A long time ago a 3rd rate company (Beamdog) had another 3rd rate company (Overhaul Productions) make this. It was a blatant attempt at ripping people off and a 3rd rate attempt at that. So a note to the past to condemn both companies for this rubbish, and mostly Overhaul Productions.
*I ran this game, full screen, on two PCs (win 10 and 11) with no issues. Choices matter. Combat has many viable approaches but can be very challenging at times. There's a great sense of exploration revealing the map and delving into dungeons and ruins. The plot is solid from start to finish. Puzzles are infrequent but interesting. Play if: you liked the exploration of early Zelda games, the turn-based combat of various 'Tactics' games, any of the other Spiderweb games; or simply want to romp around a high fantasy world as an elite adventurous royal with their assistants. Don't play if your tastes require modern graphics (Nothing wrong with that preference, but QW2 is more like early 'RPG Maker games)
TLDR play Off-World Trader instead **Synopsis** You start with a small map with various terrain features and can then make limited terraforming changes based on periodic random allocations of terraforming tiles. You balance resources (food, glass, production, water, power) as your colony expands aiming to meet various requirements. In two hours of play I encountered a few nonsensical bugs that required restarting the scenario; not a big deal at all (eg the Main base wasn't connected to the main base) **Comparison to Off World Trader** Con: lacks features and polish Con: Nothing innovative or original Con: Apparently a single story which was unconvincing Pro: Less than 1/2 the price Pro: Slightly easier learning curve (although tutorial was not intuitive and requires trial and error or reading notes) Neutral: with Stardock closing the OWT servers neither are multiplayer **Summary** This game would be 4 stars if it was made pre 2000, but as it's a copy of an objectively better made game, I can't recommend it. If you strongly wanted a turn based OWT with retro graphics and less to do, then this might be for you.
It's not a bad game, for something that's simplified copy of 2013 game (Fallen Enchantress). Compared to AOW 2&3 there's no story and little consequences for your actions. A few adaptions from Civilisation, with the majority of content lifted straight from Fallen Enchantress. Plays well, stable, okay graphics, choices of units, minor variations in play style etc. Buy if you want to play the latest fantasy 4x, you liked AOW3, you're okay with minimal story. Don't buy if you prefer good-old-games and like some story (then AOW1&2 or Fallen Enchantress)
SUMMARY: Whilst close to Heroes of Might and Magic in the map style, the feel is also similar to Warlords III (1998). Heros Hour fails to meet the graphics, play-ability, user-interface, story (there is none) and ability to affect the outcome of battles (strategically & tactically) set by these great series in in 1998 and 2006. CONCLUSION If you want a turn based map, then go with Heros of Might and Magic, or King's bounty. If you want real time pixelated combat, go with Warlords. Either way you'll be pay far less for easily 50 times the content. This game fails at both, and exhausts it's lack luster offering after about 30 minutes of game play, with about $3 worth of content at best. RANT The pixel graphics are poorly implemented with animations simply squashing them vertically to indicate attacks and unit being blobs. The interface is minimal with the city being an ugly confusing mess, saved by the lack of content and a few tab-menus to take actions. Did I mention there's no story at all? A brief lexicon of units and faction, but no story here at all. There is minimal battle control, you can place units to try get some ranged attacks in before the general melee but there are no lines of battle, or other elements that give your decisions meaning. After 50+ battles only once did my tactical choices make a difference (held back reinforcements and blasted the entire map a few times). POST I have genuinely no idea why it's getting such high ratings. But full respect to other people having a different experience!
If you ever played the old Sierra quest style games (Space Quest, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, etc) then this is very much the same. Somewhat dialogue based, with choices that make no difference to the outcome, lots of click around until you get the order the devs had in mind, and a very clunky interface. The retro graphics are good. The main plot is a direct copy of FTL. There are some really great stories in this game, but they are hidden under a frustrating implementation. If you enjoy the first 30 mins then you might get a lot out of this. I got a refund.
