Age of Darkness: Final Stand Reviews

Another incomplete game released. Random crashes. Warcraft I has better AI than this game For example I can have a group in formation and my hero is being attacked by ranged units; the hero will rush out but the entire army will stay behind. Game feels sluggish. Multiplayer can desync so bad that different games are being played. Not a lot of diversity in builds because only shred matters.

The game has a really strong core concept, and the skirmish/survival mode is quite fun for a while. The three factions aren't that different, but at least different enough to warrant playing a bunch of survival maps each. If you enjoyed TAB, you will very likely enjoy this one, too. But where the game unfortunately falls flat is in roughly two departments: 1) Bugs/glitches/AI: Especially the pathfinding is often a near-catastrophe. All units behave as if they were on suitcase rolls and each unit is able to push each other unit around wildly. This leads to you units often ending up in the most absurd positions, like archers in the middle of a horde because they were pushed there by your own frontline units/heroes advancing. The targeting priorities of units are also messed up. What do you think your units will attack by default: A) nearby melee units B) enemy archers C) enemy siege units ? If you guessed D) nearby passive buildings/walls, you would be correct. This is only really an issue in the campaign (no real enemy structures in survival), but it is just so jarring and unnecessary. 2) Campaign structure. The campaign has only 10 missions, the first 7 of which are complete pushovers. Only then does it ramp up a bit and only the final mission had me reload a few times. And I'm really not that good at RTS games. The pathfinding issues are even worse in the campaign as you often have multiple heroes and have to navigate narrow corridors, often to dodge enemy artillery. With the pushing and targeting nonsense mentioned, this becomes extremely frustrating. Finally, the story and writing of the campaign is partly alright and partly very awful. Aurelia for example has mood swings every second sentence and comes off like a bipolar rebelling teenager - which is too bad, as a lot of the storyline hinges on her. The voice actors are mostly (except that drunk guy, wtf?!) good, which contrasts a lot with the sometimes random dialogue. Still a better campaign than TAB, though... So where does that leave the game altogether? Since this is not a full-price title, I'd say it is still recommendable, but only barely so - and hopefully the AI/pathfinding issues will be resolved.

Want to like it, but the bugs I ran into were pretty awful. The most irritating were: my hero's starting active ability just not working sometimes (Merek's leap attack not firing, not going the right direction, or getting stuck on things); having units continue following an old order instead of a new one; and having units follow orders given to other groups of units (e.g., tried to send 2 of my 5 catapults to help my ally, but they repeatedly pathed the opposite direction to join a group they were never part of). Gameplay feels unresponsive and weird at times, and I suspect it's because of units not properly following the orders I give them when I look away.

There was a lot of potential, but the game doesn't ever become "fun". It suffers from similar game design flaws as 'they are bllions'. The game necessitates save scumming because hordes are impossible to defend unless you know exactly where they're coming from. The 'army' you build feels weak and pointless in the face of the enemy. Also, the game feels slow. I wouldn't recommend unless you loved 'they are billions'. If you're looking for your tower defence/strategy game sweet spot, Age of Darkness isn't it.

8/10 For base/tower defence game I have had a blast with Age of Darkness ("AOD") and can happily recommend it to any who are looking for that mix of RTS and Tower Defence that 'They are Billions' ("TAB") is famed for. This game will feel so familiar if you have played TAB before but it does enough things differently to not feel like a reskin. Before getting in to specifics of what I like or dislike, I feel I should first defend the campaign. You will see from many reviews that the campaign is almost universally reviled but I think people are expecting, perhaps, too much. The campaign does exactly what you would want it to: 1) It slowly introduces new mechanics so you get to learn as you play; and 2) It tells an interesting (enough) story that isn't winning awards but equally gives some backstory to this games' setting and world; and 3) It plays significantly differently to the main 'survival' mode that it feels refreshing. To compare the campaigns of AOD and TAB, the former smashes the latter out of the park: TAB's campaign is a series of 'normal' survival maps interspersed with small hero focused missions (that are also generally despised). AOD's campaign is an actual narrative and has you fight against humans and nightmares (the games' horde creatures) over its run time. I have enjoyed my time with the campaign and think that it makes the game stronger, not weaker. Turning to the core of the game: survival mode. Like TAB, you need to survive against increasingly difficult waves of enemies and, when you beat the 5th wave, a massive final wave attacks from all previous entry points together. You are encouraged to expand out into the map as much as possible to horde resources and continue building an elite force to defend you. Much like TAB, towers are actually a noob trap and the best defence is a vast army. Like TAB, once you realise the whole game is made trivially easy with the spamming of a single unit type, it takes something away from the magic. The game has reasonable unit variety but, no matter which faction you play, the only thing you will ever need is T3 walls and Impalers. Nothing else matters; Impalers are everything. This is where I think TAB has the balance down a bit better because, in TAB, whilst certain units are very powerful (and you can spam one unit type to win the game -snipers-) every unit is viable; even at the end of the game. In AOD, if you don't build Impalers, you will likely lose. You can try with other units but you would need thousands of them and an ungodly amount of walls to try and slow the enemy down. Impalers do all that with only tens of them. To sing some praises before concluding: 1) AOD has three factions which adds to the replay-ability (they could do with being a touch more visually distinct but that is not to take away from them) 2) You can call waves early in AOD if you feel ready which gives you more control on events. 3) You get powerful heroes in AOD that TAB doesn't have. They are EXTREMELY powerful and will be your main weapon for most of the game. 4) The voice acting is really high quality. All in all: - Extremely recommended if you loved or liked They are Billions - Recommended if you like RTS or Tower Defence

Lot's of crashes and very janky mechanics. Not worth it.

I completed the campaign and spent several hours in Survival mode. Overall, there's nothing special here aside from the pleasant graphics and the fact that RTS games are still being released. Although I was honestly struggling to stay awake for about half of the campaign, the missions became more interesting towards the end. That said, I doubt I’ll ever return to this game. Wave defence, unfortunately, is more geared towards micro-control enthusiasts rather than lazy players like me who prefer to just sit back and watch, occasionally clicking the mouse. No, I don’t mind putting in some effort, but for a game of this type, the variety of units seemed rather small and underwhelming. In any case, I spent enough time here to find it okay. Considering I bought the game at a 40% discount, it was worth the money.

It's great game, highly addictive, it just feels like it doesn't have a late game. I want units that hits hard and costs a lot. A colossal or a monster. Stronger knights and archers. The game has an early game stage and a mid game stage. In time the game will be great, but it needs significantly more than just 3 defensive buildings 2-3 siege units for all 3 factions. One faction barely even has exclusive units. I'd say if they added 8-15 more unique units, 10 more unique buildings, then i'd believe its a finished game.

Gameplay is fun, but GOD the writing of the Campaign is awful. At least act like you care a little about it...

It's fun for a while but there's just nothing that really shakes up the game play all that much. You can play one or two survival games and seen basically all the game has to offer. It's really disappointing because it has such a great premise but the implementation falls flat. - Games are WAY too long on the easier difficulties. - Factions really don't have much that differentiate them or make you play them differently. The cultist faction is the most developed in feeling different but unfortunately the way it does it is really counter-intuitive. - The "Boon"s you collect after beating a horde night really need to be expanded to have a larger pool of options. You'll often see the same ones multiple times per game. - The game feels like it is balanced around trying to counter a single enemy unit, the "Crusher" which will destroy your walls super quickly. - Tech tree is super small and more than half the options feel useless/incredibly niche. - Unit AI is absolutely disgusting at times. - Several very annoying bugs. Heroes will use their ability sometimes with nothing happening but still putting it on CD. Units will slide/glide at times.