[HoneyBadger]

The truest heir to Master of Magic that I've ever played has been Lords of Magic: Special Edition.

Not an exact copy ofcourse, but definitely similar beyond mere reminiscence. And it quite possibly
has the most sheerly beautiful (map) scenery porn in any game, ever. It's very much like playing on
some centuries old Italian master's oilpaint landscape.

The game itself is fun, and the (many) elementally derived Nations play differently, because they are different. This does affect the balance a bit, unfortunately, but not horribly so, and anyway, you can play every single Nation, ranging from the very benign to the very evil.

The focus is on heroes, which are generally incorporated very well into the game. It's a little bit like Warcraft 3 in that aspect, but to my mind, the incorporation seems even a little bit smoother in terms of the gameplay, considering LoM:SE is years older. Storywise, there isn't much, ofcourse, but the game lends itself well to making up your own story, as you go along.

The AI is also not great, and it's a fairly easy game to play, and beat (perhaps a little too much so),
but there's multiplayer support, and from what I've heard (I haven't tried it), it isn't awful. I couldn't find an item editor, though, and I don't believe the game itself has very powerful modding tools.

Even if not terribly challenging, games are long and feel suitably epic, atleast in a "better than average saturday morning fantasy b movie" kind of way (think "Krull", "Beastmaster", "Hawk the Slayer" etc. but with better special effects and slightly more coherant story.), so it's a pleasant way to spend an afternoon actually enjoying a game experience, rather than fighting for survival.

The nicest part is, I got my copy for less than 10$, and that was years ago. Unfortunately, for everyone else, it's currently around $45 at Amazon. Worth it, though, in my opinion.

Does the game have a personality? Yes, and a fairly well-adjusted one at that, I think.