Age of Wonders 4 - Review @ ACG

I am excited about this as well!
This review raises some good points. It would be good to have a tactical combat overhaul, and music / soundtrack update.
But like most games, the updates, and DLCs will probably make this game (along with mods).

I loved AoW3... Still play it regularly...

I just have to resist the urge to cheat... I cheat a little bit, and try and balance game difficulty to the level that I cheat. You think by now I would just play it on easy. It's funny because when I do play games on normal, I still do very well. I think I enjoy the process of trying to break the game... hacking into hex codes / save games etc... but cheat engine makes it all too easy now days. In this game, I usually just give 1 or 2 heroes extra points to make them superheroes lol.
 
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There are a lot of positive reviews but I recommend waiting to play.

As patches and future DLC will fix and improve gameplay.
 
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Couchpotato said:
There are a lot of positive reviews but I recommend waiting to play.

As patches and future DLC will fix and improve gameplay.
Click to expand...
Certain games I like to play early and see how they evolve over time. With Battle Brothers, I enjoyed each new DLC, trying new strategies. This works better with sandbox games that don't have a set story.

AoW4 will have me playing early but I still play HoMM 3 and Eador so I'm an old dinosaur.
 
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Having completed one game i'm mixed on it; i guess i'd call it a bit boring. Something about it has not grabbed me as a strict 4x game. I loved aow-sm; but was not a fan of aow-3 which i found incredibly boring (yea it had a 'story campaign' but a very dry one). Some of it might be age as i have not played aow-sm in many years (graphics haven't exactly aged well) but the game was so much fun back in the day. I think warlock ii did everything better than aow-4 'cept 'events' though I can't really say the aow-4 events make any sense. Oh well it is what it is.
 
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I've played an hour or two. Seems really good. Better than 3.

I might be getting too lazy for this sort of thing; when it's going to take 6 or 7 turns to walk my army to their target I suddenly feel like quitting out. :D
 
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notdart said:
Having completed one game i'm mixed on it; i guess i'd call it a bit boring. Something about it has not grabbed me as a strict 4x game. I loved aow-sm; but was not a fan of aow-3 which i found incredibly boring (yea it had a 'story campaign' but a very dry one). Some of it might be age as i have not played aow-sm in many years (graphics haven't exactly aged well) but the game was so much fun back in the day. I think warlock ii did everything better than aow-4 'cept 'events' though I can't really say the aow-4 events make any sense. Oh well it is what it is.
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I never played sm but aow1 and it can't be age or it's my memory that derails, and yeah aow1 campaign has almost an RPG feel and is complex with some funny variations coming from few choices and taking more or less time in some parts, when AoW3 campaign is ok and better than nothing, but a bit basic in comparison. Still I can't say I feel AoW1 is better than AoW3, just more unique.

I played a bit Warlock 2: the Exiled, is it the Warlock 2 you quoted? It felt from my hands, and I wonder how this 4X can be considered very good. :p It's one of those cold soulless games for me, so cold and without any soul nor any base appeal that play them is totally annoying for me, but it also means I couldn't bear it long, so I never dig its gameplay. That said, my 4X vibe is a bit in my back, and I still wonder if really I want try play AoW4, if it is like WLK2 then for sure I don't want play it.
 
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Dasale said:
I never played sm but aow1 and it can't be age or it's my memory that derails, and yeah aow1 campaign has almost an RPG feel and is complex with some funny variations coming from few choices and taking more or less time in some parts, when AoW3 campaign is ok and better than nothing, but a bit basic in comparison. Still I can't say I feel AoW1 is better than AoW3, just more unique.

I played a bit Warlock 2: the Exiled, is it the Warlock 2 you quoted? It felt from my hands, and I wonder how this 4X can be considered very good. :p It's one of those cold soulless games for me, so cold and without any soul nor any base appeal that play them is totally annoying for me, but it also means I couldn't bear it long, so I never dig its gameplay. That said, my 4X vibe is a bit in my back, and I still wonder if really I want try play AoW4, if it is like WLK2 then for sure I don't want play it.
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Yea that is the game; remember AOW4 at this point has no campaign or story per sey just mechanics. I believe the expansions will add a campaign (s) though given paradox history one has to be leary as to the quality and size of the campaign. aow-sm i believe is better than aow1 by quite a bit; aow4 mechanics I think are better than aow3 but that is not saying they are fantastic or unique - i found aow3 such a step backwards in basic mechanics than aow-sm it was hard to not improve on it (mechanics include things like types of troops; map layout; items on world map - both resource type items and event type items; graphics; ... everything but the story itself which aow3 was pretty lame). aow-sm is epic - my memory is aow 1 was pretty good - aow 2 included the mechanics but other aspects were lacking and aow-sm took aow2 and made it >> aow 1. Also some of the user campaigns for aow2-sm are decent.
 
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Never played awo2 nor sm, what I felt unique in aow1 wasn't mechanic, in fact found the tactical combats rather annoying, it's the campaign scripting. Perhaos it includes not just some scripting but also some AI reactions, some load back and retry surprised me by the variations, but again it's not for the tactical combats, and neither for the 4X management aspects.
 
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