Triumph Studios 4X’s latest strategy game is a customization marvel, and our The Age of Wonders 4 reviews explains why it is one of the most popular games of the year.
Cat People: What We Do Actually know about them? What they want? Will they harm us with their dark and powerful magic? Telles sont les questions auxquelles cette critique d’Age of Wonders 4 tente de répondre alors que nous plunges ensemble dans le monde magique du dernier jeu de stratégie fantastique 4X de Triumph Studios, avec peut-être le meilleur système de conception de faction du genre à this day. I’ll cut to the chase: I haven’t had this much fun playing a 4X game in a long time.
Age of Wonders games don’t come around very often. Age of Wonders III was released in 2014, 11 years after Age of Wonders II. Each installment took the basic formula of 4x empire management and small tactical battles and transformed it, including 2019’s Age of Wonders sci-fi spin-off Planetfall. As the series has aged, it has not only evolved to keep up with modern computer technology. Age of Wonders III adds a new focus on developing RPG leaders, and Age of Wonders 4 expands that focus to include entire factions.
That was how I found myself leading a tribe of evil feline wizards. Every time I start a new campaign in Age of Wonders 4, I have a choice: choose one of the predefined fantasy races (mystic elves, worker dwarves, human colonizers) or create my own. Beginning with bodies ranging from humans to toads and moles, the physical form of my citizens is only an initial canvas. Each body type comes with a default Body Trait and Mind Trait, but I can change them if I want. Toads typically have the “stability” body trait and the “water adaptation” mental trait, but I can modify them to adapt to the underground environment if I plan for them to live in caves, choosing “underground adaptation” instead. This will allow you to move faster on the stone slabs of the cave and will be able to build farms on the cave floor.
After that, I choose the culture. Each one has its own magical properties, economic structure, combat bonuses, and unique mechanics. Feudal cultures get a special “stick together” buff on nearby units, while dark cultures have special city structures where they can trap enemy heroes to level up and earn additional knowledge income.
Culture is further enhanced by selecting two Society Traits, and this is where I really managed to zero in on a specific playstyle for each campaign. I can turn my people into “Chosen Unifiers” to focus on diplomacy and peace, or I can get very heinous by turning them into ritual cannibals that become more powerful as I move up the lineup.
Age of Wonders 4 has what I think is the most powerful magic system I’ve come across in a strategy game. As part of creating my own race, I choose the starting tome of magic. It’s Age of Wonders 4’s answer to the traditional tech tree, and it’s a big departure from the Age of Wonders III system. Here, magic is divided into volumes, each with a particular magical affinity. Learning multiple tomes of the same type of magic unlocks access to more advanced tomes, but I always have the ability to expand and learn new types of spells.
This is important because part of what makes the magic in Age of Wonders 4 so powerful is that it unlocks spells that can transform my entire faction. My Black Cats began its first campaign with a slight lean toward evil (cat owners can attest to this being very realistic). However, I began studying tomes of nature magic and eventually cast a spell that gave them an animal affinity, allowing me to summon wild animals to recruit into my army, and spells that increased their stats in combat.
This highlights one of the things that I think makes Age of Wonders 4 a really special game. All the setups I’ve described are just the beginning: my people change and grow during each game, sometimes morphing into something completely different from where I started when I get to the game’s score screen. It feels completely organic: every decision I make is reflected in the new options I have in my kingdom, from city management to battle tactics. At any time, I can start learning with a Tome of Necromancy, which unlocks a new soul-harvesting mechanic for my people.
These choices and changes are also reflected visually. As my angry cats become more in tune with nature, my squads begin weaving branches and leaves into their costumes. Its eyes glow a permanent green when I grant them animal affinity. And at some point, their warrior king found a unicorn that he rode through a mystical archipelago somewhere in the multiverse.
The whole thing can seem a bit overwhelming, and would probably be in less experienced hands than at Triumph Studios. In fact, playing Age of Wonders 4 seems deceptively simple: right-clicking is all I have to do to execute most commands, and an unobtrusive list of alerts on the right side of the screen keeps me informed. of all the available decisions I make. . present during the round.
It helps that the game is downright gorgeous from top to bottom, as I mentioned in my Age of Wonders 4 preview a few months back. The beauty of the fog of war that shrouds the mountains and forests on the fringes of my explored territory extends to menus and user interfaces that manage to be themed and easy to read. And I like the way diplomacy is conducted. By giving the Whispering Stone to another civilization, I can open diplomatic channels with them. The menu for these negotiations is simple and intuitive: I can make a statement in plain language, such as declaring my friendship, or I can settle grievances by declaring war or demanding payment for turf raids, all while pressing a clearly labeled button. It is a game that feels elegant to the touch.
On top of all that, just exploring the map and fighting enemies is just plain old-fashioned fun. There are ancient wonders to explore, with powerful monsters to fight and new artifacts and weapons to loot. Rebel gangs protect treasures scattered across the globe, just like in the glory days of Heroes of Might & Magic. Depending on the map, there may even be an entire underworld to explore below the surface, with its own people and villages to discover. The world generation is amazing and gives me options like giant forests, haunted island chains, zombie worlds, or dimensional rifts.
My complaints about Age of Wonders 4 boil down to nitpicking. I’d like to be able to position my troops before a fight, because it can be tricky when I have several full stacks of units laying siege to an enemy city, for example. And while the options to create my own faction are pretty awesome, the choice makes you crave more and more really weird stuff. Moles are great, but why not penguins? Or maybe ghosts? Let me command mermen, or dragons, or the gelatinous race of cubes. As deep as it is, I see the potential for more.
This will probably be fixed with the next DLC so I’m not too worried. In the meantime, I have a new favorite 4X game to spend the weekend with. Whether you’re a fan of the genre, new or old, Age of Wonders 4 is the game you need to play.
The Age of Wonders 4 reviews
It’s hands down the best 4X game I’ve played in years, offering top-notch exploration, combat, and diplomacy, along with a dynamic and rewarding customization system.
Source : PC Gamesn
