Age of Wonders 3

Score: 7/10 - Not Mediocre. It's hard to get me to like most strategy games, and I really enjoyed this one. Had to knock it down a whole point due to the lack of available servers & players online. Hot take: Six years after its original release, Age of Wonders III still stands as a remarkably competent and fun 4x turn-based strategy and tactical combat game. Triumph Studios two-games-in-one approach sets Age of Wonders III in a rare cross-genre we only see come out of the Total War franchise. It's immensely exciting and fun at the onset, but it does begin to drag on and show it's repetitiveness after 20-40 hours. If you're already a fan of this style game, you could very easily double or triple that number. Unfortunately, multiplayer is almost entirely dead. Single player or LAN games would be your only viable options. If you've not played this wonder of a game - I'd recommend you give this one a shot. It has a lot to offer, particularly in it's tactical combat battles. Plus - I've seen this title go on sale for as low as $7.50. That's a bargain for a game that you will easily put 30+ hours into playing. Pros: - Sprawling tactical battles spice up the long game by providing a variety challenges one must strategize on in order to succeed. - Beautiful, lush graphics that keep up with 2020 standards for strategy games. - Heroes provide an RPG-esque feel by finding loot which can be equipped along with leveling-up which provides ability points - both of which are used to further buff your hero. - High level of replayability. - "Just one more turn!" Cons: - Multiplayer is dead. Local LAN or private games are your only hope for such competition. - Campaign story is tired and uninspired. - Simultaneous turns results in some confusing and frustrating delays. Some clicks take upwards of 20 seconds to register, worrying the player that their game may have crashed. Thanks for reading! Cheers,

In few ways it's less clunky than it's predecessors. On the other hand 3D Graphics, while pretty, makes it harder to read the terrain. Overall the game isn't bad. While better than the first but I wouldn't say it's signifficantly better from the two previous ones. And don't get me started with the fact that you have to create some online account and have constand internet connection in ordrer to play even the so called "offline version". Absolutely disappointed and disgusted.

This is a game I've had most fun with. At first I was not as enthusiastic, because it had a slower tempo than AoW2, but it grew on me. Graphis: 5/5 It's very good, and I feel like I am in a different place. Music 5/5: Fits the atmosphere. Great for many hours, FireSong, especially. Re-playability 5/5: I can play this game, for hundreds of hours, and still not get tired of it. The mini rewards themselves, like completing a quest, or finding an item, or promoting a unit/hero makes the game very rewarding, and relaxing even. Challenge 4/5: Once you get the hang of it, after many tens/hundreds of hours invested, it's never a great challenge no matter the settings, although, before that, I thought the add-on campaigns were quite challenging. You still have the ability to play against other humans to make it more challenging. Price 5/5: Worth more than what it's being sold for.

I loved AOW and Aow2. When I saw this game I ignored all of the warnings, and the DRM (shame on you GOG for lying about being DRM free) and bought it + DLC without a second thought. DO NOT REPEAT MY MISTAKE! Don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, smooth, and has an interesting story, but the AI and RNG will destroy you. I'm not a great tactician but when I have two full stacks of units(mix of infantry ,archers, cavalry, and two heroes) vs three sprites and a very likely victory on the descriptor I don't think there is any chance I can lose by pressing auto resolve, I was very, very wrong. Also never auto resolve a siege it doesn't matter how many troops you have or how great your defenses are you will lose. The enemy Ai also has a nasty habit of suddenly becoming psychic when you declare war on them, and will relentlessly zero in on your troops/cities with the exact number and types of troops to crush you every time. I played five games where the AI dispelled all of my max power global spells on the first try while my attempts on his low power spells failed at least four times in a row before succeeding. This publisher is now on my "Never buy from" list.

Been playing this on Steam because I had bought it many years ago before Gog. I enjoy Age of Wonders 3 so much that I bought it here again to ensure I'll never lose it. Close to flawless - the main flaw I can point to the game is its publisher, Paradox, with it's very abusive T&C. In that vein, the game start includes some kind of delay even if we select "Sign in as guest" to play offline only - quite likely an Internet request which who knows what is doing: maybe sending info from us back to them (benign telemetry or?); maybe checking if there's new (even more abusive) T&C to then stop the game from working until we accept them again (I think this has already happened once); maybe some kind of check which if the company and servers go down it will stop working permanently? Who knows...