Age of Wonders 4 Review (Wolfshanze)
Short Review:
YES... thumbs up... it's enjoyable, fun to play (now), and will soak up countless hours of happiness. Buy it!
Long Review:
First off, a bit of background... I'm an old PC Gamer who loves the 4X-format. I have played EVERY version of AoW as they released including AoW1 back in 1999. I spent a LONG time playing AoW3, and couldn't wait for AoW4, I was first in-line!
I waited nearly a year after release of AoW4 to actually write a POSITIVE review. This game released back in May of 2023, and initially I was hypnotized by the flashy graphics and interesting game mechanics... it probably wasn't until my 2nd or 3rd game after release where I started to notice a problem... I felt alone... VERY ALONE... like I wasn't even playing anyone else (aka: the AI). Simply put, in my opinion, the AI was AFK on launch. It would just sit there and rarely do ANYTHING. It might declare war on you and... NOTHING... you might attack it, they would hide in their cities or run for the hills... you could leave empty cities 10 feet from their biggest armies and they would do NOTHING AT ALL.
I kept waiting for a patch, an update, a DLC... SOMETHING that would address the AI.. I played, trying to enjoy everything else that was wonderful about the game, but the AI was just so bad... and after the first DLC came out (Dragon Dawn) and the AI WAS STILL Garbage... I played a game or two of Dragon Dawn, sank my head, and stopped playing all-together... the AI was that useless. I asked around during the 2nd DLC, Empires and Ashes... heard the AI was still broken and didn't bother.
FInally... when the 3rd DLC, Primal Fury came out they did a major fix to the AI and I was back... Did they really fix the major problems with the AI? Yes, it's day and night better than the launch AI (and you don't need to buy any DLC to get the AI fix, that comes standard with the free updates).
I guess this is kind of expected of a typical Paradox game. It launches with... well "issues"... and eventually, over time, it gets better and better and better. It's why i waited nearly a year to write a review on a game I started playing a year ago. Had I written an honest review a year ago, I would have given this game a Thumbs-Down. If, like me, you played this game on launch and gave up because of the AI, give it another go, they fixed the AI. If you were waiting for it to be out long enough to get enough updates to be a solid game... now is the time to jump in. As a veteran Age of Wonders player, I'd easily say WITH THE PRIMAL FURY/WOLF UPDATE, AoW4 is now every bit as good or better than the final version of AoW3... and there's still more DLCs coming (or so they say).
The graphics, gameplay, spells, item forge, etc, etc, etc... it's all awesome. If you like 4X games and a fantasy setting, you owe yourself playing Aow4... you don't need the DLCs to have a good time, but they add a lot of extra content to the game.
Thumbs Up, highly recommended.