Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne

I played "Age of Wonders" around the time when I was hyped (again) on "Heroes of Might and Magic 3" as I was searching for games in similar fashion. The most common opinion on the net was that AOW2 (along with "Disciples 2" and "King's Bounty") was the most similar experience to Heroes. So I gave it a go. Before going further I would like to point out that despite the above, AOW2 ISN'T the same as Heroes. Yes, it's a turn-based strategy set in a fantasy setting, but for the most part that is where the similarities end; in stead of stacks, you get single units, which can even travel through the world alone, without the need of a "hero". There are no, different "towns" and you are given, rather common, actual races to choose from (such as orcs, elves etc.). Unit statistics are also different. The gameplay of AOW2 is not that different from Heroes: you have a map and take turns to do whatever it is you feel like doing that will help you achieve victory (generally granted to the "last side standing"). Much like Heroes, battles between your armies take place on a battlefield, which is a separated map from the main one and pops up whenever your encounter enemies. During battle, each unit (specifically NOT a stack) has a limit to what it can do: move, attack etc. Because each unit is an individual, you can even encounter suicide bombers among the unit types that die upon attack, but cause decent chunks of splash damage. Another thing of note is that flying units are constantly in the air, so you'll need shooters to bring them down (or flyers of your own). Most of these things you learn pretty quickly, so it doesn't hinder you much during the game. In the base game you have 12 races to choose from (3 more are added in the expansion): elves, dwarves, halflings and archons (the good); humans, tigrian, frostling and draconian (neutral) plus orcs, goblins, dark elves and undead (evil). Most are common sides in fantasy conflicts. From the lesser known archons can be considered demigods or angels, tigrians are desert-dwelling cat people, frostlings live in the forzen wastes, draconian are humanoid dragons and YES: orcs and goblins are two, separate armies in this game. Each army has 4 tiers or units; some are unique to their race, but commonly each unit has its own counterpart in other armies. They look different and have different statistics, but most of this is cosmetic - where Halflings have "pony riders", orcs have "heavy cavalry", while humans have "cavalry". Units specific to an army are few (such as human flying galley or the mentioned suicide bombers in goblin lineup). Be warned however as after training them, each unit has a certain upkeep. The battles themselves are nice; can require some getting used to, but as a whole you can jump right in and won't have much trouble in knowing your way around. Magic is also an integral part of the game and can be cast during battle as well as outside of it. This is where towns come in handly - while your wizard is in one, he/she has a certain sphere of influence and can cast spells even on battlefields he/she isn't part of. Area management becomes helpful, so that is another thing to look out for. The graphics are decent - they may not be timeless like in Heroes 3, but they aren't ugly, so you'll either admire them or quit paying much attention quickly. The music isn't bad either, but it isn't particularly memorable. Generally AOW2 is a decent TBS - it may not be the pinnacle of such genre (like many, myself included, consider HoMM3), but it is certainly better than a great deal of other titles created in a similar vein. In some places it sports "quantity over quality" philosophy, but if you enjoy TBS, I believe you'll like AOW2 anyway. Just don't be surprised if it won't blow your mind.

If you love high-fantasy, this is a great game. There are multiple races: elves, goblins, humans, undead, hobbits, dark elves, orcs, goblins, frostlings (icy half-lings), tigrans (cat-people) and draconoids etc. Each has a variety of units: meele, missle, mounted, flying etc. You get a variety of spells depending on your sphere: life, death, fire, water, air, earth etc. You get summoning spells, combat spells, area spells, spells that change the terrain of the whole map, spells that buff units and so on. You get items to give your wizard and heroes special abilities. Its a mix of strategy and RPG. Graphics are 2D, but look acceptable even at modern high resolutions, though the game may lag a bit at some instances. If you've played Shadow Magic or AoW1 beforehand, I would still recommend this, it has less variety than Shadow-Magic but its engaging content nonetheless, if you have to choose between the two then you should probably go with Shadow Magic, since other than the maps and story, the remaining content is a subset of Shadow Magic. Being an old game this lacks some of the finesse of modern titles, for example there is no quicksave, no Esc key shortcut to get to the game's menu, no handholding or visual cues or even a menu stating objectives or goals of the mission (most of the times the implicit goal is to defeat everyone else who isn't an ally). I also found it insanely difficult, I tend to play modern titles on hard and this takes a lot of effort even on easy, because you almost always start with no proper cities or income while your enemies are well established ... unless you can pick up fast, your enemies may get disproportionately strong and you will won't be able to withstand their onslaught.

Deliciously playable, despite being a 20 years old game. Excellent vintage. Even has the nobility of looking beautiful in widescreen resolution without any tweaking. Masterpiece.

The storyline doesn't come close to being as good as AOW1's writing, and the gameplay suffers from a few quirks that were corrected or improved in Shadow Magic. Worth playing, but it's very much a middle child.

I loved the original version of the game, and this one was different enough that it wasn't just a rehash of the original. For starters in the original game you choose to play as the good guys or the bad guys, and that was pretty much it. In this game you progress through each of the areas of magic using different armies in each game. Your character is more of the king now than an adventurer. You want to keep him in your capital because he can influence your entire kingdom from there. The only gripe that I would have is that I would have loved to be able to zoom in and out on the playing map a little. The cities, and the army icons are all quite large, so it would be easy to zoom out and see a larger playing area if the game would permit that.