English
Gamereactor
reviews
Age of Wonders 4

Age of Wonders 4

A captivating 4X game that sucks you into its highly customisable world of wonders.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

As a fan of strategy games such as the Age of Empires and Total War series, I thought I'd seen most of the important long-running game series in the genre. That's until I came across Age of Wonders 4. The name rang a bell as a game I'd heard of long ago (the first game came out in 1999), but I had no clear idea of what to expect. Before playing Age of Wonders 4 over the past few weeks, I didn't expect a game as polished, well-balanced and full of gameplay features as it turned out to be. Even though I'm not usually into fantasy-themed games, this excellent title by Triumph Studios really manages to suck me in. So, what makes it so great?

HQ

In a nutshell, Age of Wonders 4 is a 4X, turn-based strategy game in a fantasy setting. Continuing a storyline from Age of Wonders 3, the story driving Age of Wonders 4 is as follows: previously banished wizard kings have returned, more powerful than ever, to reign as gods (called Godirs) among mortals. They're not just after one world though, because a so-called Astral Sea magically interconnects many different worlds inhabited by different races. As a player, you can choose to either be a champion of one of the races, or play as one of the wizard kings who want to take over as many worlds as possible. It means the game takes place in many different environments, from snowy worlds to barren and abandoned realms, which are randomly generated with each new game.

Most of the game is spent looking at the strategic game map, where you manage your cities, expand into new provinces, recruit military units and set out on a conquest with your heroes and armies. The map has both a surface and an underground dimension, so it's in fact two-tiered. In the case of a battle, you either drop down into a turn-based tactical battle, or choose to auto-resolve them. It's very similar to the Total War games in that regard. On the campaign map you need to balance spending and investing using a number of different resources. Imperium, mana, gold and knowledge are among the resources needed for long-term planning, evolving your race, diplomacy and in tactical battles. Food, production and Draft matter only for growing your cities and the speed at which you construct buildings and train new units.

This is an ad:

Besides choosing to play as a champion or wizard king, there are numerous ways to customise each game you play. Firstly, you choose a fully customisable realm, such as a mana-rich and lush world filled with free cities, or a barren land overrun by demons and volcanic eruptions. You can also create your own custom race to play as, be it humanoid, feline, dwarven, elvish, rodent-like and even a toad-like race. Your race can then be tweaked further, with physical qualities like sturdiness or strong melee attacks, and society traits like being great city builders. These traits provide a diversity of bonuses, for example stronger military units or allowing you to found new cities more easily. A cultural affinity adds further distinction, such as being an industrious or dark race. In my eyes it's really admirable what Triumph Studios has done here, because you're free to create a race and build an empire to the tune of values completely to your liking. I can't recall any strategy game offering this level of customisation.

This is how I ended up playing one of my first games with a high humanoid race, specialising in founding new cities, with a race trait that allows my army to regain health and earn XP faster. Further customisations come from the use of magical tomes. These allow you to accumulate affinity points, granting further bonuses that fit your playstyle, such as allowing more cities to be founded, giving your units lightning damage or other military bonuses. Another time, I started a game beginning from the underground as a dark human wizard king leading a race of evil rodents. As you might understand by now, there are simply a lot of different elements in the game that allow for a very high degree of customisation. They also make each playthrough a little different.

Age of Wonders 4
Age of Wonders 4Age of Wonders 4
This is an ad:

In my experience, I automatically feel like playing in a way that suits the race I've created. For example, playing as a good race and ruler means releasing captives instead of killing them or doing your best to complete side quests that keep your population happy. Likewise, playing as a wizard king with evil affinity means you actually benefit from an evil playstyle. I equally enjoyed playing as the leader of evil rodents, crawling from the underground to terrorise the world above. Other rulers will also like or dislike you based on common traits, for example both having a feudal culture or aligning with good rather than evil. Different play sessions are also tied together through the Pantheon. Here heroes from previous games you've played come together and make appearances in new games you're playing.

