izigame.me

TLDR; A solid modern entry to the 4x fantasy genre with a lot of replayability but some of the game design choices need review. It would probably be better to pick this game up later after some patches and expansions. The game is fully playable now; it does not feel like an early access beta test, but there's some missed potential and gameplay design that needs fixing. Launching with expansions/season pass does not feel like they were purposefully holding back features/content.
Happy to change my review if I see fixes.

Pros:

Graphics are good and UI is clean and well thought out
Customization of your race at game start and customization of race through the game is great
Combat is meaningful and auto-resolve isn't the best way to win fights
Lots of spells and creature variety
Research Tree is multi-layered giving players a lot of options and strategic choice
Diplomacy (from what I've played so far) actually works
Alignment system where event and in-game choices can affect diplomacy and your cities
Province system is good and city improvements scaling on province types is well thought out

Cons:

Some race traits, hero origins, and map modifiers (non-cosmetic game mechanics) are locked behind a meaningless grind wall that doesn't respect your time
Free City system needs review (AI doesn't tend to leave its own borders and the Vassal system is economically very strong and game breaking such that not having a Free City near you at start puts you behind)
Multiple playthroughs may make you feel that all the races feel the same because the true choices that diverge player units comes from the tech tree
Units are not customizable like in AoW: Planetfall (mounted units feel bland too)
Artifact/hero equipment system is mostly RNG since there doesn't appear to be crafting
Enchantment scaling needs review because Tier 1 units costing the same gold upkeep and mana upkeep enchantment-wise as a Tier 3 unit feels bad
Edit: After more plays, I realized that there is no water strategy. If you're hoping for amphibious adventures or cities ala SM's Alpha Centauri, that's not here

I have a lot of thoughts about this game and that's a good thing, because that means I like the game enough to think about it. Long word vomit broken up into sections to follow.
My Gripe with the Grind
As of posting this review, I've fully played through two games in the course of 10 hours. I see myself playing this game a lot, but right now I'm pretty discouraged to play because of the meta-progression system. Locking gameplay mechanics in a 4x sandbox style game behind a meaningless grind wall is a poor design choice. After 10 hours I leveled my metagame progress to level 7. That means I unlocked six nodes on a tree with 49 nodes total. The nodes are divided in a tree where following 12 nodes will unlock three gameplay mechanics (traits/origins). Some nodes are shared but ultimately, to unlock every gameplay mechanic, you need to get to level 49. All the other nodes are cosmetic. There are also 7 map modifier unlocks that are all fully unlocked at level 28 (not based on the nodes).
My biggest issue with this is that the experience awarded for this meta game progression favors short quick wins. You can cheese a win in 15 game turns and get 500-550 experience or you can play out a standard game in 100+ turns and get maybe at most 1000 experience? The system is not respectful of a player's time and therefore feels meaningless.
I'm not opposed to game mechanics being locked in progression, but I would have much preferred something more meaningful like unlocks rewarded for achievements (First Game Win, First Game Win as a Wizard King, First Military Victory, First Technology Victory, etc). The progression system is fine for cosmetics but locking game mechanics behind this system just makes me balk at wanting to play, especially knowing that some of the mechanics are things that are exactly my play style. It's reminiscent of a cheap mobile game monetization strategy to force players to pay for faster progression, but this is actually a "big box" game with a "big box" price tag. These kind of grind mechanics for unlocking gameplay options are better left to MMOs and gacha games and have no place in the 4x strategy gaming world.
All the Races Feel the Same
That's because they are. The choices you make at the start of your empire are fairly minor and are not truly race defining. It is very reminiscent of 4x space sims where you checkbox positive and negative modifiers using trait points when making a custom race and have maybe one defining unique thing (eg: lithoids not needing food or hive minded or robots). The only difference in AoW4 is that there are no negative modifiers really and many of the really interesting choices are locked behind the grind wall.
However, AoW4 has a difference in that your race can evolve over the course of the game. Much like Amplitude's Humankind, your empire will take on new traits over time as you progress through the tech tree - which the tech tree system is pretty fabulous. Your units that felt like the same units everyone else had, will start feeling much more diverse as you choose different tech choices from your enemies and allies. The racial variance, however, still might not be enough for some players when comparing to other games like Total War: Warhammer. As a whole, the races are more similar than they are different and instead of completely asymmetrical gameplay, its more divergent gameplay styles over time.
Tome Tech & Affinities
The research tech tree is very well done. There are different elemental affinities and your race starts with 1 or 2 affinities based on racial creation stats. You gain more elemental affinities by choosing Tomes to unlock and research. Each tome adds several new spells to your tech RNG pool, a boost to a single elemental affinity, and unique customization options in the form of unique city improvements, racial modifiers, or gameplay options. There are multiple tiers of tomes and you have to research two of each tier to unlock access to the next tier but they don't have to all match the same affinity. But it can help because alongside the Tome Tech tree there is also the affinity tech tree.
The affinity tech tree is fixed and unlocks more options the more affinity you have (main way of gaining affinity is by picking out tomes with that affinity). You spend special currency to unlock nodes on this fixed tech tree which have powerful effects. For example, progressing through the Chaos affinity tech tree for allow you to one time summon a Balor or give you bonuses for razing cities. While progressing through the Nature affinity tech tree might allow you access to an unlock that lets you summon animals whenever you expand your kingdom's provinces. The affinity system is very similar to a "culture" or "government" system found in 4x space games that allow you to unlock powerful passives or one time effects.
Edit: I've played 5 more hours (totaling 15 hours now), which was 1 game win and 1 game that can't continue anymore due to a crash. Then about 30 more spam cheese 5 turn wins to unlock all the game play unlock nodes on the Pantheon. You only need to reach Pantheon Level 35 and I've uploaded a screenshot showing one of the possible most efficient unlock routes. Good news is the leveling is flat. So you need to win 34 cheese games or roughly a little more than half as many normal games to unlock all the gameplay options.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971152951