Age of Wonders 3

Finished HoMM3 and all addons, looked for a new game. It is good, but not as good HoMM3

I found this game really awesome. However I also found it to be very long, dragging out and almost too much information to digest all at once. Comparing this game to might and magic, though of course this game is different in its own right. One of the major problems I found was the turn based combat; It is very unforgiving (norm difficulty) and I felt no way near as good as the might and magic combat system as flanking exploits is basically what it is about. Secondly I really dislike the hero structure (based off the previous games as well) with the leveling up stats and items. I find the might and magic structure far superior instead of customizing your hero with special passive abilities, stat upgrades ect as it becomes tedious work referencing what can help you ect. The narration and atmosphere is excellent, the game is excellent but expect a lot of hours and a steep learning curve if you buy this game. I am sure the rewards in doing so are excellent but most people with busy lives such as myself will find this game appealing due to the slow paced nature of this game. That said if you have time to read a slab of text in the encyclopedia to learn and have time, I highly recommend this to you.

One star less for the registration process to enjoy the FULL game. The single player works like a charm in guest mode so it's more per principle of registration being there. I did not expect *wonders* from the new age of wonders, but this game was a pleasant surprise. I must say I was a bit skeptical about this game - I personally considered (and still do) age of wonders- shadow magic to be the pinnacle of turn based strategy games, so I'm going to start with what I'm missing from the grand title: - Wizard tower - yes, the ugly tall thing that allowed you to stretch control over a huge area. - semi permanent world changing spells (combined with the tower it created a great feeling as you could see the green pastures turn to gray blighted land or vice versa) - Real undead as a race - bone horrors and wraights (the developers are adding necromancer class now) -REDUCED PARTY SIZE(gods why... whyyyy?!) // It's more painful because of the great things the game has as support/caster characters and redone heroes Now the great things: Despite my initial bad feelings, the game class system is great! Every race has few racial units plus a number of class based units that are almost identical for the every race. Dreadnought - creates heavy war machines. Rogue - sends out bards, succubi(!) shadows, sorcerer relies on summons Less spells, but a lot more interesting empire upgrades - instead of the ever present +20% to whatever, some upgrades give you faster movement for certain units, other will give you more from the dwellings etc. And rogue has an upgrade that will transform his cheap units on promotion into wraight-like shadows that in turn evolve into a greater shadow! Artifact forge has been nerfed, so no more double-strike+shock+lifesteal cheese in late game.

This game was the best purchase I ever made on GOG. Very few bugs, good campaigns, good graphics, wonderful ideas and a single player random map modus, that you could play to infinity. And it got very good expansions with Golden realms and eternal lords, that bring some interesting game changes and new races.

In my quest to find the best Civ/HoMM-mashup it wasn't too hard to find Age of Wonders. I've only had minor experience with the franchise before, in the form of Shadow Magic (which consistently CTDs after a couple of turns, so there's that), but the idea is appealing. The game combines the research and city-building aspects of Civ with the Hero-based spellcasting, looting and advanced combat of HoMM. The good: * The combat is much better than HoMM. You've got more choices, more varied battlegrounds and both your troops and heroes advance in level. Ranged troops being unable to fire straight across the battleground means tactics do matter. * No stacks of doom. In AoW you build single units, which stack up to 6 (including your hero) rather than ending up with thousands of weenies like in HoMM or single units like in Civ5. * The questline is generic but the scenarios play out well. * Plenty of options with gear, abilities and monster-infested crypts to explore for your heroes. * Siege mechanics are good, as there's actually a considerable advantage to building walls. * Different hero classes bring quite different playstyles and unit focuses. The bad: * The UI is atrocious, clicky and inconsistent. There are numerous examples (such as "cancel" being the default when choosing how to deal with a newly conquered city) but the worst offender is the lack of loading during combat sequences. This means that if a key unit or hero dies early on (the combats can be very long) you're forced to suicide your entire team, click through three different popups and /then/ be allowed to load the game. * Combat focuses way too much on flanking. * While there's plenty of options for heroes and units the same cannot be said for town improvements. Final verdict is lukewam. I find myself drifting towards other games in the genre every time I've played it for more than an hour or two. It could be great but lacks polish, and the frustrating UI only exacerbate the problem.