Age of Wonders

The Good
The game can be a lot of fun, especially building up your heroes. I like the fact that you don't have micromanage your cities as much as you do in Heroes of Might and Magic or in Master of Magic. Tactical combat, although time consuming, really gives you a lot of tactical options if you have a good mix of units, especially if you are fighting with two or more stacks of units. Finally, the graphics and sound are well done.

The Bad
The single player game is very repetitive since the objective never vary between missions from the basic "Conquer the map" quest. Most of the maps can be won fairly easily by just maintaining a stack with your heroes and a few other fast, powerful units since the computer AI is very defensive. Basically, the computer just usually hangs around his biggest castle with his leader hero and stacks up a ton of defensive units. All you have to do to win is to move your power stack over and assassinate his leader hero and watch ALL of his armies turn into neutral armies.

This gameplay flaw is even worse in multiplayer, because many of your hero's powers are useless (especially combat spells) if you just play defense with your hero. Of course, if you put him on the offensive, you risk even more, but this is necessary to take over enough cities to win the game, so winning is more due to good luck than good tactics.

Another major problem with multiplayer is that there is no middle ground between smart tactical combat and dumb quick combat. Quick combat is a good idea, except that the game gives you no tuneable options such as turning off the use of magic, or being able to set how aggressive heroes are in their attacks. A lot of the time your hero casts way too many expensive spells (like Terror) or charges into combat and gets himself killed while in quick combat and this is frustrating because you know that in tactical combat you would have won with a few minor losses.

Tactical combat is flawed especially in the defense of cities. Walls give you a huge advantage in that only certain troops can break through or fly over them, but they also give you a huge disadvantage vs. the attacker since your archers often cannot fire over the wall at the attackers while they are trying to break in and your troops are almost always very spread out compared to the attacker. Why doesn't the defender get to place his archers on top of walls so they can shoot unhindered at the attackers? Why can the defender run away and give up the city if he faces overwhelming odds? Why can't the defender place his stacks where he wants within his city before the attacker gets to move?

Overall, Age of Wonders has a lot of good ideas, but a mixed implementation of those ideas. Even though I was disappointed with the game in the end, it is still a fun game and if its problems are fixed in Age of Wonders 2 then it will be a great game.

The Bottom Line
Age of Wonders tries to take the best elements of Master of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, and Warlords, but many of the gameplay elements they chose don't combine to make a game with lasting replay value.

The Good
1) Very pretty graphics, in 16-bit color, which look even better in 640X480 resolution (That's rare...and you can change the resolution-mode from within the game itself);

2) 12 distinctive fantasy-races, which means a diversified lot of weird creatures running around and more sides to compete against (You can reduce that number below 12 if you feel that a scenario is too crowded);

3) A great map editor which allows to create new maps or to modify and expand published maps (Two underground levels can be added: they look like dark, labyrinthine tunnels, and you can put enemy home-castles there if you feel that the surface level is too crowded to start with);

4) Lots of pre-game customization options;

5) The option to incarnate yourself directly into the game as a "leader" hero: if he gets killed, you "die", and it is game over for your side;

6) A lot of spells, some of them creating spectacular audiovisual special-effects when cast on the main strategic map (Such as a huge lightning-bolt striking a city);

7) The possibility of moving creatures without heroes, so the map progressively becomes infested with annoying pests harassing your weaker armies, cities, and territorial possessions (The strategic gameplay thus becomes more complex and the computer-players gain more options to harass the smarter humans);

8) Cities are more difficult to capture: if your hero does not have a special talent to breach walls or if your army does not have siege-engines, city-garrisons protected by walls made of wood or stone simply cannot be attacked (This poses logistic problems: you often have to produce siege-engines and to pull those slower machines to the target-city);

9) Cities can be immediately razed, or looted (then razed), or even better, you can eject their populations and migrate your own race into the conquered cities;

10) The diplomatic matrix is the most sophisticated in any strategic game because it not only takes into account your relationships with the other leaders, it also keeps track of the quality of your relationships with the various races (For example: you can be at war with the leader of the Elves but at the same time be in friendly terms with the Elves! This forces you to take care of how you treat the population of a conquered city: if you hurt the Elves in one city, you negatively affect your relationship with all of the Elves...including your own Elf mercenaries);

11) The automatic combat-resolution mode is not simply a general outcome-summary, it displays enough tactical details to make it a worthwhile substitute to spending time playing out the battles from start to finish;

12) Units can have many special abilities which render combat more complex and sophisticated (For example: some battles end up in a stalemate because your army is not equipped to fire on flying units or on spectral units which are immune to physical attacks!);

13) There are many options which favor multiplayer encounters;

14) The musical score is very good and the particular sounds associated with the various units and situations are exquisite in their diversity and weird effects;

15) I'm sure I forgot something: it's a great game.

I'm a fanatic of the "Heroes of Might and Magic" (HMM) series, and I wasn't very thrilled with the two versions of "Warlords 3" (1997 & 1998). I must admit that there are many interesting features in "Age of Wonders" which make it a more sophisticated game than HMM2 and HMM3, even though I find the latter visually more beautiful, especially during combat and within cities. It is difficult for me to admit that: I hope the designers of an eventual HMM4 will integrate elements of the superb "Age of Wonders".

The Bad
1) The inner cityscapes (layout, buildings) are simplistic and just plain ugly (far from being as beautiful as the ones in HMM2, a 1996 game, and not even as pretty as the cities of "Master of Magic", a 1994 game!)That's an odd weakness in such a sophisticated game that took so much time to develop;

2) There are not enough maps, especially extra-large ones, included on the CD (build your own!);

3) Even though it is interesting to have units move without a hero, it is annoying to see solitary, low-level enemy units scrambling to capture resources, and even cities (by financial negotiation) from the very start of the game (I've even seen a lone battering-ram used as scout for those purposes!)Those kinds of operations should have been limited to certain types of units, and this problem can be reduced by editing the maps so that most resources are solidly guarded and that cities which can be bought (because of racial affinities)are not placed near a side's starting forces.

I can't find anything else!

The Bottom Line
If you enjoyed "Master of Magic" and the "Heroes of Might and Magic" series, if you found "Warlords 3" and "Disciples: Sacred Lands" unsatisfactory, you will enjoy the intricate challenges of a long game of "Age of Wonders" on an extra-large map. Oh, by the way, Hasbro has recently announced that a "Master of Magic 2" has been slated to be released in 2001...

The Good
Solid construction, nice design. Generally, good graphics.

The Bad
There was no quality engaging enough to want me to replay the campaign or any of the scenarios again.

The Bottom Line
Worth buying, but not a classic.