Opinion about Age of Wonders 4
High! When Age of Wonders 4 came out, I was dumbfounded. Nothing portended and here is on you, a game of my favorite series. At one time, I spent hundreds of hours in the second part, turned my nose, but still accepted the third, played Planetfall and enjoyed Sci-Fi with stylistics. And so, the very moment came when the developers decided that the time would return to the roots, to magic, to adventures, to everything that attracted me and made me a fan of the series. Having plunged into the very pool of this game, I was going to write a review, spitting on the philosophy of my blog … But, having played enough hours, I realized that it would be an opinion. Opinion, because there are too many emotions and objectively they will not be able to throw them out.
So, what is this Age of Wonders, according to the protocol, at least briefly mention it. The age of miracles is a team of a hodgepodge from many games, which nevertheless was able to combine them all and give them a game with their style. From screenshots, you will clearly notice the similarity with heroes, civilization and many other step -by -step strategies. Great magicians sit in it in their towers and manage whole empires. By wave of hands, they are able to make magic right on a global map or in tactical battles. Yes, this is somewhat reminiscent of Total War, where tactics and strategy are interspersed, wars created in cities are found on the battlefields and fight for the glory of their overlords. Often this series is compared with heroes and Disciples, it did not gain such popularity, but unlike its competitors lives and develops.
And so she went out, the next part and she struck me. Primarily enormous opportunities, customization of their race and the flexible development of its civilization. By clicking the game, you move out the window of creating your subjects. In fact, the game is cunning when it offers to choose a race, because this option only gives it the appearance and insignificant bonuses that are selected to their taste. But what can be called a full -fledged race is a culture that is extremely fatly hinting to whom it can belong. Next, we choose a book of spells, which is actually a starting set of technologies. Just through these books and study new ones further from the game.
To find out all the nuances, I would advise you to watch the video of Maxim Milyazev right there on Stopgame, where he analyzes all the mechanics. However, I would not call it a full -fledged review due to a clearly small acquaintance with the game and the series.
I will show you all the wrong side of the new part of Age of Wonders.
Without a doubt, anyone who touches this project will see how many mechanics have been added in it, how variable it is both in creating their faction and in its development. Passing the campaign of five missions, I rejoiced as a child that the briefing and description of the map could make up the development strategy. Look, here is the archipelago and a lot of water, so why not create toads that get bonuses from water and run perfectly along the swamps? Ahead of you is waiting for a modifier who makes some wars in the battle of some wars, who do not care who to beat? Excellent, barbarians, the time has come for your huge horde, where the loss of one does not solve anything. And now the time of the last mission has come and then I saw an abyss, a real black hole, the wrong side of the game that showed all its shortcomings. I realized why many early reviews are so enthusiastic, and praise reviews. They just have not yet had time to appreciate all the parties. But, I will start with advantages, leaving criticism for sweet.
There is definitely age of wonders for praise. The developers tried to simplify everything that was possible, convenience here is clearly in the first place. When hovering on any unfamiliar word, the hint will immediately jump out what it means, and in it you can also find out what this or that term means. Units, convenient encyclopedia, many simplifications in gameplay are easy and simply, are selected and simply.
The biggest plus of the game in its customization, here you can not only create your own cards, but also indicate what modifier will be. The latter are directly pleasing, not some “more mines” there, but “neutral monsters build a den and bend on all fronts” or “high volcanic activity with serious consequences”. You can put up to 8 such modifications and each of them can greatly affect the gameplay.
A great idea that the fractions are not standing still, but can develop and have many ways for this. At any time, barbarians can take a book for magic and add high-level mag fighters to their army to brighten up some shortcomings or adapt to the enemy. For me personally, it was a special chic before the start of the session to open a reference book on magic books and calculate my unique and imbalance build.
And since there are many combinations for their race, there are also progress in tactics. It has become diverse, it can be experimented in it, fighters and the principle of a stone-bumar, they can do this perfectly and do not interfere with the creation of armies imprisoned for a certain type of unit. I was so glad that I was able to create a third (with small author’s edits) and she really worked.
