Peter Molyneux, the man who once promised us the moon, the stars, and a virtual child that would grow up to disappoint us, is back with Masters of Albion - a city-builder that wears its influences like a badge of honor. Think Black & White meets Fable, with all the charm and all the chaos that implies.
According to Rock Paper Shotgun's hands-on preview, the game already has some genuinely exciting ideas cooking. You've got a godlike hand to smite things with, heroes to command, ballista towers to place, and undead ghouls smashing their way into crypts while your supposedly capable warriors decide to go fight literally anything else instead. Classic Molyneux. The AI pathfinding is giving main character energy for all the wrong reasons.
Big brain energy, questionable execution
The preview describes a scenario where a ghoul is actively breaking into a tomb - red light pulsing, screen cracking - while the player's two fully-equipped heroes and a lightning-charged godhand fail to prioritize the actual threat. If that doesn't perfectly summarize the Molyneux experience, nothing will. It's equal parts brilliant concept and infuriating execution.
Rock Paper Shotgun notes that Masters of Albion has real potential to carve out its own identity beyond just being a nostalgia trip for fans of Molyneux's golden era. The city-building loop shows promise, and the god-game mechanics have that familiar feel-good power fantasy going for them. But the game has a lot of work to do before it can call itself anything more than a spiritual remix.
Should you wishlist it or ghost it?
If you're the kind of player who fondly remembers yelling at your Black & White creature for eating your villagers, Masters of Albion might scratch that very specific itch. The bones are there. The ambition is there. The heroes, however, are over there - fighting a random goblin while your crypt burns.
Keep this one on your radar, but maybe wait for a few more patches before you commit your in-game civilization to it. Molyneux's track record makes this one equal parts exciting and terrifying - which is honestly the most on-brand thing imaginable.
