Age of Wonders III Review - Simply Wonderful
Age of Wonders is a name which hasn’t graced the gaming scene in a very long time; over a decade, in fact. Triumph Games is looking to make the series relevant once more with Age of Wonders III but, will this game mark a new a age for the series, or was it best left as a piece of nostalgia?
At its core, Age of Wonders III is a 4X strategy game reminiscent of Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic and the Total War series. It blends a few elements from each game with a rather fascinating turnout, resulting in a fresh 4X experience, but it’s definitely lacking a bit on the visual and polish side of things.
When you first boot up Age of Wonders III, the game doesn’t exactly blow you away with its graphics and visuals. The character models look quite flat and plain; even the game world doesn’t stand out particularly. This is a very minor complain, however, as the art direction behind the game is very good; whilst characters may not have a lot of polygons, there are a very large variety of creatures, each one being actually quite detailed and unique in its own way. Units range from simple human footmen and archers all the way to fairies and giants. If Triumph Games had a larger budget to work with for more visual details, the game would have been quite a stunner, but even so it’s not a bad looking game.
Age of Wonders III features two lengthy campaigns to sink into, each taking a different point of view in the conflict that’s happening in the world. The first campaign does a decent job at introducing the player to the basic mechanics behind the game, but it does so without holding your hand too much. The game will eventually tell you everything you need to know throughout its campaign; however, things are challenging from the very first mission. The majority of the time you’ll be left to your own devices to figure out the most effective way to defeat evil warlords, all of whom are more than willing to take go hard on you from the very beginning.
Whilst the campaigns are rich in length, they are lacking a bit in the quality department - the story is mostly told at the beginning of each mission with a narrator talking over some images and through a few exchanges between characters once in game. The story is along the lines of your average fantasy tale, with betrayals and politics always at play, yet they never particularly catch you off guard or surprise you in any way. Personally, I had more fun with the game’s skirmishes rather than the campaign itself; that is where Age of Wonders III truly shines.
At the start of the game, the player has a choice between several different classes for their main hero. Depending on what class you choose, the gameplay changes dramatically, with some classes being more focused on economy over combat or magic over steel. In addition to this, each hero class has its own exclusive buildings and units which complement their play style. Your hero will also earn experience and level up after battles, expanding his arsenal of spells to assist you on your quest to victory or becoming a more deadly force in the battlefield. Relics and trinkets are earned throughout your playthrough by completing small quests and missions, or simply by discovering them, which enhance your character’s power and abilities. Your hero alone is one of the most important and game changing units, and utilizing him/her correctly will give you an edge even against the worst odds.
By far my favorite part of Age of Wonders III, however, was the combat system. I’ll just go ahead and say it: it might be my favourite turn based combat system ever. When two armies clash in the overworld, the game loads a separate instance where the battle will take place, Total War style. Nearby armies also take part in the combat and appear in their respective position in the battlefield. This makes unit placement in the overworld an important step before any major battle. Having the correct units in the correct placement can make for some easy flanking maneuvers which make quick work of even the toughest creatures.
The combat system is unique in the fact that each unit can allocate its actions between movement and combat in 1/4ths. For example, a unit has the choice to not move (or move only one square) and fire attack three times, move a little bit and attack twice, move some more and attack only once or move as much as possible and forgoing its chance to attack. This system adds a lot of depth to the combat, rewarding units who have good positioning with a chance to do more damage, but also giving them a chance to get out of the way quickly.
In addition to that, there are many factors which affect how your units move and attack in battle. Certain obstacles are destructible, such as fences, which can be used as a way to slow down your opponent or can be destroyed for a more direct path. Range and line of sight also affect the ranged damage of your units, so if their vision is obstructed by an obstacle or a friendly unit, their potential damage will decrease as a result. Obviously, attacking a unit from the sides or the back results in critical strikes, but this requires a solid understanding of the movement and combat system to be pulled off regularly. There are plenty more effects and conditions which apply to different creatures and unit types which are just too diverse to list here in this review, but there is definitely lots of variety which will require you to constantly switch up your strategies.
The combat system in Age of Wonders III is extremely deep and very satisfying. Even small skirmishes will test you in some way or form and large battles epic fights will test your strategic prowess and endurance, as they can become lengthy on their own right. A special shoutout has to go to the game’s soundtrack, which is very good all round, but has some excellent music during combat. The music perfectly suits the mood of the battles and gives the whole battlefield a more epic feel in general. Whilst the battles never get as grandiose as Total War, for example, they are still epic in their own right; the feeling of winning a battle where you were outnumbered and outgunned is second to none.
Simply put there is no turn based combat system which works so well out there, and is reason alone to pick up this game if you are a fan of turn based combat in strategy games. You simply won’t find a deeper and more engaging experience.
The area where Age of Wonders III falls short, however, is the city management. Whilst not a primary focus of the game, city management is pretty dull and uninteresting, and doesn’t have depth at all. Managing a city is never much more than building the happiness building if your town is unhappy or the money building if you want to earn more money per turn. Considering how deep and intricate the other areas of the game are, this was slightly disappointing.