Age of Fear: The Undead King Reviews

Great tactical combat and unit development. The tactics in the various fights are puzzles all to themselves.

11/3/18 Edit: Dev worked with me to resolve my issue. I am more than happy to alter my vote to an upvote. I can tell the dev has put a lot of time and effort into it. In fact, I don't regret buying the whole series at all. In a nut-shell, this thing plays like a virtual table-top of something like Warhammer or D&D. It has dice rolls, circular units navigating a virtual battleground, and a whole bevy of stats, spells, level-ups, and items. Something that sets this game aside (and I really really cherish about it) is the continuity across the campaigns. Unlike other games where the levels are pre-set and static, this game keeps track of your army between battles. Keep your rank-and-file alive, and their experience and skills remain from scenario to scenario. Get sloppy and lazy to finish a battle and your unit might end up with costly scars you need to remove. Win a battle by the skin of your teeth and lose a large chunk of your army and you risk losing too many irreplacable units to finish the rest of the campaign. Units you bench for a scenario still get a trickle of experience as well so bench-warmers won't drag you down. It's this permmacence and replayability that keeps pulling me back to this game despite a few initial issues it gave me.

Let me first say that there is a lot to like about this game. But. Trying to give AoF a thumbs up or down is like tossing a coin in the air and having it land on its edge instead of heads or tails. It has its good points and bad. The storylines are pretty decent, the background artwork is very nice, the combat is okay but nothing truly innovative. Most gamers will get through the "good" campaign without too much difficulty on the standard setting. But it's when you attempt the dark or "bad" campaign that things become both better and worse. This is because the necromancer plays very differently, has a completely different skillset, and a level path that requires you to take a different but fairly specific approach. Unfortunately, this is where the RNG hits you hard and you will find yourself having to replay levels over and over just because you had bad luck with the rolls or completing them with ease because you got repeatedly lucky. As much as I'm enjoying this game and as much as I wouldn't call it a bad game by any stretch I'm going to push that coin over onto whichever side represents a thumbs down for the simple reason that there are better games in the same pricepoint - specifically Telepath Tactics. This said there's plenty of fun to be had here if you arent too picky. As is often the case I would rather have given this a more neutral vote but there we go. If you grab it in the sale (as I did) you'll likely be happy enough. It's also worth noting that the lead developer cares very much about his games and is very keen with responses to issues in the forums and continues to patch them when he can. *edit* Recent updates have done more than enough for me to flip that coin back the other way and the game is now well worth its full cost.

Basically a tabletop strategy(tactics) game. The game features 2 campaigns (Humans/Undead) that has 15 respectively 14 missions each and it took me ~20 hours to finish them both. The campaign consists of 3 different phases typically in this order: 1. Story 2. Unit Management 3. Battle 1. Story is where the story takes place. This is shown through text which is narrated, like a book. 2. Unit management is where you are allowed to level up your units, purchase more units, purchase items/equipment and stuff like that. 3. Battle is battle and arguably the meat of the game. After a battle it usually goes back to step 1 & 2 again but sometimes you will have to fight 2 battles in a row which might cause trouble for you if you lost units or picked up some injuries in the previous battle. I think the gameplay is good. Each unit has different stats and abilities. For instance a unit can only move in a straight line but cavalry has segmented move orders which allows them to flank and move around units more easily. Archers are good at range but weak in melee. Some units might have 2 attacks e.t.c. It's up to you to decide which units to bring. Each unit also has its own level up skills, some are generic (regular/veteran/elite) and some are unique to that unit (double attack, life drain, jousting). Each unit also normally has one or more class upgrades, for instance a knight could become a paladin, a archer could become a ranger. These new classes typically unlocks more skills to unlock and has better base stats. A common critique I've seen is that the game lacks zone of control. Basically once you are engaged in combat you can't normally move away without consequence, like a free attack. This game doesn't have that. That said, in the whole game I never had any problems protecting my 2nd line units (archers, mages e.t.c.). The only time it happened was when I neglected a flank or if the enemy had teleporting units. It might be an issue in multiplayer, but I didn't have any interest in multiplayer so that is outside the scope of this review. What the biggest problem I have is the game engine. There is no scaling feature for higher resolutions so you are forced to play at a low resolution unless you want the text and UI to become miniscule. The game also doesn't have borderless window, this is a problem because the game's fullscreen mode has some problems I demonstrate in this video: https://youtu.be/epO2ET2i7a4 All in all I think this is a good game. I'm not sure if I would recommend it at full price, at least until the engine is fixed, but the game frequently goes on sale for ~5€ and that is certainly a good price.

