I really fell in love with this game. Even though it's in an early stages of development, it plays much like a finished product, and I am now 35 hours in the game. I think it improves on the HoMM formula in a variety of ways: for one, it limits the stack sizes for different tiers of units, so it is easier to estimate stack strength intuitively. Your choice of magic may determine your choice of troops and thus what dwellings you build for each of the cities you own; each combat round your units contribute their "essence" to the mana pool, with the kind of essence determining which spells you access during combat. Magic in this game can get very powerful, and your troop size advantage may quickly evaporate within the first two rounds of combat. A final thing I will say about gameplay is that Songs of Conquest encourages quick, decisive exploration and conquering as much as you can as fast as you can. That means passing on some early battles with monsters on the map (especially the darn rats) where I would lose many of my initial troops and simply press on to take anything that is not bolted down. This game punishes turtling, particularly later in each scenario. Gameplay aside, Songs of Conquest exudes the charm of the first Age of Wonders game: the pixelated graphics and the factions which I think are a nod to AoW. It has a pleasing score, and a Dandelion-like bard that narrates the events between each mission. This game will only improve with time, and after that, age like a fine wine.
Excellent 3rd person shooter that is a throwback to the 90s classics. In terms of game layout, Project Warlock plays more like Wolfenstein in the early episodes with labyrinthine mazes but gradually opens up to larger vistas, mimicking Doom, and at times openly riffing on the theme (with levels like Shores of Hell and monsters like the Cyberdemon). What sets it apart is not just clever play on old themes (including fallen bodies of Wang, Caleb, and the Doomguy; and references to classic movies like John Carpenter's "The Thing") but also a very wide variety of weapons with the upgrade system, all fun to use and packing a punch. Sounds effects for weapons are marvelous, and music is nice if a bit repetitive. All in all, this game is worth the price (15 Canadian bucks for me), and I spent about 10 hours on my first playthrough; due to weapons/spells customization, this game has some replayability for sure, so for 15 hours of playtime, 15 bucks sounds about right! My only two gripes are the difficulty system and the lighting. I had to switch to Casual, because after playing on Normal I had no issues at all until I ran into the first boss. Before I could figure out how to fight the guy, I lost all my lives and had to lose ALL of my progress (the game has a checkpoint system and no regular saves), a good hour or so of playtime. Being a busy professional, I ain't got time for dat! Maybe playing a second time I will appreciate it (and I intend to, in a few months), but I would recommend for anyone who is not a dedicated gamer to start Casual. my second issue is the lighting. Save yourself some bad headache and turn the light setting to its brightest. It washes out the colors, but you wouldn't have to rely on the Light spell all the time to see where the hell you're going. At the end of the day, the game is fun enough to warrant 15 bucks, but a few tweaks could make it into a true classic in a decade or so.
