Age of Wonders 4 Reviews

Played Planetfall before, which introduced me to that game. Now bought this on sale with all the (currently aviable) DLCs. I don‘t regret it a bit. This game might be a bit more combat oriented that your usual 4X (combat having it‘s own map interface (see pictures) + you upgrade your heroes with special weapons you found or craft etc.), and it‘s an importang part of the game. Many missions and places you find (that give you big buffs or are even part of the victory) HAVE to be conquered. So if you want a economy-peacefully focused game, this won‘t satisfy you, but if you love fantasy setting, exploring (the artwork really makes exploring fun, every place you find has like a little scroll with some background information) and like combat with somewhat micromanage-focus (items, magic, attack types, terrain buffs or nerfs, etc) you‘ll like this alot.

What is the magic of fantasy and worldbuilding? To discover and uncover a story of a world much like our own, in fact, derived from our own on another imaginative plane. In the Age of Wonders franchise, the objective is to both craft and delve into the crafted, to immerse oneself in a fantasy world in a grand strategy perspective. In Age of Wonders 4, though the most ambitious and customisable of all the franchise's iterations, this goal notably fails and the game is fundamentally dull, empty, and uninspired compared to previous titles. Ironically, it is precisely its advertised replayability and unmatched customisation who is the culprit. In Age of Wonders 4, one can create factions from scratch and select cosmetic and cultural presets from a plethora of options. Much of this was present in previous titles and is very well executed and expanded upon in AoW4. Its real issue is the tome system. The gameplay after having created factions is railroaded, pre-defined, and forced into a tree of generic tomes. One is not a Frostling warlord from a mysterious history and lineage. Instead, one appears to be a frostling warlord and chooses generic "ice magic" or "horde" tomes. One is never a dreadnought halfling from a line and lore of the past. Rather, one selects the "halfling" form, the reaver "culture," and then tomes to try to fit any semblance of a narrative. This difference is subtle but so significant that it dilutes and denigrates the immersion and the authenticity a player should explore in a fantasy world. The game therefore feels AI-generated! Since everything is artificially customised and generated from generic axioms, everything feels unoriginal and lifeless. There clearly is lore in AoW4, including the very premise of "realms" being generated, but this is not only not properly explored in real grandstrategy gameplay mechanics, but is reduced to mere descriptions in-game. So while the customisation and building is fun and interactive, once in-game, everything is lifeless, each playthrough feels fundamentally identical other than superficial flair and graphics, and fantasy is reduced to a formula of cosmetics + tomes = immersion. Age of Wonders 4 is not a bad game. Its graphics are stunning, its cosmetic options are fascinating, and its soundtrack is excellent. There are many improvements made upon the previous title in design and accessibility. The developers at Triumph Studios clearly care and work hard on the game. However, the fleeting and passing interest remains. Unfortunately, it is precisely because of the game's unchecked customisation, which reduces everything to formulaic presets, that the very goal of Age of Wonders is never reached. The developer's solution, through countless updates and several DLC, is to add more options and more customisation. Therefore, I cannot recommend Age of Wonders 4 as a true fantasy grand strategy experience as it fundamentally does not understand and devalues itself.

One of the best fantasy 4x games available. The level of customization is amazing. You can create any fantasy theme that you can think of! Battles are enjoyable and there are a ton of combat abilities and spells. The worlds are highly customizable so you can change how the game plays each time if you'd like. Definitely recommend.

TL:DR - Only buy if you're playing solo and on sale. Not worth the asking price and multiplayer is too big a mess to bother with. I love this game...I really do. I have played TBS games for decades and the original Age of Wonders was right at the top of the list of games that led me into the genre in the first place. The changes we see in the evolution of the game here are lovely and I adore how your race and even the world changes based on how you play the game. As someone who has purchased several DLC packs, I can even say that the DLC (though a bit pricey for what is offered) does add a number of strategic options and layers to the game that are both interesting to play, and fun to explore the fantasy of. So...with all of these glowing positive elements, why the negative review? Simply put, the game is a buggy disaster, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the multiplayer component (which is an immediate deal breaker for me and my gaming group.) One of our group even had an issue where their computer would overheat when playing the game - numerous reddit confirms that Triumph recognizes this issue exists but they can't/won't do anything about it. The core of the problem is absolutely the multiplayer. Desyncs happen intermittently but enough to ravage nearly any game where the AI is involved to the point of unplayability. Countless games are ruined because all players involved are soft-locked where the game has no idea whose turn it is "Waiting for other players..." You would think the fourth installment of a turn-based game would have this kind of thing working by now, but it is SO much worse than previous titles. Let's not even discuss the unmitigated disaster that is the "hosting" situation for the game. Somehow, they thought it'd be a benefit to players to be able to play a turn-based game without their friends being online - like snail-mail chess or something? Perhaps add things like that AFTER we have the multiplayer functioning normally? Simply put, this game is overpriced but a developer that has good ideas but lacks either the resources or the talent to deliver a product worth what they ask for it.