And now I am moving to the shortcomings. The Age of Wonders series has a deep and interesting ENT. Apart from Planetfall, it has never been radically violated and followed a certain canvas: the difficult relationships of people and elves, the conflict of magic and technology. In the fourth part, everything was fucked up, the magicians suddenly became supermals who travel through multi -senior, so that … well, I don’t know, they just have fun. They now have no racial conflicts, there is no concept of survival in the world of magical intrigues and the salvation of their people. They ceased to be the rulers of their race and became gods who, for the most part, are indifferent to someone to fight and why fight. They selected individuality and character, they were changed so much that they ceased to be themselves. Imagine that Warcraft 4 would come out in which Artas suddenly began to dress up in a pink dress for no reason and shouted “behind a lovely pony!“The whole story that was built for three parts was thrown out in the trash in the beginning of the campaign“ During this summer the universe changed a lot ”. The campaign itself consists of only five cards, whose level of study at the level of random -united. The whole plot is based on the fact that there are two groups of magicians that confront each other, and in the end the piano falls from the sky and says that he was so planning to create a new multi -column. Mwahaha! Everything, end, no adequate finale.
During the game, I found IMBO BULD, which has no shortcomings and decided that I would avoid it for the balance. Maybe I was mistaken and wanted to find other development methods that will seem strong to me. What was my surprise when in the last mission the main opponent had just such a build and I felt his imbecies on myself. Then I removed this ban and showed him that the one who knows how to tactics was dragging.
I will not scold AI for a bad game. Firstly, this is Moveton, people like to point a finger at the computer and mock in order to increase their significance and love to condemn artificial intelligence in almost any tactical and strategic game. Secondly, it is not so bad as to draw to a lack, it is just norms and tries to tactics as it can.
Let the rest of the shortcomings be compiled and I will explain them as I saw in the fifth map of the campaign. There is a huge map and in it two unions of magicians fight for possessing this place. The player can create a maximum of four cities, each subsequent will impose horse fines that will rather ruin you than you get a real profit from these settlements. And so, in order to go and tap it alone, you need to stomp to the enemy castle for a long, long time, and if you have lost part of the troops along the way or you need to return to help the ally, you will also have to return for a long time. A teleport can help in this, but it does not open immediately, only on your territory and, if your ally built it, then to it. But for the whole game, none of them built it so.
As I understand it, the restriction on the number of cities exists for the balance of the balance so that these or other fractions can not be worried due to their number. At the same time, it turns the gameplay on large cards into forming absurdity. The mechanics of the game allows you to persuade neutral cities to their side and make vassals out of them, but they do not decide anything, from time to time the troops they were sent are so funny that they are instantly and without loss.
And it would be half a bastard if the developers did not give us a magical victory without fail. Anyone can build three magical improvements and win through 15 moves. Needless to say, on a large map for 15 moves you will not have time, unless the enemy is your neighbor. Needless to say that at the beginning of the game, your opponent in development is far ahead, because the developers wanted it, and will always achieve a magical victory faster than you.
A very viscous and stretched gameplay is added to all of the above. Reach 15 moves to the enemy, its city is stormed for 20 moves, another 4 moves should be standing and guard until it becomes yours. But you know how long the session on the middle card lasts – 60-70 moves. This is so that you understand how long you have to do nothing until someone is stormed by someone’s big city on a large map.
Gearing diplomacy. There are three unions Noverificationcasinos.co.uk/vpn-casinos/ and four contracts that can be concluded. The opportunity appears as soon as the friendship scale is filled. For a long time I tried to figure out what the opinion of me is being built from other rulers, but I did not understand. I met a magician who was the opposite worldview and adherence, but saw in me almost a brother and joyfully concluded a contract. How it works at all? The trade is unicellular, like let me give 10 gold for 10 mana. To proclaim that you hate someone, you have to pay money. Reaches absurd, your neighbor cannot hate you anymore, he ended in gold. And he can insult you that he will give reason to the war and her proclamation will increase your status in the eyes of others. In my opinion, this is some wrong diplomacy.
