It has surprises. I was particularly impressed with how water works. Nicely done.
I was kiind of enjoying this game. It's no fallout though. What really sunk it for me was when I decided to look up recipes for crafting. Combine 2 golf balls, a matchstick, a paper bag and you have now made a bazooka. Not really but they are pretty much that silly.
Some bugs and balancing issues but I think this game has what POE lacked, a coherent story that does not make me yawn. The combat is responsive and requires some thought and timing. The biggest gripe I have is that the animations seem a little stiff.
I played the heck out of this. I played this enough that it makes me kind of queasy thinking of playing it again. It can be frustrating at the start. I never tried the campaign or scenarios and can speak only to the random maps. There are so many great mods out there for it I never tried the vanilla game, so it may be easier than I think.
It lacks some charm that the other AOW's had, but is a decent game. If it had the variety that Shadowmagic offered, AOW3 would be the bomb. I am bummed about the lack of races. I expect they will turn up in DLC though. That is the way of things nowadays. I have a monster computer so, I have not noticed any slowdowns. Everything runs smooth, I had one crash in creating a large world. The only thing that bothers me game play wise is no one ever misses. All in all AOW3 is solid enough. I just wish they had all the races.
