Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne

A focused, atmospheric fantasy strategy with real wizard vibes Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne feels like playing a proper archmage running a realm, not just a generic strategy ruler with a spellbook on the side. The whole design revolves around your wizard, their tower, and their domain of magic, which gives the game a strong identity and a more focused feel than many other fantasy strategy titles. The campaign has a good sense of progression: unlocking new spells, improving your spheres of magic and slowly turning your wizard into an absolute powerhouse is very satisfying. Cities, units and races are varied enough to keep things interesting, but it’s the interplay between global spells, local battles and your expanding domain that really makes the game shine. Tactical combat is fun and readable, with positioning, flying units, ranged support and spell timing all playing important roles. Presentation has aged, but in a charming way. The art style, unit designs and music build a cozy, slightly old-school fantasy atmosphere that still works. Once you get used to the interface, it’s easy to lose hours hopping between world map, tower management and battles. It’s not flawless. The interface can feel clunky by modern standards, some maps drag on longer than they need to, and the AI can oscillate between overly passive and suddenly annoying. Balance can also be a bit swingy depending on spell selections and race matchups. Even with those issues, The Wizard’s Throne remains a very enjoyable fantasy strategy game. If you like the idea of ruling from a wizard tower, expanding your magical domain and mixing empire management with tactical battles, this one comfortably sits in the “really good, very much worth playing” category.

I played the first one when it was brand new on the Best Buy shelf. This one came out later in life when I was playing "other stuff", so I was looking forward to playing it. Bottom line I can't play in Fullscreen and when you enlarge window mode is screws up the map scrolling using the mouse so you have to use your keyboard arrows (ackward). So that leaves me playing in a small windowed box that feels like I am playing on my phonescreen. I use Win10, there were several solutions, none of them worked.

I enjoyed Age of Wonders 2 immensely the first 40 hrs. It felt like a good fantasy novel: moody and atmospheric and slow-burning in the best of ways. However, after 40 hrs, serious fatigue set in due to some unfortunate design choices. That slow burn novel suddenly turned into "The Wheel of Time": strong first few books, sluggish middle. And I put the game aside after 80 hrs without completing the campaign. THE GOOD: - Sweet spot of complexity. Whle not as deep as Paradox games, it's deep enough without needing a 20hr learning curve. There are enough axis of progression (heroes, cities, spells, map etc…) that the next goal is always just around the corner. - Sphinxes that mind control enemies, giant slugs that swallow units whole, dragons that can teleport, dwarven steamtanks, heavily armored orc warlords etc… As a fantasy lover, I was very happy with the unit selection. I especially loved the female units. I’ve always gravitated towards factions with large female roster (High Elves and Dark Elves in Warhammer comes to mind), and this game has a sexy roster: Nymphs, brave Valkyrie maidens, Angels, to name a few. There’s something very satisfying about a doomstack of elegant, lethal beauties tearing across the battlefield. - The atmosphere! The game may look low-res… but I found the same charm as sprites of the PS2 era or Diablo 2. Someone once said: “Books can be the greatest medium, because it requires you to co-create with the author using your imagination.” And this game has a bit of that same effect. On my wide screen it looked like a pastoral renaissance painting, and coupled with the moody almost ambient music… it captivated me completely. - The campaign map has so many little stories. Often you’ll wander into a remote part and find something interesting. Whoever crafted the maps did so lovingly! THE MEDIOCRE: - The story is… serviceable. The elements are there: wizards, elves, magic, betrayals, yet it has that vague feeling of the writer pulling plot points out of his ass, without proper narrative arcs or planning. THE BAD: - Here's my main issue with this game, and it's a BIG one: the loss of hard-earned progress: The campaign is split into 6 spheres, and every time you progress to the next, you lose all your heroes, research and progress. What do you mean the hero I spent 20+ hrs leveling disappears never to be seen again? And all those spells I researched have to be researched again? Is this what Lord Buddha meant when he said Attachment leads to suffering, for all in life is transient and impermanent? The greatest fun I had was playing this like a slow-paced, fantasy builder: nurturing my heroes until they became capable of soloing entire armies; pushing pioneer wagons out until my cities covered every inch of the map, interconnected by lattices of teleportation towers, and exploring every vault, camp, and ruin for rare spells and items. But once I realized none of that mattered, that all of it was going to be lost once I progressed, I played only to finish each mission. And with that, the game lost its core charm. - Related: but later maps have a lack of respect for time. You’ll either fight the same doomstacks again and again, losing and taking the same city (like Stalingrad)...or clearly already won but have to spend 40 turns scouring all over the map because the enemy wizard hid her last tower in a town, behind a river, under a cave. To conclude, Age of Wonders 2 is a game I will remember fondly… like a relationship that was beautiful and passionate but ended in unfortunate divorce. It created such a lush, immersive fantasy world: and I wanted so badly to get lost in it (and I did), but ultimately it’s lack of progress retention, grindy last few missions, and mediocre plot made me come back to reality. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad I experienced it, and I will cherish the good memories, but I wish the game had made some different design decisions.

One of the best games of its time. The UI/controls surprisingly take some minor steps back, and the storyline is less linear (less customization/no "choose your own adventure" - campaign/mission selection), but a worthy successor to AoW.

одна из "игр детства"!!! даже не помню сколько раз ее проходил. Конечно была с переводом где ледяной дракон назывался Ледяной селезень. На удивление стимовская версия работает (правда пришлось образ скачать) 9/10

12

good old strategy

It's an old game, with all the caveats that come with that. It feels clunky and occasionally slow, it can have issues with operating, the story is simplistic, etc- but it's charming, and it's a classic. Worth a playthrough at least once, for anyone who either wanted to play it but missed it decades ago, or anyone who really likes strategy and wants to know the roots of the genre today.

Great game but has a lot compatibility issues on modern hardware

It's a fun, turn-based strategy game, reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic 2&3.