First, I think that Mage Knight is not near the game that Magic Realm is (more on that below), but if you don’t have access to Magic Realm; nor the time or inclination to learn it, then Mage Knight is the next best thing.Before the review is dismissed outright, I will say that Mage Knight is the game of the year for me and does create a very thematic adventure game. In ways of analogy, Mage Knight would be like drinking a nice Guinness on draught; whereas, Magic Realm is like drinking a Guinness in the brewery.
Almost everything about Mage Knight is good. The components are all acceptable and the implementation of the adventure system is fine. The game is based on 3 days/nights, and I assure you, a lot happens. It is clear that your hero is a cut above the rest being able to accomplish so much in an evening. There is good variety in terms of terrain and locations that can be encountered; I expect that the replayability will hold-out and it does provide a very nice solo experience. Furthermore, the deckbuilding is seamlessly integrated with the game play – in fact, it reminds me very much of Middle Earth Quest. The entire system is also intertwined with different colors of mana, which will gives old D&D players (or magic the gathering, even) a feeling of the classic “schools” of magic. On your travels, you can gain units to buff your hero and protect them in your quests, where the implementation reminds me greatly of Runebound.
Additionally, the “streamilining” of the system is quite impressive. There is a degree of rules complexity; however, it nowhere approaches that of Magic Realm. Much of the talk in the forums have lauded it in terms of “theme without flavor text”; however, that really isn’t a distinction that I find meaningful. Arkham Horror could be stripped of all flavor text and just be various skill checks against named monsters or events and get the same results as Mage Knight. So, while it is cool, it is by no means unique. It has also been “vladaaed”, meaning that the entire process is a fairly open information optimization process that has a HUGE decision tree – this game should never be played with those prone to analyze all possibilities and likely might be a disaster if played with a full contingent of four.
Now, to where Magic Realm runs Mage Knight through in an unbalanced match:
Replayability: MR has much more replayability than MK. Much of MR may not even appear in multiple games.
Character Differentiation: The character differentiation in MK is only cosmetic at best. For the most part, all four of the characters can be successful using the same strategy and their deck differentiation is subtle in terms of gameplay impact (and, in fact, I am still trying to figure out the degree they really are different). On the other hand, no two characters in MR really play the same. Each require vastly different strategies and there are 16 of them – a truly impressive design feat.
Magic: I found the magic implementation in MK to be quite satisfactory; however, it really doesn’t have the depth and variability of MR – where magic users can enchant the actual terrain to provide access to various types of magic. There are other cool things in MR that allow tweaking to spell timing
Monsters: The monster spawning in MR is nothing short of genius. MK really is just standard fare. Additionally, combat in MK is very abstracted – which is fine; nonetheless, this abstraction is what results in some of the lack of variability in characters in the game.
World Creation: The depth of the world created in MR is much more unique and rich than that of MK. For the most part, MK is quite generic – in fact, it may be the most generic game by Chvatli that I might have played. MR creates a richness that is mindboggling in terms of game design. NPC units in MK basically are used to join the player’s retinue. In MR, NPCs can buy stuff, sell stuff, trade stuff, join characters, interact with each other in absence of characters (in fact, it is possible to start wars between NPCs in MR), etc. That being said, the units in Mage Knight really do provide some combat variability for the heroes - which somewhat makes up for the abstraction of the combat. Indeed, it makes almost every combat like a mini-puzzle (also a reason not to play this with slow-pokes).
Character Leveling: MK provides a very nice leveling mechanic. At first glance, MR doesn’t have a leveling component; however, in the advanced rules it discusses each character having four levels. So, in the standard 28 day game, you can proceed from Level 1 to Level 4, becoming noticeably stronger as you gain access to more chits.
Conclusion:
If you can play only one of the two games, make it Magic Realm. If you can’t get access to Magic Realm, then Mage Knight is a very nice game. If you like adventure games, then play both. Mage Knight serves as a quicker, lighter version of Magic Realm -- their similarities are much greater than their differences. And, with any quicker, lighter version it sacrifices some of the breadth and open-endedness seen in Magic Realm.
Oh yeah, you die a lot more in Magic Realm.
Sorry about the change of font size - couldn't figure out how to edit this.