izigame.me

I am a huge fan of the AoW series and was really hyped about the newest installment. I was really happy to see the series going back in the direction of AoW2 again and reintroducing the wizards of old (now named Godir).

TLDR:

If you’re a fan of the series,... then wait for this game to be on sale. It’s ok, but it’s not really much better than any other 4X game out there. It still suffers from the same issue AoW3 has and plays as a generic 4x game with no real identity or focus, so it doesn’t feel like Age of Wonders. The seemingly random and weird progression through the tomes (part of this game’s tech tree) don’t really focus your empire enough to be distinct and at some point everything becomes a blur of subsequent races and heroes that you just throw in doomstacks on that of the enemy without a sense of connection to it.

Performance:

First off, performance wise I have not experienced any issue with the game. It ran smoothly and well on the highest setting for me. Even at the end of an 6ish hour long game it still ran well. Obviously the turns take longer at the end due to the fact there’s more units to move around, but it never got to a point where I felt I was waiting too long.I have seen reviews saying different, but for me this was working really well.

Graphics & UI:

Visually this game looks really stunning.The world is breathtaking at times and the units and leaders look good enough to be used as character/box art. Later on when you get to customize your race (more on that below) they look immersive and even more impressive. Also the magic visuals are pretty well done The UI is pretty good and the tooltips are helpful and give enough info to help without overwhelming you with too much detail info.

Gameplay:

Same as in AoW3, this game focuses on city building in a way that is very close to a Civ game. Except it does it just a little worse in the sense that it’s all a little less clean and obvious as it would be in one of those games. On it’s own that’s not a big deal, but unlike a civ game, cities in AoW are rather bland and “universally good at everything”. They don’t shape with the terrain they are in, they all look the same and somehow they can all specialize in everything you would want, even if the terrain around it doesn’t seem suitable for it. This makes them very flexible, yes, but at the same time also generic and forgettable. Even the wizard towers that are reintroduced in this game seem to be a minor feature to the city instead of the centerpiece they used to be. Losing one (city or wizard tower) is just an annoyance now and not the empire crippling disaster it used to be.
The world generation itself is as good as always. The world look nice and pretty varied. However (and this is an annoyance to me, and I know many disagree with me on that), just like in AoW3 there’s just too much random stuff in it. Especially at the start of the game, you can’t walk 2 steps without at least seeing 3 to 5 random loot/resource nodes/whatever with some independents on it. It makes the world just feel cluttered and hard to keep overview of what’s where. In AoW 1 or 2 you’d be happy to have a mine and would work hard to keep them safe. Now I just let independents or enemies go around and pillage the lands if that means I don’t need to leave my safe cities.
The magic (research) system in the game is done well I think. With the introductions of tomes in the game your research is both following a tech tree like progression through unlocking new tomes. Yet it is still randomized to a degree as the spells inside a tome come up in random orders. The only issue with it is that it seems to be non-logical at times? Why do I need research into “chaos” tomes in order to unlock new fire tomes?I get what they were trying to do by introducing tomes and somewhat tying it into empire development, and I like the idea. I just think they combined it strangely, especially when it becomes impossible to build that fire race/wizard without having them be cannibals too.

Customization:

I need to stress before getting into this point that I love customization. I love to build my own unique races/cultures or whatever. It’s the part I spend most time with in games like CK and Stellaris. So when AoW came up with things like this I was over the moon. And it was one, if not the, major reason I was hyped about the game.
In AoW the custimization looks really cool! The way you can modify your rulers and races is done really well,... visually. Gameplay wise however,... There is 15 minor and 5 major traits you can modify to your species to make them different (outside of even more enchantments, but these are just things like fire arrows etc.). Especially the major ones are so overpowered compared to the other ones that you will always want to apply them. The downside of this, is that it makes all previous customizations no longer relevant. Your enemies obviously will do the same and the strategy of the game from that point on only comes down to “who has the biggest stack”.
Another drawback is that your carefully chosen perks and look of your species gets overwritten by that new major trait, and you are no longer playing with your frostling frogs with stoneskin, but a bunch undead zombies (wightborn).
Further on the customization is that it all looks really well, rulers can be made how you like them based on a few preset faces, body settings etc., that you can combine in various combinations. I would personally have liked a bit more variety here, but I understand that 8 faces for a human male, also means 8 for the female and then the same number again for all the 10 races making it 160 in total. It just doesn’t feel like that when I am trying to make me ingame xD.


Story & Pantheon:

The story, for as far I have played it, seems to be sparse. There’s no elaborate campaign with branching stories like in AoW1, outside of a few story missions. I could be wrong here, only have 3 unlocked so far, but the game seems to focus fully on your “pantheon”, which is a collection of rulers you have created or recruited over the course of your games that you can then send on out to a new world to conquer for a new game/map. By doing so you can unlock some new customization items which you can use to tweak the look of your rulers.
This is a part I am rather disappointed with to be honest. Because after having played a 10ish maps, I am still wondering what exactly a pantheon is good for? I have a list of predefined custom characters now that I can place in a world and that’s it. It has no story element to it whatsoever. It feels like a direct takeover from the “empire” system from AoW Planetfall, which basically did the same thing, but was a side feature to the game, not the overarching element that is supposed to string all the maps/games together in a cohesive story/adventure that it is in AoW4.
I feel this part of the game is completely neglected and needs work. Simple things like claiming this to be a 3rd faction, next to the Covenant and Shad’rai would have done something already. Even better if you could set up a hierarchy within your wizards that are part of it. Like wizard A one is always a hero for wizard B, and these wizards are my factions “ruling council” or this one is my “emperor”.

Conclusion:

All in all I would rate this game 7/10. I know I mostly pointed out the things I am disappointed in. But that’s because I had high hopes for the game. It’s a decent enough 4X game, but it’s just so bland it fails to stand out well. Wait for this game to be on sale and you’ll get decent value for your money.
That being said, if they address the issues I mentioned with the already announced upcoming DLC (it’s still distributed by Paradox haha), then this game might become great!

P.S. Triumph studios, if you are reading this, I love you, but please bring back Meandor.