Age of Fear is, at its core, a turn-based tactical game about small unit battles similar in feel to Battle for Wesnoth. It has some RPG elements and a unifying story for each campaign, along with the occasional text adventure-like choice to make. The battle system is strong and well balanced. The game is not hex-based and allows for free movement. It takes a bit to get used to how you can effectively use melee units to block access to your ranged/spellcaster units, but once you get the hang of it, it is a thing of beauty. As a single-player game I found it a bit short; I finished the campaign in about 15 hours on Normal. I would have liked to see more content; I enjoyed each aspect of the game (the battles, the ongoing campaign, text choices, unit recruitment and development, building up my heroes with items and such) but felt that I really wanted to see more of each. The concept and elements came together well, but I was left wanting more. I ended up purchasing this at full price (about $13) after playing through the Age of Fear 2 campaigns; the developers are retroactively updating AoF to match the AoF2 updates/patches, so it was worth it to me.

When I first purchased the game, I was worried that I might have been better off lighting a ten and a five on fire and watching the brief flame would provide more entertainment. I mean with the cringey low budget live acted trailer and the visual novel-esque cover art, the curb appeal might leave something to be desired(besides the huge melons on the succubus in the sequel) I digress, in the brief time I've played so far it has absolutely solid turnbased/tabletop gameplay ditching the hexes for circular ranges. It has an excellent rpg system after every mission where you can equip new weapons/armor to your hero and upgrade your units with new classes/abilities, which is just downright fun and hits a sweet spot of maintaining a robust system without venturing into over complexity. The campaign(s) seem relatively lenghty and well made with a dab of dry ass humor(thumbs up), nifty illustrations, and holy shit surprisingly not really that bad voice acting. It makes me feel like I'm back in parents basement booting up my Gateway 2000 to play Warcraft II or Heroes of Might and Magic. Even if you're not nostalgic, its a solid game worth picking up especially on sale.

Imaginary conversation between lover of old fantasy/RPG/strategy games like Fantasy General, Might&Magic series, and a would-be game developer. 'Look, can you make a game we would like?' 'OK, what do you like about the past games you had?' *Sighs and gives a long list* 'That just fine. How about adding a few of our ideas?' And this is the point where most games fail. This time however the result is great. Pros: - unit development (quantity and quality of options) is simply the best feature of the game - battles (hex-free system is OK, UI is comfortable - artwork (this is subjective, I liked it) - humor - lots of options for gameplay. You can play as the devs wanted, but can make it like you want as well Cons: - sounds could be more polished - graphics are OK, but nothing spectacular. Now, if you are looking at this game, this is probably not an issue. - zoom is gradual (this is a conveniance issue really) Thumbs up, got me hooked.