**Summary**: Many elements done okay, nothing done amazingly. Very little challenge or immersion. Currently very early development phase with game breaking bugs. **Intro**Set in a fantasy overlay, you assemble a village by placing down buildings, allowing you to progress and get more buildings. The tone attempts to be humorous, suitable for young children. Currently the only challenge is where to place your particular buildings and what to upgrade next, whilst making sure you don't advance too fast, resulting in unsatisfied villagers. This is done by creating resource buildings, allowing tech research, enabling more advanced buildings and so on. The game is a bit unstable, I met a glitch that prevented my continuing, and the various let's-play on YouTube seem to have similar results. **Content** This game includes: village planning, choose-your-own-adventure stories, research tree, resource harvesting, balancing villagers wants, attempts at humour. None of these are done exceptionally, but none are done too poorly. Currently there is no combat, no real threats, etc to challenge you. **Similar Games** If Village planning is your thing play Banished, Dawn of Man, Settlers or Tropico instead. If controlling a fantasy realm is your thing play Majesty (StrongHold for old school) If fantasy choose-your-own adventure fantasy is you thing play King of Dragon Pass instead. If fantasy humour is your thing play Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (Bard's Tale for old school) IF you want a mix of all of these, with no elements done nearly as well. Then this might be for you. That's a big IF. Lastly don't play the tutorial, currently it's incredibly tedious.
Summary: Play as a dragon; flying around dodging enemies fire balls are shooting at them with your own. Look at Divinity Dragon commander instead. TIotG was AMAZING for it's time, but hasn't aged well. Pros: Interesting spells: fear, summon creatures, zap with lightning, etc (standard fantasy game set of spells) You can zoom a decent way out (a lot of older games lack this) The game is well worth the $2.50 Cons: Cumbersome controls, takes a bit to get used to, and will try to auto-correct you. Graphics are ambitious for the 2004 game. Equivalent to the later populous games. No story in the plot, just you are the chosen one, go to this place and kill things. Enemies are simple spawning from various nests/towers. Float there and exchange fireballs. Rinse and repeat. There are better old games that are very similar to this.
Half-way between a squad based game and a rock-paper-scissors RTS. The story lines are fairly linear and the ways to complete the missions are limited at best. There are resource gathering elements and upgrades; resources quickly outstrip you squad limit (10) and each unit gets a single upgrade, so they do nothing for the game. RPG elements are very minimal and reset every mission. The graphics are quite nice, the ease of control and UI is good. Sneaking a small incursion squad into ambush positions and taking out enemy troops is fun - small scale is done well. Sending the same squads against the same enemies, rinse and repeat, is not. The cut scenes and small fight animations are done quite well. If being somewhat on rails appeals to you, and you like squad games get this. If you want to solve RTS puzzles (how do I crack this fortress? what combination of troops to build? where to defend and attack? etc) then think twice; this game should be a maybe.
In this bright open world game you play a generic boy tasked with quests throughout the land. Adventuring through various terrains, facing a variety of jumping puzzles, fights with local anthropomorphic tribes and fed-ex quests*. So many fed-ex quests. Want to enter a village? fed-ex quest. Want to talk to someone? Fedex quest and so on. The game features a unique mechanic of the various tribes competing with each other, which is probably very exciting as an NPC but has little impact on your game play. The villages will upgrade as the game progresses but again this has little impact on your game play, simply granting them +1 armour when your sword gets +1 strength. This is the element that sets the game apart from others, and it's done extremely well. It just doesn't affect you, the player. Most of the NPCs have no personality and the back story is fairly weak by today's standards. Despite the open world nature, the game is on tight rails as each step generally needs to be completed before you proceed to the next. The over all feel is good but the singular moments are not. You will never rise to great power, look out over vast mountains or forests, topple empires, find your self clinging to a cliff as torrential rains try and sweep you from your perilous grip or stare down a merciless foe with your last health potion expended. Instead completed quests will at times fail to trigger, leaving you wondering what else you were supposed to do; particularly if you don't do them in the scripted order. If you're after an open world game then this is it, but Breath of the Wild#, Outward, Kenshi, Skyrim, and so many more do it better. End point: If you're okay with Fedex quests, a fairly linear plot, and enjoy this style of graphics and an open world, get this game. Absolutely. If not then read more reviews before deciding. *Fedex quests mean move/collect an item from point A to point B. #This = indy PC version of Breath of the Wild
