Age of Wonders 3 – Review

More than ten years have passed since a new Age of Wonders was released to the public. A beautiful and highly entertaining game to please all who had a soft spot for turn-based strategy games. Time has obviously changed since then so will this third installment succeed in bringing a contemporary successor on the market? Find out in this review of Age of Wonders 3, made by Triumph Studios.

Story

There’s a war going on. A war between the Humans of the Commonwealth and the Elves of the Elven Court. As it’s in the human’s nature to try and take everything within their reach, their goal is to subjugate every other race so their Empire will become the most wealthy and powerful yet. Unfortunately for them, not everyone is jumping with joy concerning this lust for might. In particular, the Ancient races revolt against the Commonwealth and led by the High Elves, they wish to destroy their common enemy, before it’s too late.

In the campaign mode, you’ll be able to choose a side and experience the war in a different manner. Will you join the Commonwealth and become the terror of the land or would you rather join the Elves in their battle against extinction?

After having made a choice, either Sundren or Edward will represent respectively the Elven Court or the Commonwealth. They both have a different take on the situation and it’s pretty cool to relive the war on the other side of the battlefield.

Graphics

The world map looks gorgeous although the graphics are certainly not top of the bill (especially the trees could’ve used some more polishing up). What I mean by gorgeous is more in the sense of magical. Seeing fairies flutter around and snow white unicorns at your side while waiting at a river with flowing water just brings about the right atmosphere for a game that calls itself Age of Wonders. It just fits very nicely and the colorful world makes you believe in the supernatural beings you’ll encounter plenty throughout the game.

Helpful tools are also scattered around on the screen. It might seem a like a little overkill at first but you’ll soon learn that they’re quite necessary and handy. Overall, the HUD serves it purpose and above all, is pleasant to work with.

Sound

Relaxing and soothing music matches the above description in terms of how well it fits the theme of the game. Again, nothing overly special or miraculous, but not once did I feel the urge to put out the audio (and I’m one to get bored fast of music in games).

As the game switches to battle mode, the music is a little more action oriented with some drums mixed in between. Here, it did get somewhat more repetitive compared to other genre, but it’s still more than fine as background noise for the slaughtering.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Age of Wonders is very comparable with games like Might and Magic or the Fallen Enchantress series. When it’s your turn to play, you can position troops as far as the game allows it and manage your captured settlements. Building certain things in cities will give you the opportunity to train better units and it’s also necessary to keep the gold income flowing steadily. What makes Age of Wonders 3 so strategic is not only the battles like a lot of you will think at first, a huge part of your time consists of dealing with happiness, growth, income and somewhere in between, training soldiers.

Between fighting and managing your territory, your hero can level up and spend points to upgrade all kinds of skills like defense, melee strength and hit points or even enhance certain facets of your units. It’s also possible to research abilities (which will take a couple of turns until they’re functional) and cast spells on the strategic map. Spells can also be used in battle but they will consist of a different kind than the ones used on the map. A lot to take in at first one might think, but fortunately there’s the Tome of Wonders to help you through the worst. The Tome of Wonders is a guide book where literally EVERYTHING is explained. Should this book exist in real life, it’d be massive for sure. It really helped me a lot throughout the game although a more fleshed out “in-the-field” tutorial would’ve more than welcome.

Besides the 2 different campaigns, there’s also a scenario mode and a random map generator where a player can create his/her own character and fully customize it to their liking. The possibilities are endless so if you like shaping a person up to the smallest detail, that’s a big plus.

However, not everything is great in Age of Wonders 3. When I first played the game, I experienced a lot of framerate drops and hampering. Changing to lower settings didn’t do much to solve this. Have no fear though, as Triumph Studios released a patch the other day in which a lot of these issues have been resolved or at the least made it more bearable to play. It’s still not perfect but now the game is a lot more enjoyable.

Furthermore, the battle mode is truly where this game shines. Exploring the world map can be fun and adventurous, but it often ends up in going back and forth between camps and cities and as this is a turn based game, it can take quite a while to get to the point where your army is ready for a decent battle. Once in battle, everything runs a lot smoother and here one can truly concentrate on tactics and strategy. To compare it with, for example, the Total War games, the world map phase just isn’t as interesting as the actual fighting.

To end the summary of the gameplay part, a great feature awaits you when you’re done with the campaign or exhausted the random map generator. Yes, I’m indeed talking about the multiplayer! Up to 8 players can take it up against each other and as always, it’s a lot more fun to play against folks you know than the AI. Some issues popped up while trying to access the online servers but once you get around that, a lot more hours of playtime are within arm’s reach.

Conclusion

Age of Wonders 3 is a fine reboot although some more optimization and a better world map phase could’ve made it a must play game. Experiencing the story on either side is a nice feature and the scenario and random map generator provide a lot of content. Add to this the never ending multiplayer and you certainly get your money’s worth out of it.

Elexus

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