Feline necromancers who ride around on giant spiders? Go for it. Lanky dwarves who live above ground and love magic? Sure. The visual aspect is mostly just cosmetic – it comes with some suggested racial traits that fit the classic fantasy version of each race, but you can of course change those out. You can make noble orcs in shining armor who march dutifully to battle with holy words on their lips, or bloodthirsty cannibal elves who live for destruction. It's probably the most customization of this kind I've seen in a purely fantasy game, and I was especially excited by how it let me play against stereotypes. The other thing that had me planning two or three campaigns every time I started a new one is the in-depth, freeform empire creation tools. I had such a good time with these, I almost found it hard to go back to the more traditional style of play.

Often, the victory condition in a story realm is to complete a series of quests culminating in a showdown with a memorable antagonist. And in addition to being very respectful of your time, these themed, story-based realms feel significantly different from just dropping into a standard 4X map with conquest, development, and research-based victory conditions – which you can also do, with tons of interesting customization options. Rowan Kaiser, ApScore: 7.1Īlong the way, you can unlock neat new stuff from ruler cosmetics to functional combat items, to challenge maps like a frozen wonderland ruled over by a Chronicles of Narnia-esque ice queen that I really liked. I have no doubt that the strength of the tactical combat will help find a strong niche, but for me, that just makes the relative weakness of the strategic side of gameplay all the more disappointing.

Still, it's a fairly successful return for a game series and style that seemed undeservedly buried. The quest for the ultimate fantasy strategy game will continue for a while longer, as Age of Wonders III only partially fits the bill.

Age of wonders 4 xbox