Age of Wonders 3

I usually don't review games, but I'm troubled that the two "most helpful" reviews are factually wrong. I'm not sure what some of these 1 star reviewers are on about. I played in offline, "guest," mode only for the first week that I had this game and was able to use the full features of the game, including saving and changing settings, except for multi-player. It even saves the custom heroes you create on your guest profile. The extent to which it was annoying was that I had to check the "sign-in as guest" button every time. I did enter my serial key, so perhaps that explains the difference. In which case, DRM might matter, but the online account is not necessary for single player.

The game looks pretty, and ran well on my computer which is medium range. AoW3's story falls into an awkward middle between both AoW and SM. There are lead characters and protagonists, and each look different, but ultimately across the many campaigns they aren't well characterized. Your protagonists get a fair shot, with fully voice acted and quite length prologues and epilogues to each campaign, and some character growth depending on the choices you make. I found the campaign to be enjoyable, but not particularly memorable. (I've only played the Elven Court to completion once and the same with The Commonwealth so there will be endings I haven't seen, and missions I haven't played.) It doesn't have the unit variation that Shadow Magic did, at least not in my view.The T1/T2 units all seemed quite similar. Though, the Draconians have some more outlandish units. Your Leader, and Heroes are upgradeable and have equipment slots. Unfortunately, I felt the equipment available was quite limited, and so too were the pool of upgrades. I only felt like I could really create a specific archetype for each type of hero. This may well be a consequence of your heroes seeming to level much faster than in earlier entries. I would recommend to a fan of the series, and to any Turn-based Strategy fans who aren't strapped for cash. I've no doubt that with the level editing tools and continued development that this game will provide entertainment for years to come.

AoW3 is for me the best fantasy 4x experience you can get to this point and in the near future. i loved age of wonders - shadow magic (AoW 2.5) and had clocked many hours into the game. this new entry is loaded with depth, known from older titles with all its beloved core features. it also adds some nice new mechanics like classes, some improvements to tactical combat (flanking, opportunity attacks, etc.) and wonderful 3D visuals! the AI right now is very good, which for me is one big factor if a strategy, more importantly a 4x game is worth the buy. lets be honest, multiplayer is nice but most 4x lovers play singleplayer because they like epic campaigns and that is exactly what you get here. the random map generator gives out maps which just look awesome and could very well be made by hand which shows the degree of effort they put into these feature to present organic and believable playgrounds. the customization in this game is wonderful, starting with the many options of customization for the maps to advanced gameplay rules and not even ending at the superb character designer where you can create your leader after your liking.

I've played thousands of hours of several turn based strategy games, Age of Wonders I, II and shadow magic among them. I started the game trying the campaign, but quickly left it there to begin a new random scenario like I always do in all the TBS games I play. And this game, boy this game has such variety and depth that I spent over 1 hour just on the custom leader creation screen. Simply creating the leader was a whole experience, if you like playing these games to tell yourself a story --like I do-- then the very moment you begin making your wizard you will feel immersed in your own fantasy (there are so many customization options, so many, to make your own leader based on your own vision) The game doesn't disappoint, the Civ5-like interface is a pleasure to nagivate, the music is different but just as good as AoW:SM, and, what can I say... it's wonderful. Playing the game I continued feeling I was inside my story (I restarted the map to set the land to be more desolate, just like imagined it). The feeling was even more immersive than AoW:SM thanks to the immense amount of customization available, I haven't even finished my game, and I love this. If you're a fan of the previous incarnations of the game, and do not mind trading variety of races for other kinds of variety, then you won't regret purchasing this game. If you are like me, and enjoy random maps the most, then get it and play it!.