）》。相比前作，续作有了一定的改进，比如更好的 AI、更多的支线任务、自动施法功能以及一个地图编辑器。这个编辑器为该系列带来了一个规模不大但相当忠实的粉丝群体，在接下来的几年中都保持着活跃。后来，工作室又推出了一款质量奇高的 3D 精神续作：《恶魔岛：灵魂的诅咒》（Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul，2000），以及一款免费游玩的 MMORPG《巫师之怒》（Allods Online，2011）。

《愤怒的魔法师》可能只是一个平平无奇、年代久远的低成本游戏，淹没在西方 RPG 黄金时代无数的优秀作品之中毫不起眼。然而，它在近代俄国软件史上仍占有举足轻重的地位。

即便你不认同它的历史价值，这个游戏也总有些地方能带给你一种朴素的、童话一般的感觉，这也正是它的魅力所在。总的来说，这是一款不错的小游戏，呈现给玩家的方式足够优秀，能让你点上十几个小时的鼠标并沉浸在寻宝的乐趣之中。

Rage of Mages also has a simple multiplayer mode, which basically consists of fighting and improving your character with other players on dedicated maps.

The game was followed by one direct sequel, Rage of Mages 2: Necromancer (1999), which added several improvements such as better AI, auto-casting and more side-quests, plus a map editor that earned it a small but loyal fan base, active for a few years. Later came a surprisingly good 3D spiritual successor called Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul (2000), and the free-to-play MMORPG Allods Online (2011).

Rage of Mages could've been just another old low-budget title, buried among the many releases of the golden age of Western RPGs, but it still has an important place in recent Russian software history.

Even if you disregard its historical value, there's a certain naivety and fairy-tale feeling here that makes it quite charming. It's a nice little game, with a great presentation, that can provide hours of mouse action and treasure-hunting.