Age of Wonders III Review (PC)

The first time I suffered defeat was because I though Age of Wonders III was set up as a classic Heroes of Might and Magic title, with two honorable heroes standing facing each other, each with his own assortment of units and spells, with tactics the main element that would decide the fate of the battle.

But the new strategy title from Triumph Studios understands that much of war is decided by placement of armies and by the support they are able to lend each other, which means that my Elf units, capable as they were, had no hope of fighting off the three enemy forces that descended upon them.

I learned a valuable lesson about the core concepts behind Age of Wonders III at that point and I instantly felt that this was an experience that was able to take the best elements of the past while pushing the genre forward in order to challenge players in new and interesting ways.

Since then, I have lost plenty of battles, especially when I failed to carefully prepare for them, have won more, have discovered how important solid spell use is and have gained an all new appreciation for the way Age of Wonders III treats the turn-based strategy genre.

Story

The narrative of Age of Wonders III is set in a fantasy world where two big alliances, comprising many races and types of heroes, are facing off against one another in a titanic conflict that encompasses a whole world.

Its main purpose is to teach the player how to approach various tactical challenges, how to develop their cities, how to handle their various units and how crucial supporting armies are to a successful advance.

There are plenty of colorful characters to deal with, a lot of betrayal and high-minded speeches, but there’s nothing here that even approaches the tension that the campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic III generated.

The campaigns are very well designed, but the fact that Triumph embraces so many fantasy clichés means that I stopped reading most of the dialog after a few scenarios, preferring to focus on the development of my heroes and the power of my armies.

Fight time

Story delivery

Age of Wonders III, somewhat surprisingly, manages to create interesting stories through its random scenarios, where the player has a lot of control over the world he will be fighting in and, more importantly, over the leader of his would-be empire.

The game features six races and six classes and the resulting combinations, like a High Elf Warlord or a Draconian Theocrat, lead to different skill evolutions and strategies that in turn can help the player create a custom story for each of his games.

The structure of the random maps, with plenty of diplomatic interactions and quests made by independent villages, also creates the feeling that the game world is alive and filled with narrative.

Gameplay

Age of Wonders III is a strategy title in the greatest tradition of the genre, with a strategic layer where gamers make decisions about heroes and cities, and a tactical element, which is activated when two armies meet.

Each army is made up of six units, which can be of a variety of races and occupy a number of battlefield roles.

Each turn, they have three pints that they can spend in order to move, attack or use a special ability that the player needs to carefully mix and match, while taking into account the abilities of their hero, in order to create an effective fighting force.

The cities that the gamer controls need a little bit of attention, but they are mostly present to provide troops and to offer the mana that heroes use during combat and for the bigger strategic spells.

Play Video

Age of Wonders III is a game where combat is the most important activity and the development team has managed to create solid battle mechanics, which reward tactical thinking on the part of the player but can also deliver some interesting surprises.

The game has a very capable Artificial Intelligence that can easily take advantage of any wrong move that a player makes in order to take his units out or directly assault his heroes and I have often lost battles that I was confident of winning before they started.

Even on the strategic map, it knows how to attack cities that are undefended for even one solitary turn and to create chokepoints that are hard to attack.

The variety of units, spells and abilities is high enough to keep each engagement interesting and the impact of the heroes, especially once they level up, can be devastating.

Age of Wonders III is almost endlessly replayable, with a huge list of elements for the random maps that can be tweaked, and I can see it easily taking up a hundred hours for a dedicated strategy lover.

Graphics and audio

Age of Wonders III is a truly beautiful game, with clear designs for all the included races and bright colors that manage to draw the player’s attention to the most important elements of the screen.

The strategic layer becomes a paper map when zoomed out full enough, but I mostly play the game closer to the heroes and cities in order to enjoy the little details associated with each of the units and the geographical landmarks.

Tactical deployment

Hero customization

The sound design is a little less impressive than the graphics for Age of Wonders III, but it still does a good job of evoking the breadth of the fantasy world and the violence of the battles.

Multiplayer

Age of Wonders III is better with humans, because interaction, either via diplomacy or in the form of a backstabbing attack, is more interesting when delivered by a friend or rival than when coming from an Artificial Intelligence, regardless of how well it is implemented.

The experience also benefits from the variety of heroes, which allows each type of personality to manifest itself into a customized character.

The only problem is that the larger maps can take hours to finish, which means that all those involved need to be committed to the game in the long term.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion