Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

Yes Disciples is dark and delicious and HOMM is heavenly and habit forming. But, the Age of Wonders series is the true spiritual successor to Master of Magic - also available at GOG. Age of Wonders Shadow Magic is the best of the series. The ability to customize your game is simply breathtaking in scope. The replayability factor of this title is off the charts with a robust map editor plus a random map generator that actually works! In addition, Age of Wonders (all titles) still has a very large and active community. I STILL play this game and bought when it was released back in the day. The A.I. is simply excellent and the graphics have a nice Lord of the Rings feel to them. Buy this game if you are into many hours of high fantasy goodness.

This is quite simply the best turn-based fantasy strategy and tactical game ever made. (Age 3 aspired to the position but sadly falls very short of the goal.) The storyline is nearly as good as AOW1. The high point, for me, was playing as Meandor and conquering the capital of the human empire - at last! The Dark Prince gets his revenge, and gets to be a good guy while doing it! All of the campaign scenarios are interesting and neither too long nor too short, often with interesting discoveries to be made if you go poking around in strange corners of the maps. The ending is a worthy ending to the Age of Wonders story (Age 3 does pick up afterwards but doesn't reach the same heights). The multiplayer is excellent. I used to play AOWSM games in MP regularly every week or so for years. There may be some quirkiness in getting people all into a lobby but once the game gets going it's very solid. The various races are extremely well balanced while also playing quite differently. You can also find, on HeavenGames, a huge library of AOWSM custom maps made by players, including quite a lot designed for single-player use. So if MP is not your thing or if you can't find people to play with, there's still a tremendous variety of content available. One of my favorite games of all time.

It wasn't until recently that I really feel in love with 4x style games when I played Civ V. For me Civ V was a revelation and from that point on I wanted to play more 4x styled games, so I searched the past and the present for games that would fill my fancy and since then I have played many 4x games. And While I have now played many great games, I seemed to run into a big issue, many 4x games felt obtuse either in UI or mechanics or the tutorial was lacking for me, and this all accumulated into a difficult time in learning how to play a game until I could finally enjoy it. Now I'm usually one for such a challenge and usually detest people who complain about such things. But, id like to think that Civ V spoiled me just a bit. Then I found out about this game Age of wonders: Shadow Magic may be one of the best classic 4x style games with one of the best tutorials I have seen. The UI is fantastic and while it seems somewhat like the older Civ games initially, as you play it it shows itself off as one of the most original 4x games ever. Moving boarders, multiple realms, a separate battle mode that requires strategy and isn't all about rock paper scissors gameplay. This review is for the people out there (like me) who have only just started scratching the itch that is 4x games. I highly recommend this game to those looking for a new experience that is easy to jump right into and understand in a matter of an hour or so. please do yourself a favor and pick up this game.

I picked up the game after watching a few you-tube clips on it. This game is Heroes of Might and Magic 3 meets Civilizations 3. After playing the tutorial missions, I made a custom map and went at it. I looked at the clock and it was 4:30am. HOLY CRAP! This game went beyond the just 1 more turn zone and went into timewarp. Insanely fun imo. If you enjoy the Heroes of Might and Magic/Civ series, BUY THIS.

Very fond of this game, very unique and very fun experience, would recommend to any strategy fan and to most rpg fans out there.