Age of Wonders

 PC
User Score
9.1

Universal acclaim- based on 101 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 93 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 101
  3. Negative: 3 out of 101
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  1. JorgeOlsson
    Jul 23, 2011
    10
    Although perhaps a hundred people will ever read this review, to those that do know that you are looking at this game for all the right reasons. This is the quite simply the best turn based strategy game of all time. Taking control of one of twelve races, you fight your way through many different scenarios playing how you want to play, either allying with other factions to work togetherAlthough perhaps a hundred people will ever read this review, to those that do know that you are looking at this game for all the right reasons. This is the quite simply the best turn based strategy game of all time. Taking control of one of twelve races, you fight your way through many different scenarios playing how you want to play, either allying with other factions to work together against your enemies, or crushing all who would oppose you.

    Beside the many scenarios, there is a huge campaign which can be played from two perspectives: The Keepers who choose the path of light and seek to return the world to peace and tranquility, and The Cult of Storms who would seek death to the humans who removed them from their position of power. With an amazing soundtrack, endless hours of entertainment and a huge fan base offering hundreds of mods and additional scenarios that is still alive even now years later, age of wonders is the one game that every pc gamer who loves turn based strategy games should own. Play it, and you will see exactly what i mean.    … Expand
  2. aoetje
    Nov 22, 2012
    10
    I can only confirm what JorgeOlsson wrote in his review.

    This is a very good game, with interesting story, lots of campaign missions, offline and multiplayer scenarios to play.

    It's been long since I last played it, but since its on sale at Steam, this is a must buy for anyone who enjoys turn based strategy games.
  3. igolrum
    May 25, 2021
    10
    Very old, hidden gem, but a gem it still is. Everything except the graphics holds up, even 20 years later. The story is really good aswell and has branching paths with multiple endings.

    I especially liked all the darker endings you can get if you side with the more neutral or evil races.
  4. Dispreacher
    Jun 22, 2020
    10
    Age of Wonders is a beautiful game. I always feel like it is a less commercially successful but more refined, purer kind of Heroes of Might & Magic. If you like Heroes but haven't tried this game, you may meet your true love yet with this one. Its mechanics are a bit less forgiving than newer Age of Wonders titles but is still a lot of fun to play.

    Unlike HoMM, stacks of hundreds or    Age of Wonders is a beautiful game. I always feel like it is a less commercially successful but more refined, purer kind of Heroes of Might & Magic. If you like Heroes but haven't tried this game, you may meet your true love yet with this one. Its mechanics are a bit less forgiving than newer Age of Wonders titles but is still a lot of fun to play.

    Unlike HoMM, stacks of hundreds or thousands of units aren't a thing in AoW. Each unit produced is just that one unit(you can imagine it like an army unit or whatever) but combat isn't like a stack of 60 gold dragons attack a stack of 1200 peasants and kill 800 of them, it's each individual unit fighting with their stats and hitpoints and awesome interesting abilities and whatnot on a physical hexagonal battlefield, moving, making use of obstacles and terrain and everything. There are lots of other differences of course, but another that I like is instead of different strongholds with different race units and creatures as in HoMM, here we have cities of different races and your leader alignment affects diplomacy and other things in your relation to these races and their alignment, an arrangement I like a lot better. Different races not only have their basic soldiers with slightly different advantages and disadvantages but also have different creatures that can be recruited at different levels similar to HoMM but having the fantasy races so neatly represented feels so much more immersive imo.

    There are 12 races to choose from, 4 of neutral, 4 of good and 4 of evil alignment.

    Neutral races:Humans, Azracs, Lizard Men, Frostlings
    Good races:Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, High Men
    Evil races:Dark Elves, Orcs, Goblins, the Undead

    Of these, Humans, Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, Dark Elves, Orcs, Goblins and the Undead are classic fantasy races and their units, creatures and theme will be what you'd expect, the others are(afaik) Age of Wonders original races.
    Azracs are sort of desert humans, with hints of Arab, Egyptian, Zoroastrian, Persian and Indian themes and powerful magical creatures at their side. Lizard Men are well, lizard men with most units having the ability to swim which opens up the movement options in world map immensely. Frostlings are short and sturdy survivors of frozen lands with cold and freezing related skills. High Men are like Humans that haven't fallen from grace, that are pure good and heavenly, sort of like an angelic saintly human race with lots of healing and clerical abilities.

    Your leader's race will determine your starting town/city's race, but on the world map you may not only conquer other cities with populations of different races but also have cities with a different race but similar alignment to yours join you for some gold. You can then have different units produced from the conquered cities' race in your armies but if you are evil and have conquered a good town, if you produce units from their race, they will cause discontent in your armies and will likely rebel and either desert or attack your armies afterwards. What you can do instead is raze or loot that town or migrate a race of which you have some population of from another town into that town. Such actions will affect your relation with that race. For instance if you are an elf(a good race) and keep migrating other races into halfling(also good) cities you conquer or worse yet loot or raze those Halfling cities, Halfling race which was due to same alignment were friendly towards you will become neutral and later hostile to your kingdom and will no longer accept joining your armies or kingdom voluntarily. Conversely, as a human(neutral race), when you encounter an orc(evil) city, they won't join you for gold, but after you conquer them they'll not rebel and will serve in your armies with reluctance but without rebelling. This is because they are indifferent to you because you are neutral, they would rebel against a good conqueror and cause trouble in their armies. However if you keep building walls in orc cities you conquer and migrate orcs into other new cities you conquer, perhaps worsening your relation with other races, they will become friendly towards you and may later join your kingdom for gold voluntarily.

    Never before a game of constant systematic genocide, forced migration and race cleansing present itself in such a peaceful and pastoral way. 10/10, would recommend.    … Expand