It's difficult to follow up a classic. It always feels like something is lost when a great game from years ago is brought into the modern age. Things get prettier, bigger, and more streamlined, but many times it feels like some essential chemistry is lost. Some of us blame nostalgia, others simply write the developers off as appealing to the largest audience or the lowest common denominator. Sequels always lose something. Which is why Triumph Studios had no right to produce such a perfect game. This is the perfect sparkling bouquet of what made the original great, combined with the streamlined production quality we've come to expect from a quality modern game. It's asymmetrical and unfair in the most balanced ways possible. Whether you're outfitting your heroes or designing your player class, you'll find great satisfaction in trying to break the game. You'll be very good at some things, and very bad at others, but it will always make sense and it will always feel right. The unit design deserves special mention. Each unit is deeply well-crafted and unique, even when comparing racial units of the same role. The attention to synergy is unmatched, both between units of the same race and in the way that race and class combine to make a whole. Leveling up often provides interesting new abilities that also tend to synergize, instead of simply providing better stats. As it happens sometimes, this game did not release flawlessly. It had its share of errors, but since that time they have been resolved. Understand that many of the other reviews written on here were made before AoW3 reached maturity. That version of the game is not the version that will be remembered, and it is not the version you will get it you decide to play it now. This game has a lot of everything, and all of it affects everything else. You'll build cities, research and cast spells, and train units. You'll command armies on the beautiful strategic map, and when you explore dungeons or fight another army, you'll go down to fight on equally beautiful tilesets. Tactical combat is reasonably simple but very deep. This game has not been casualized. The A.I. is maddeningly clever, and you won't take this statement seriously until you've experienced it. You'll fight skirmishes in the woods with bandits, and you'll fight in truly massive sieges to conquer cities. Your heroes will explore dungeons, find and equip items, and lead your armies into battle. You will build your strategy, and then get excited about other strategies you think could work. They probably will. Your race, your class, and your specializations all fundamentally change the way you need to approach the game. It takes a long time to bloom into a full understanding of how the various parts of the game work together, but the journey is pleasant, and you can absorb it by playing. The campaign probably deserves it's own review. It's gloriously cheesy golden-age high fantasy. The campaign follows branching questlines, so you can end up doing different missions. The base game has two campaigns of eight missions. Eight does not sound like a lot but you can easily spend an entire day playing one mission. They're huge. Think of them more like chapters. The expansion packs can add another two campaigns. There are also a number of scenarios which are like competitive missions for X players. The "real" Age of Wonders though is in the procedurally generated random map mode, where you can fight other players or the AI. There are a huge number of random features on the maps, such as "dwellings" where you can purchase units from a non-player faction like Giants or Pixies. You'll need to play many games before you've seen everything you can find. Also of note, Age of Wonders has an underground map, full of caves, tunnels, and the cities of the Goblins and Dwarves. Triumph is confident enough in the mastery of their game to give the player enormous freedoms to explore how to play. Their own mastery is evident in the careful design of how every element acts together. If you find anything this game does interesting, play it for that reason, but be prepared to fall in love with the rest. This is what a strategy game should be.