[quote][b]S U M M A R Y[/b][/quote] [u][b]Age of Fear: The Undead King[/b][/u] is a gridless wargame strategy RPG which uses a top-down view and miniatures as if to simulate a tabletop game. Overall, I don't recommend it because it frankly isn't worth the price of 25.00 USD: the combat revolves purely around attacking the enemy until they are dead, there are no mechanics that add strategic depth to the game, you are barely able to interact with the environment, and each battle has the same objective and devolves into the same stale war of attrition as you are constantly outnumbered and are forced to play defensively in order to overcome the stacked odds. Beyond the lackluster combat, which is the crux of the game, the graphics, music and voice acting, story, writing, and characters are all very mediocre and completely forgettable while the UI is utterly horrendous and feels extremely amateur. That being said, the developer does backport all features and updates from the newest iteration of the franchise into all previous games. Although this sounds great at first, many of these features can't be used in the two story campaigns due to the fact that you are forced to play as specific factions which don't have access to many of these features. As such, you are only able to experience some (but not all) of them in the open-world mode because the game uses a lot of hard-coding and a number of them can't be backported which ends up being confusing and makes the game feel like an unfinished project. Moreover, the developers released [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/832770/Age_of_Fear_The_Undead_King_GOLD/]Age of Fear: The Undead King GOLD[/url][/u] which is an updated version of this game that has much less hard-coding and includes some of the unusable features but its existence begs the question of why this inferior version still exists (and for the same price no less). Furthermore, since each iteration has all features in them then that means that you're basically paying 25.00 USD for two new story campaigns that have 12-16 battles each which seems far too expensive for the amount of unique content that you are getting. [hr][/hr] [quote][b]A C H I E V E M E N T S[/b][/quote] The game has 21 achievements and most are acquired through casual gameplay; however, a few are obscure while some are annoying to get: - Some require you to lose specific battles but the story still advances in a unique way; - Two are downright asinine and require you to find hidden objects on two specific maps. More specifically, you are forced to walk around the map while activating specific spells in order to see if anything targetable appears within their cast range but absolutely no hints are given for them which is even more infuriating; - Two are seasonal and can only be acquired during certain days of the year unless you change your system clock; and - One requires you to make a mod and submit it to the Steam Workshop. [hr][/hr] [quote][b]R E V I E W[/b][/quote] [h3]Gameplay[/h3] The gameplay is touted as "deep and complex" but it's frankly completely vacuous and solely involves you mindlessly attacking the enemy until they are dead — it's essentially a race to see who can do damage faster and more efficiently. The objective of each battle is, without fail, to eliminate every single enemy unit and there is no variation to this formula whatsoever such as capturing an objective, killing the leader, surviving for x turns, escorting NPCs, etc. Since you are outnumbered in each battle (as well as outmatched in terms of stats on higher difficulties), you are forced to play defensively and form a wall to protect your frail ranged units while waiting for the enemies to come at you in waves and clump together for your area-of-effect spells. Now, you might think that playing defensively would involve using, and incentivize you to use, the terrain or environment to your advantage but the maps here are wholly devoid of anything other than plunderable treasure. There is no high ground, cover, or traps to make use of, line-of-sight doesn't even exist, and there are no other mechanics that add tactical depth to the dull gameplay (such as a rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle, natural weaknesses or resistances, or terrain and cover). It really feels like it took wargaming to an extreme level, but removed the aspects of combat that could make it engaging and immersive, and this is further evidenced by the fact that battles eventually become massive endeavours that can take up to 1.5 hours because you are allowed to deploy 15 units while the enemy has 25+ units. That being said, the game is somewhat addictive because it is fun to watch your units grow stronger with each battle, and the skills and upgraded classes are majorly impactful, but the wargame aspect contradicts this feeling because your units are expected to be expendable. Even worse, the ones who stay alive and gain experience are barely rewarded since you can eventually recruit new soldiers who have more total experience than the ones who have survived since the beginning. As previously mentioned, the game has two story campaigns with 12-15 battles each and an endless open world mode with procedurally-generated events; however, the same major events will occur in a specific order which means that only the battles and shops are actually procedurally-generated so it won't take you long to see everything that the open-world mode has to offer. Therefore, the game doesn't have much replay value outside of playing with the various factions' units in the open-world mode but even that is tedious since you have to manually level-up each unit to see their full class tree (if they even have one) and complement of skills. [h3]Graphics[/h3] The graphics are passable tabletop-style graphics using miniatures for the units. The artwork ranges from low-quality (for backdrops) to good (for units). [h3]Sound[/h3] The music is composed of atmospheric sounds that fit the terrain in which the battle is taking place. The game does have voice acting but it's relatively bland with little emotion despite sounding what I imagine would be historically-accurate for medieval times. [h3]Story[/h3] The story is a generic "good versus evil" story but the two story campaigns cover both sides of the conflict which is a nice touch. The entire franchise claims to be "full of humour/jokes" but I thought that the humor and banter between the characters was awful and contributed nothing to the game. The characters are also very generic and fit a classic stereotype while never being developed in any meaningful way. [h3]Miscellaneous[/h3] The UI is atrocious: the unit management is cumbersome because you have to use a horizontal scroll bar to view your entire army, the shop and your inventory are combined into one which is extremely confusing and makes equipment management a tedious chore, you can only load a save from the main menu (which means that you have to quit out of a game each time you want to reload), and there is a general lack of polish. The game honestly looks and feels very much like an amateur production. The game also has a full-scale level and campaign editor. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Although I have 77 hours on record, about two-thirds of it was spent playing the open-world mode on auto-pilot while doing something else just to see what it had to offer before I reviewed the game in full and because I wanted to see what some other units were like; however, I still think that the game is extremely rough around the edges, doesn't have much replay value, and definitely isn't worth its base price. If you are a huge wargaming fan then just get the upgraded version or any of the other games in the series if their two factions and story campaigns interest you more (or wait for this to go on sale for [u][url=https://steamdb.info/app/351480/]80% off at 5.00 USD[/url][/u] if you really want it). Otherwise, stay away from this series altogether.

This game appears well designed, is engaging and a good deal of fun. Except for one design decision that is a deal breaker for me. Melee combatants are able to run straight passed each other (within each other's melee weapon reach) during their turn without consequences. This leads to the absurd situation of enemy melee combatants running straight through your melee line and then attacking your archers/healers behind. I recommend the implementation of either of the following fixes: 1) Zone of Control - Moving Combatants stop immediately if they move adjacent (within melee weapon reach) to another combatant. This would be an appropriate remedy for a turn based game. 2) Opportunity attacks - You get to chop up idiots trying to run straight passed you with your melee weapon (a reaction attack.) I cannot recall when I last ran straight past an angry foe with a baseball bat (let alone a sword.) Regardless I suggest it would not end well. Given this situation, I am unprepared to play this game in its current state. Best Regards and good gaming, Alter PS I have edited this review, given a developer's feedback that my original review was insulting to them, for which I apologise.

Fun game. Well worth the purchase. The unit progression is a little more complex than wesnoth except for your hero which has access to a lot of different equipment. The charm of this game is that it is hexless and units can't move through each other. This creates interesting tactical battles where you are trying to concentrate forces in one place while blocking/tanking or kiting in another. I have not played a game quite like this one before. I should really say more, but I must get back to the game!