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Create your own faction up to the smallest details, and crush your enemies in a turn-based 4X fantasy world that you can fully customize. Play the good guys or conquer the world. Explore, experiment, defy the usual tropes and try new perspectives. There’s plenty of room for roleplaying if you are inclined to do so. You’re in for a great experience.
On the board, Age of Wonders 4 behaves like a regular 4X game, complete with the expected elements (medieval setting, no firearms or futuristic technologies, use of magic, diverse sentient races) along with your personal preferences. Turn-based battles allow for another level of depth, and using spells and enchantments against your enemies is very fun.
The star of the show is customization. You can either go wild with creativity or stick to convention. Want to play Tolkien’s standard-issue elves against a rising evil power? You can. But you can also play undead feudal toads, honorable faith-bound orcs, angelic moles, scholarly crocodiles or vicious, barbaric halflings. The fact that you can personalize your faction leader gives you even more fantastic options. A draconic overlord leading a troop of enslaved dwarves? A minute wizard rat as the monarch of a human kingdom? Yes, you can.
Age of Wonders 4 follows the current trend of “multiverses” that so commonly these days explains the infinite possibilities of characters in different situations. You play as a god or “godir”—one of many—that visits one of the countless realms (game worlds) to fight other godirs for dominance. A game within a game, if your godir dies she returns to the afterlife hub to try again, and the same will happen to your opponents. Or you can play as a commoner in one of such realms, fighting to win the right to ascend to your very own pantheon of divinities. You can create as many as you want, and play with them however you like. The only real way to kill a godir is by deleting him from your game options.
The models are gorgeous, colorful and varied, and there are lots of them. Mythical creatures, extraplanar beings, animals and people are all depicted in detail and variety. The animations are excellent, despite some clipping with capes and beards—something quite common in games of all flavors. The graphical style is fine, even if not too original, but the interface feels a little bit dated and derivative.
There’s a wonderful feature that I’ve noticed after a long time playing, that is seldom mentioned elsewhere. Depending on your chosen race and traits, you will be able to construct certain buildings that make for a unique scenario experience. My shadow dwarves were able to build experimentation chambers and underground laboratories, but those were not available to the rest of my factions.
The concept of magic is associated to tomes, which contain spells that share a common topic. While there are some more advanced and powerful than others, you will never be restricted to a specific magical school. There’s something for everyone, and you can alter your strategies on the spot. You’ll find spells that can summon mythical creatures and monsters, buff your allies, enchant your weapons, and even alter the climate and turn the landscape into a barren wasteland, a frozen desert or a lush forest.
There is a moral system in place, but I found it somewhat rudimentary or too simplistic, that tends to polarize factions and influence certain situations. An artificial “karma” of sorts will mean that if you behave in a wrongful way, you could even get worse results in dilemmas and choice events. I personally disliked this, since it takes away some of the fun of being evil.
The music is fine; sometimes overly dramatic and with little thematic variation. I found it repetitive after a while, especially in the faction creation screen. If you’re like me and most of the usual gamers of the genre, you’ll spend a lot of time here. There is little voice acting—mostly in terms of flavor text—but it’s solid.
Mechanics-wise, Age of Wonders 4 is best played with mouse and keyboard. Misclicks are sadly common thanks to a cluttered interface, army models and banners in the world map. Sometimes the use of right and left clicks was unclear to me, but this is mitigated with on-screen help. I did not encounter a single error, crash or bug in over 80 hours of playtime.
The triumph of Age of Wonders 4 is its enormous flexibility, which derives in the huge number of possibilities for you to shape your gameplay to your liking. If you have played other fantasy games before, you’ll soon appreciate this. Those titles will eventually appear too rigid and limited, but we must remember that with many available options comes generalization and a lack of focus.
I’ve heard some comments on the apparent blandness of the game, but you can’t be universal and highly customizable without being abstract and generalist. That’s the price to be paid for personalization, and it’s perfectly fine.
I bought the premium edition with a small pre-order discount. So far, the experience has been satisfactory, and the game content is plenty and adequate. The DLC so far has been nice and adds meaningful elements to an already interesting gameplay, like the ability to play as a dragon lord, and an additional race and culture. Another thing worth noting is that the developers are in constant touch with the playerbase, be it with surveys or forums. They are quick to respond and the game is updated frequently. Months after launch, the game keeps getting better and better with more DLC.
If the idea of having a powerful playground full of alternatives to create your dream realm of fantasy tropes appeals to you, you’ll love this game.
Wonderfully recommended.