Age of Wonders 3

I have been playing the random maps and thus far the game itself is very enjoyable. It doesn't seem to have the vast selection of, well anything that AoW2:SM. The selection that I am talking about are game mechanics such as Races, spells, abilities, etc. Now that is not to say that AoW3 is not enjoyable, as noted above it is thus far very fun and the team that put it together did a good job. So why the 3 star rating instead of a 4 or even a 5? The initial screen heavily encourages you to create an account to play online. You do have the option to *not* create an online account and play as a 'guest' but you're losing several functions when you go this route. The game for all intents and purposes does indeed have a limited form of online DRM built into it as a result. I buy games on GoG to avoid the DRM nightmare so this is rather sad to find here. At the end of the day, if you can live with playing as a guest and not getting all of the perks then I encourage you to buy this game. If you cannot, then avoid it. I personally am split and having per-ordered the game prior to seeing reviews with this information I cannot exactly go back and prevent myself from buying it. I will say that this will be the last pre-order I do on GoG. I dislike nonsense such as this.

With Age of Wonders III and Endless Space to play, my cup of 4X is overflowing! What I like about AOW3 is that they included a fleshed-out singleplayer campaign on top of the excellent mechanics. The developers have done their homework (well, it IS the third instalment, so they ought to have by now) and the game does not shy from Civilisation standards in mechanics or visual aesthetics. Except the Race Avatars. They're just straight-off creepy to look at, deep in the uncanny valley over here, by far the roughest-looking thing in the game - and you're playing as one... Speaking of depth, the game has plenty of it. There is a hearty variety of different upgrades, perks, and bonuses available to customise your heroes with, and all that is complemented by over 10 inventory slots (plus a separate passive inventory, holy moly). This does not get overwhelming, however, as everything is well-paced, rather straightforward, and you have excellent in-game help for EVERYTHING in the Tome of Wonders. Cities and units have a more rudimentary upgrade system, but that just prevents the game from plummeting into endless micromanagement - and makes the lack of Governor AI excusable (you CAN release cities as AI Vassals, but you lose out on production). The tactical combat is the cherry on top of the depth cake, as you can make the most of your units and army compositions instead of just watching your units duke things out. I'm more used to the HOMM mechanic of stacks weakening as they lose units/health, but here I think the 'full power until dead' works just as well - just have to remind myself to Kill, not Stun. So far I have been enthralled by the singleplayer campaign (8-10 hours deep) and haven't played multiplayer, so take this as a glowing review of the singleplayer experience.

This Game is like coming home. But with Monsters. And Quests. And Treasure. It is good clean fun. It's Sequel is pretty good too. But just when i thought i was out...

good

Great strategy game and runs really well.