I mentioned the variety of fractions in advantages, but there is one catch. Their advantages are also due to the feature of the card. For example, the culture of the artisan is greatly dependent on the mountains, their scouts can extract resources and artifacts from them. On the middle landscape, where the rocks were a moderate number, the usual three scouts provided my heroes on the full artifacts and literally rebuilt my cities into short lines. Guess what players will choose if they play in a mountainous area? And what will they choose on an island map or in the dungeons?
I was also outraged how bad the visual heroes were. The same beautiful and passionate Carissa, the lord of the orcs, got an orange with her hands. The feet of everyone made large and ugly. Well, is it really so difficult to find or make at least a normal model in 2023.
In terms of optimization, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the card load time is three seconds, this is generally something unreal in our time. And on the other, mass battles are held in the slides.
As a result, I would like to make a verdict. Age of Wonders 4, an unfinished game in which there is no campaign and the plot, which has always been oriented by the series. There are many mechanics in it thoughtlessly thrown without any balance, there are many decisions that are supposedly made for balance, but break the game more than if they were not. To date, Age of Wonders is at a position of early access, an unfinished project with cool ideas that have not been brought to implementation. It feels like they took a masterpiece and cut a piece from it with a butcher knife and threw the audience.
I have a persistent suspicion that our expensive paradoxes are involved in all this, which seem to see contour maps in all strategies and are trying to bring this series to their standards. Unfortunately, from one part to another quality of the plot, it becomes worse.
Age of Wonders 4
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You just walk on the map, kill neutral monsters and enemies of enemies, while buying buildings at the same time. And the buildings simply give dials to some kind of characteristic and do not bring any interest or tactics.
That is, everything is the same as in other 4-strategies?
But the culture and development path that you chose instead of pre -installed races and magic, as in past games, affects
Imagine that Warcraft 4 would come out in which Artas suddenly began to dress up in a pink dress for no reason and shouted “behind a lovely pony!”
Exaggeration. Not a single character in the game has changed his nature as described here. Neither yak nor nimue.
… not even Sandren. Yes, a turn with who she was all this time all the time, but he does not look like a piano, since she could come either to such a thing, or continue to remain a pacifist with his fists.
The whole story that was built for three parts was thrown out in the trash in the beginning of the campaign “During this summer the Universe changed a lot”.
The whole story came to what happened due to the fact that the seals of Merlin collapsed and the Teneroenny succeeded
Age of Wonders 4, an unfinished game in which there is no campaign and the plot, which has always been oriented by the series.
The developers said that they refused a full-fledged campaign due to the fact that few people played in the previous parts, preferring random maps and the empire regime
I tried to play, passed one company and deleted. Already in the middle of the company he felt that there is very little content here. You just walk on the map, kill neutral monsters and enemies of enemies, while buying buildings at the same time. And the buildings simply give dials to some kind of characteristic and do not bring any interest or tactics. Interaction with neutral cities and rulers primitive. It’s even hard to call this diplomacy. Himpler races do not affect at all, it’s just skins.
After so many positive reviews, I remained extremely unhappy.
I experienced similar feelings. I created a character and in 88 days Ianched almost all books, met many elements, annexed cities, and fought with someone. Created the second and the same. As a result, I realized that the game is something between the civilization, from which it lacks diversity, so that each party begins as new in the new conditions, a hero (there is nothing to complain about) and the global Paradox strategies, where the mechanics are not honed to the depths. I lost the target for the further game, because she had nothing to offer and she told me the same story over and over again.
