Warlock 2: The Exiled turns World War II-style island hopping into a plane-spanning fantasy quest

I hate giant turtles. I want to turn them into turtle soup. These enormous, powerful walking tanks regularly trounce my troops, turning my Planestriders into stains on the Death Shard’s landscape.

Warlock 2: The Exiled, a PC game from developer Ino-Co Plus and publisher Paradox, is the successor to the out-of-nowhere original, a genuine surprise from 2012 that turned out to be one of the best fantasy-themed 4X strategy games (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) since the classic Master of Magic. The sequel adds a significant mode that improves its strategic gameplay, though it could use an overall injection of character.