Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

As a life long fan of real-time and turn-based strategy games I can honestly say hand on heart that this is the best I've ever played and that I'm seriously angry at myself for not buying it when it was first released. For over a decade I played Warlords III both Reign of Heroes and Darklords Rising, dabbled in Heroes of Might and Magic, played all the Total War games avidly, enjoyed hours on end of Galactic Civilizations 2 and just generally looked everywhere for the next great turn-based strategy. Only last Friday did I discover it when I bought Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. As a turn-based strategy fan there are certain elements that are essentials for me such as a good random map generator to lend a game incredible replay value, hotseat mode so you can play with your friends huddled around a single PC and a host of options that allow you to tailor your gameplay experience. Shadow Magic delivers all of these in such a spectacular fashion that it absolutely shames the games I previously considered the cream of the crop. The game offers you a campaign, scenarios, multiplayer and as stated, randomly generated maps where you can customise almost every aspect of the game to your liking including how powerful heroes can get, how many neutral units appear and the kind of terrain that is allowed. There are ten distinct factions to play these modes with, some your typical fantasy fare like Elves and Dwarves and others more original like the Tigran and the Syrons. These factions, or races, aren't merely comprised of different units either. Each of them have very unique attributes that demands you altar your style of play accordingly. For example the Nomads have the ability to simply pack up and move their cities being comprised as they are of tents. That is the kind of cool and well throught out feature that Shadow Magic is jam-packed with. You can compete against up to eight opponents in a scenario and there are six difficulty levels that you can set them to individually but be warned, even the weakest AI opponent can trample the unwary. It certainly did me. The map sizes range from small to absolutely massive (to use my own terms) and what's more, can be comprised of up to three layers, surface, underground and Shadowland so if it's an epic conflict you're looking for, then look no further. The gameplay itself consists of acquiring and developing cities, sites and armies on the strategic map and leading your forces in tactical conflict in the battle map when the time comes. Unlike in a lot of games of this type, one does not feel more solid than the other. You never find yourself wishing you were in another battle or back on the strategic map because both are so enjoyable to play. Great warriors, powerful magic, research, development, heroes, magic items, diplomacy, economics... everything you could hope for will play a part in your victory. Finally the game comes with tools that allow you to mod almost every aspect of the game that you could possibly wish to and there is a community still kicking over at Heaven Games with plenty of additional game content both already made and in the making. Not only that but they're damn nice guys over there who have helped me immeasurably in understanding the game since it's infinitely more complex than Warlords and this gog version, rather surprisingly, does not come with the manual in PDF format which is a massive oversight. In summary, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is truly one of the greatest games I've ever played and I've been gaming now for two decades solid across multiple platforms. My only regret was that I didn't buy it when I witnessed its released back in 2004.

As someone who'd missed out on the AoW series but was a fan of the Civ games (especially Civilization 2), I'd been waiting on this title to release. I'd read that it was an improvement on AoW2 and the graphics looked to be way better than AoW1. Plus it has a random map generator. So far, so good after about 4-6 hours of gameplay. Although GOG says it includes a manual, I didn't see that on the downloads page. However, there is an extensive tutorial in-game, so not really a need for a manual in my opinion. As others have described, this is basically a fantasy version of the Civ series. So anyone who likes that series and is into fantasy realm type stuff, you'll enjoy this. It has some cool differences such as starting out with a wizard (customizable) who can cast spells each turn, including during combat. And you can pick up mercenary units for a price, plus units all have the ability to level up. Very cool. So basically, I'd say this game is worth the $10 price tag. If you're on the fence about it, search YouTube and there are a few gameplay videos that can give you an idea of what it's like. Thanks GOG!

I got this game because I love Master of Magic, I just really can't deal with some of the issues MoM has anymore and I needed something fresh along the same lines. Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is the game I have been looking for. Pros: Decent graphics Custom Scenario Creator Nice music Similarity to Master of Magic (feels close to a sequel) Battles are enjoyable Addictive, fun gameplay Cons: Learning curve - tutorial was too short and not in-depth enough for my tastes and parts of the game feel a little counter-intuitive to me. More combat-focused - for some people, this will be a plus. For me, I enjoy building up an 'empire' before kicking butt. You can do that in this game, it just doesn't seem to be as much of a focus as I'd like it to be. I miss the sparkles from the nodes that were in MoM. LOL. It's a silly, small thing, but the little flag that shows I own the node just isn't as exciting as sparkling colors. :) Overall, I am glad I bought this game and feel it has high re-playability like Master of Magic.

This is one of the greatest games ever made. Question is, does it work on modern systems? -Short answer, yes. But keep reading. -The game starts with extra graphic effects turned off. To turn them on, press ctrl+r. -If you do this, your frame rate 'could' tank after some playing. You can just turn them off again. -The game has some impressive campaign maps but the individual scenarios are too symetrical and dull. This can be fixed. -Download the unofficial community patch 1.4. It fixes many aspects of the game without tampering with core gameplay. -Patch 1.4 also gives you access to SUPERB community maps that fixes the problem mentioned above. That's all you need to know to enjoy this incredible game in 2023.