Time flies by in no time when expanding your empire in Age of Wonders 4. I usually focus on gaining enough gold income to build up an army quickly, which I then use to clear my immediate surroundings of bandits and monsters. It's thrilling to watch your realm grow, by annexing new provinces whenever your cities grow in size. Founding new cities away from your throne city and subsequently watching your provinces link up into a large connected empire simply feels great. The same goes for free cities gradually becoming your vassals on some maps. Victory comes in different flavours as well; either through conquest, diplomacy or by becoming the leading magical power in the realm.

Adding to the enjoyability of building your empire is the very appropriate and light-hearted music. The game's colourful graphics are also nice to look at, with lots of subtle details in the game's campaign map. There are little sheep walking around meadows and tiny carts riding in and out of mines, for example. Unit design is equally nice, with dark and evil goblinoids really giving off a malevolent vibe and a big variety in unaffiliated monsters and marauders roaming about. So far, I've spent time looking at each individual unit type whenever I've come across a new one.

Age of Wonders 4Age of Wonders 4
Age of Wonders 4

Age of Wonders 4 has some role playing elements as well. Your heroes can collect items, such as weapons and mounts, from battles with marauders or by capturing ancient wonders that are scattered throughout the map. One of my most awesome heroes was a humanoid wearing armour and a cape, wielding a lance I'd upgraded to do lighting damage, while riding a flashy unicorn. However, I've also had a feline mage and a toad riding a scary wolf-like monster leading my army. Additionally, there are randomly generated quests to complete, such as saving a captured girl or removing an army of demons, which influence the character of your leader.

Even though I really like the game in general, there are also some minor things that I'm not that fond of. The most important one is that I don't enjoy the tactical battles as much as the strategic part of the game. I've never been a big fan of tactical turn-based combat, and Age of Wonders 4 hasn't convinced me to change that attitude. I realise it's largely a matter of personal taste, because there's again a lot of depth in the tactical combat system. There's a sort of rock-paper-scissors system between units, meaning your army makeup matters a lot when the game's difficulty increases. There are spear units that do retaliation damage to melee units attacking them, and support units that can bolster friendly attacks, for example. Additionally, there are flanking bonuses and your hero can cast powerful spells, and there are even siege battles and naval battles in the game. However, in the end I mostly auto resolve these battles, because I'm more interested in spending time on the campaign map.

Age of Wonders 4Age of Wonders 4

Another thing that had me slightly frustrated, but might be inescapable, is the fact that it can take a long time for the AI players to finish their turns. Especially with multiple rulers and when you're past turn 50 or onwards, I needed some patience every now and then. I can imagine that players with less powerful CPUs might have to spend quite some time waiting in between turns. However, besides the loading times and skipping the manual combat, there's actually not much I find lacking in the game. It even has online multiplayer at launch, though I haven't been able to try it out yet. The game features simultaneous turns that can be time-limited, meaning real-time play on the campaign map is (probably) possible.

Concluding, there's so much inside Age of Wonders 4 that it's hard to give a good overview in the space of this review. What's clear is that Age of Wonders 4 is a very solid 4X turn-based strategy game with so much customisation that the potential for replayability is nearly endless. Whether you want to fight as an elvish champion of the people building a stable empire, an evil wizard leading an army of cannibal toads, or as an orcish warlord plundering your neighbours, it's all possible. That's why I think that this game shouldn't be missed by anyone who likes empire-building games, like the Total War or Civilization series. Even if you're usually not drawn to the fantasy theme, Age of Wonders 4 is simply executed so well you'll appreciate it in no time. In my mind, an empire-building game needs to offer the right tools for a player's imagination to create a truly worthwhile experience, and Age of Wonders 4 manages to do so very well.

09 Gamereactor UK
9 / 10
+
A highly polished game. High degree of customisation for maps and races. Great atmosphere.
-
Tactical turn-based combat not for everyone. Loading times.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

Related texts

0
Age of Wonders 4Score

Age of Wonders 4

REVIEW. Written by Marco Vrolijk

A captivating 4X game that sucks you into its highly customisable world of wonders.



Loading next content