Age of DLC. I really wish I could recommend this because I've enjoyed the game, but I also know it's a shadow of what it can be without DLCs (I've played them elsewhere). But getting the DLC is prohibitively expensive even when they're discounted. All the DLC in an expansion pass should've been ONE DLC, at half of the current price and it'd feel reasonable. As it is now the DLC policy feels predatory. The gameplay is good, but the cost of it all is downright awful.

Beautiful graphics, lots of customizations, and I haven't gotten bored during any of my sessions, even those that were whole days. Definitely recommend!!!

I bought this game a while ago, and when I first played it, I found it a bit underwhelming. It was like a fantasy Civ game, but pretty thin in a lot of aspects. With the new patches and additions to the game since then, I now find it to be quite a bit more enjoyable, with a fair amount of depth and customization available to play your fantasy empire any way you want to. That said, the depth is largely in customization and high-level development choices, rather than intensive micromanagement of your cities and people, which for many would likely be a plus. If you want a swords and sorcery 4X game with RPG elements that has depth without tremendous complexity, I do recommend this game.

I was bored of the Heroes series being extremely stale. The Heroes community is hyper conservative not allowing any mechanics to be introduced. HoMaM 3 is bible to these people. And here comes Age of Wonders with its refreshing take on the genre. The Civilization style elements are not prominent in the game. And I am glad because I am not a fan of 4X. The battles are great fun! The Age of Wonders style of battles is also much deeper and more logical compared to HoMaM. So many units with so many varied abilities. I like the artstyle and overall atmospehere which is very chill and pleasant. The option this game introduces into the genre are so refreshing. Found a good spot for a city? You can found a new one! Or just a small base to regenerate HP, also available. Independent citites you can influence in a simple way! So great! You have the strategic choice of leaving an independent city as a vassal creating a barrier on the map and not increasing the city cap. Or incorporating the vassal if you have city slots to spare. Tomes of knowledge mechanic is a great concept! Gives you spells, race modifications and new units. Hell yeah! The diplomacy is well done and the fact that you start neutral with most AIs is great. The game is balanced so you end up with some AIs friendly, some neutral and some trying to slowly push war. This is great. Because the fun for me is in exploring the map in this genre, not necessarily crushing AI factions. level 5 units One thing I dont enjoy about the game balance is how hard it is to get level 5 units into your army. It is easy to gain access to level 3s, level 4s are fine to get access to, however level 5s are so hard to get you will be facing them in neutral armies but you wont have your own which grinds my gears. Bring them in much sooner in the scenario for player factions! DLCs DLCs are highly enjoyable BUT are on the expensive side given what they bring into the game but i still bought them because i am a fan and my brain is hungry for new features like dragon lords, giant lords or the abyss, if you want the maximum value just buy the base game This is a 10/10 massively underrated gem for me. As a casual Andie in this genre I want to peacefully explore the map and the hidden wonders within. That is where the fun is for me. If you are a competitive sweatlord type of player in these games who needs to be on knives age and constantly abusing and minmaxing everything, you will find the game too easy and peaceful

game is good but stupidly demanding on CPU and devs refuse to adress that issue i play while monitoring my temps and this game pulls INSANE amount of power constantly hitting PL2 limit of cpu causing it to overheat and im using decent setup i7 13700k 360mm aio this is the only game that pushes my cpu to its limits constantly

Age of Desync With every update the game only gets more broken, the amount of bricked saves, crashes and desyncs are killing me. I fucking love the game but the syncs are one of the biggest things that comes up when I hear Age of Wonders. Please take a pause at printing new content and fix the core.