Game:

Age of Wonders 4 (2023)

Category:

Review

Duration: 1:52:01

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6

Age of Wonders 4 is a Turn Based Strategy, 4X, Exploration focused, Strategy RPG with random maps, wild magic, and meaningful character and society choices; it is very good.
Age of Wonders 4 is a better take on a Masters of Magic like world and setting, with even more depth and player options for those who find the original Masters of Magic too dated and limited, and its recent remaster a bit lacking.

Age of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms
Adds: Eldritch Sovereign
2 New forms
3 New Tomes of Magic: Tome of The Tentacle, Tome of Corruption, and the Tome of Cleansing Flame, if you’re not into the whole Lovecraftian look.
New World Layer: The Umbral Abyss!
Cosmic Events added
Beetle and death beetle mounts
+
Free Mystic Update:
Mystic culture now has 3 different specializations, focusing on either Attunement which offers more survival focused buffs for your people, , Potential, which favor spell casting, or the School of Summoning, which is all about summoning big, powerful, Astral Units to your side you crush your enemies.
Tier 1-2, and some T3, got some changes to make them more competitive in the later game.
Combat takeover of AI allies; a nice option.
Unknown realm option: All realm traits are hidden, and gradually reveled in the game; sounds funs.

Better Than Masters of Magic?!
Easily
Yes, I will stir the pot, for I was there when the pot was first poured, when Masters of Magic was new, and the idiot talking heads were showing its intro movie as a demonstration of the dangers of gaming!
Masters of Magic was great, for its time, as it took Civilizations, and said, but what if magic, instead of technology!
However, it is now a very old game, and the remastered Masters of Magic is just like a more modern, recreation of the original. Great for nostalgia I suppose, and fun in its way, but if more meaningful strategic depth and choice is what you’re looking for, there is no contest!

So Much Depth:
As opposed to merely a selection of 1 starting race and choosing your spell books and abilities like in old MoM, Age of Wonders 4 lets you customize your very faction!
In Age of Wonders 4, you get 5 points for your racial selections, choosing from abilities like “Tough”, gaining +2 armor, “Strong”, where melee and ranged physical units do +2 damage, or make your people “Poisonous”, granting blight resistance, and causing attackers to have a 60% chance of becoming poisoned, nasty, but powerful.

You also pick 2 society traits, which are each very powerful and impactful, like “Hermit Kingdom”, where your cites get a +15% bonus to produced Knowledge, Production, and food, and +20 to stability, but they lose it if an outpost or city touches their domain. This would certainly encourage you to aggressively protect your borders, and raze any foolish settlement that dares to intrude upon your domain!
Or chose to be the “Reclaimers” which grants you Binding Essence needed to forge magical items when you clear monster infestations, as well as for razing cities and pillaging provinces!

Next, the Magic!
Choose 1 starting tome of magic out of an initial selection of 13, which contribute to your magical affinity in some combination of Astral, Nature, Order, Shadow, Chaos, or Materium, which help you unlock higher tiers of magical tomes later.

Finally, you pick your ruler’s origin: Wizard King, Champion, or Dragon Lord (with the DLC).
They each have different bonuses, so pick which feels best for the kind of character you want to play.

Online Co-op is present, if that is your interest, as is controller support; if you’re the type to try and play a turn based, 4x strategy game with a controller; I am not.
I stuck with good old mouse and keyboard in the above video, as it felt much better to me.

Anyway, Age of Wonders 4 is a Turn Based Strategy, 4X, Exploration focused, Strategy RPG with random maps, wild magic, and meaningful character and society choices that is very good, and easily well worth a wishlist and a watch.
Watch?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669000/Age_of_Wonders_4/
#AgeOfWonders4 #4X #TurnBasedTactics

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