Age of Wonders 3

"By playing any game published by Paradox Interactive AB, you (i) agree to be bound by the User Agreement and (ii) confirm that you have read and understood the Privacy Policy." These are ordinarily listed as "Acceptance of End-User License Agreement required in order to play", or something to that extent, on GOG. This is deceptive and misleading. Too bad—you could have had a second sale on the same title, as I already purchased it on Steam. However, having noticed this statement, I will not be buying this game again—or any other from Paradox, for that matter. Enough is enough.

I quite liked AoW3 on release, but it didn't fully hold my attention. The earlier games in the series just seemed to have more of everything. Now, more than a year down the line, that has definitely changed. Not only have the expansions/DLCs added many features, but the patches the developers are steadily pushing out have improved the base game a -lot-. - The game is more balanced, with the AI being much more fun to play against and not spamming so much stuff. - The basic race-units have been made more varied. Dwarves now get the defensive strike ability allowing them to attack without exposing their flanks, Orcs get warcries that boost their attacks. Where before races felt "same-ish" compared to Shadow Magic and the like, now they're much more distinct. - Class-units have likewise been made more varied. A Draconian apprentice will now have a different attack than an Elven apprentice. A Goblin manticore rider has different abilities than a Dwarven one. - New gameplay systems have been added like Champion levels allowing all units to gain infinite levels from combat, or racial happiness requiring you to consider your treatment of all the different races in your empire. - And much more! I encourage anyone who kind-of liked the game on release, or was put off by the weak points listed in some reviews, to give this game another look, and perhaps the expansions also. It has become one of my favourite strategy games since the last patch. (Oh, and it still doesn't have DRM. I've never created any kind of online account or activated anything and have been playing for a year now.)

Master of Magic is one of my all time favorite DOS games and I've read on many MoM sites and forums that Age of Wonders 3 is pretty much the same. After putting in ~8 hours I've got to say that is pretty spot on. So if you're a fan of MoM this game is an absolute MUST. The improvements between the two games are as follows: -Hex maps -Your Wizard is now a Champion that fights on the field (massive improvement) and allows you to cast wherever they are -Races have their own disposition towards you. -More tactical choices -Streamlined Mechanics -Less Bugs -Better and more clear diplomacy Things that I'm not crazy about: -Graphics. I miss the pixel art style, and the new look tends to blend together and I often made mistakes because of misreading what was going on. -The memory management is sloppy and often times AI actions are playing catch up while you're making moves and can effect game play. For example you can look at an enemy occupied tile and decide to move into it, but then suddenly more enemies will move into the spot while moving. AND depending on how fast you click can determine rather or not the moving enemy army will be in the battle. -Not enough character creation options. There are only a few races, and there are only two non-magic perks/traits. One gives your cities faster growth (awesome!) while the other lets your cities and troops see one more tile (whoopty-freaking-doo!). -Units move too much in one turn making it impossible to react to enemies moving into cities. -WAY too much combat and not nearly enough time spent building your empire. The combat is fun, but it's like 4 fights a turn. -Combat and city building is a steep learning curve.

NOT DRM-free! Online connection required to access all game features.

Age of wonders is a turn based strategy game in which you customize your lead character, choose the race your are going to play and then set off to explore a fantasy themed world. The game focusses very much on strategical movement on the map as well as in the tactical combats, so don't expect as much "quite time" as in e.g. civ. when you are not waging a war you are busy to explore the many treasure sites for economic advantage, items and/or new spells. Things that made me give 5 stars are: - It has the best tactical combat system I have seen so far. - Due to many different units, races, classes and specialisations you can choose from it has a high replay value - Despite being so rich in structures and units it is fairly balanced. - It is great fun in multiplayer and a game can be actually finished in 2 hours. The few bad things nearly all AI related: - Sometimes the AI moves itself in unneccesary awkward positions on the strategic map - The AI "cheats" it basically knows where all your units are, except those that have been invisible for some turns, so its much harder to sneak by the AI than a human player. - No Linux support for AoW on GoG at the moment of this review. But those problems are more than offset by the really great and immersive gameplay :)