I do not quite agree that everything is tied in a series of games by the plot, most players play, as in “Tsiva” or “Heroes” on a simple map without a plot. Then it is not clear why you have a battle as a “slide show”, it rather depends on your computer, I had no problems with this. Only the graphics card cursed at the game, but this is the problem of the AMD itself, since this problem has been in other games. Regarding the protractedness of the capture of cities, on the one hand I agree, on the other hand, if you play on the network, and if you just almost win, it will not be possible to sprinkle the player and smash, then you need to interfere with him initially or try to overtake him. The game has a huge plus of the development of cities and the construction of new ones, and the assimilation of free cities was made simply, understandable, but not typical, as in “Heroes” or “Tsiva” I really like that the population directly affects the development of the city and its size, and not just the system indicators of construction, food, etc. Compared to the 3rd part, I would like to note excellent visual and drawing. It’s nice to look at the game at the game. Diplomacy is still weak and it is easy to overtake the opponent (sell claims). The influence of paradoxes is also felt- contextual clues and some random events in the world, as in a series of Europe and crusaders, which dilutes the party, creating an imitation of the living world inside the world (the chip is pleasant, but the effect of it quickly disappears). The races are really almost the same, with the exception of a pair of unique effects, but this does not affect the game. Of course, I would like to add the dependence of races on landscapes, as in the third part. This can be configured in the settings of the features of the people, but so far not a super profit, as it seemed to me. They made a dynamic rewind in battles, which is just excellent and you can save a lot of time if you do not want to watch slow animations in battles. Cool “feature” is the transformation of the people, which allows, due to technology (spells) to improve their race, as you like the player, creating a unique gameplay for yourself in every new batch, if you like experiments, or break through the path to victory through the usual build. By the way, there is still an interesting thing- a pantheon, where in addition to the shmotki you can unlock new enemies and conditions for victory, which will let you reproduce scripts more than once to achieve these goals. Yes, and unlock in the pantheon is given for victory on the maps, so this is quite interesting. By the way, you can also meet your character erected in the pantheon, on the battlefield as a king-enemy or hire in the hall, which makes it possible to set new goals or participate. In the disadvantages, I would add a small number of standard troops in locks, the absence of siege units and technocrats (perhaps they will be in the new DLS). On the whole, the game is felt by a fresh sip of air against the backdrop of new games, as well as with stagnant quality content in the strategy genre. All good game and pleasant leisure!
Build through the highest shooters. They shoot at 6 cells, and the archers of the wind can mare it up to 7, there are magicians, and quite good ones, their buffs give almost all units a serious advantages. Having risen in the TERPIT and bristling with spearmen, who have three response blows, having shooters with a balanced damage, you can beat any offensive with almost losses.And if you become angry according to the worldview, you will put your head on Klava and ride on it until your troops kill everyone.
I am a newcomer in the series, and just bought a game to quench hunger in global strategies. I liked the mechanics more Endless Legend. But there are problems.
Most questions for the multiplayer. The biggest claim is very poorly made simultaneous moves. While your opponent is fighting or deciding the fate of the world in the choice window, you can not do anything. I understand movements, but even with construction, research and with the development of heroes do not dig. The whole session is paused. But these problems were solved even in Total War and amateurs in Homm3.
Then there are a very strange choice of the autobetal regime when attacking one player on another. The striker can just press the autobah and everything, the defender will be in the wings. What prevented the autobos only with the mutual consent of the players?
Well, there are still complaints about the map generator. He does not know how to do something balanced for 3 players, and indeed often throws very not symmetrical starts.
The balance is really not perfect. Volumes of nature and magic look much stronger than the rest. But in the branches of the development of society, nature and chaos win the most. And this makes nature a choice N1.
And by the way, what kind of OP build? From close, I have been imbued with only barbarians on spiders.
And yes, the game still does not agree much. Many things can only be recognized as experimental.
Nimue is a cunning and unprincipled magician who uses intrigues in its interests, and not a stupid crazy magician who drowns everything that creates.
Yaka is a power -loving and conceited magician, and not a crazy stupid magician who burns everything that he sees.
The whole story came to what happened due to the fact that the seals of Merlin collapsed and the Teneroenny succeeded
No, everything came down to the fact that the consequences stupidly scored. They just said that somewhere there was the second and third era of miracles, but we do not care what was there, because all this disappeared and now we are here. This was said by direct text.
The developers said that they refused a full-fledged campaign due to the fact that few people played in the previous parts, preferring random maps and the empire regime
In any game where there is a multiplayer, people often play it precisely. This is normal, but there is no reason to abandon the campaign. It is she who is the face of the game, the development of Laura. It’s just an excuse about the campaign.