Age of Wonders 4 - Overview

It releases today. To me, this game has gotten suspiciously little critical reviews. Apart from the flexibility in customisation, the pantheon system and more story encounters, the game does not seem to offer much new to AoW3. Even the battle maps seem almost identical. Despite that everyone seem to carefully praise the game as if they were paid to do so. One would expect less unanimous reviews.

The only even close-to critical reviews I found are from RPS and ScreenRant.

Is it too complex a game that reviewers err on the safe side? Or are people so used to the Civ series doing the same thing over and over again that they have grown tired to criticise this trend?

Obviously, by repeating the formula, you cannot make a bad game. The point is that by doing so one would expect more divisive reviews someone pointing out that they are reusing the wheel they have used the last decade.
 
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Well, I just now learned that there is not actual story campaign, but just 5 maps called Story Realms. Additional Story Realms will follow with Expansions...

So the game just got a lot less interesting for me.
 
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Morrandir said:
Well, I just now learned that there is not actual story campaign, but just 5 maps called Story Realms. Additional Story Realms will follow with Expansions...

So the game just got a lot less interesting for me.
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I'm just the opposite. Give me skirmish maps and a random map generator and I will play for years. Hello, HoMM 3 :)
 
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Morrandir said:
Well, I just now learned that there is not actual story campaign, but just 5 maps called Story Realms. Additional Story Realms will follow with Expansions...

So the game just got a lot less interesting for me.
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I don't think that's much different from how 3 and Planetfall are.

I'll let the site know after I play a story realm for a while.
 
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Age of Wonders 3 had two story campaigns with multiple scenarios. More were added with DLC expansions. Planet-fall also had story campaigns but it was handled differently.

Looks like Age of Wonders 4 is following the Planetfall format but yeah story is weak.
Instead of having a fully scripted campaign story that the player follows - with perhaps a couple of branches - the in-game narrative needs ways to adapt to who the player is and their actions. Through this we avoid narrative vs gameplay disconnects, difficulty spikes or blocking parts of the customization/empire development possibilities.

So our goal is to create a universe rich in lore, which reacts to the player’s choices instead of a more linear traditional scripted adventure.
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The segment you quoted discusses Narrative in Age of Wonders 4 as a whole. In the past Narrative & Lore were very separate from the typical gameplay. As we've evolved, so have our games and what we want to do with them. The Narrative engine allows us to increase the Roleplay aspects of Age of Wonders and help create a much stronger personal narrative.

Further in the Dev Diary we cover the 'Rise of the Godir' Narrative, which is split into 5 Story Realms with Intro's and Outro's and storylines as we've had in previous entries. These realms are a curated experience with plenty of bespoke content and where characters from the earlier games make their (in)glorious return.
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I can only compare to Planetfall and there Missions could take quite a while (CNex-3) or pull you in all different directions. Story Realms are somewhat more of a focused experience but I don't think you can really compare the two. Story Realms in Age of Wonders 4 are closer to the regular map gameplay than in our previous entries, so how long it takes to complete a Story Realm depends on your general skill level and whether you choose to go for the Story Victory or one of the other Victory Conditions.

The other thing is that in the past Campaign and regular maps were completely separate entities, which isn't really the case anymore. Every Realm you play feeds back into this notion that you as the player are 'writing' the stories of this new Age of Wonders. You can go play a random map in between the first and second Story Realm and will pretty much still make sense.
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While I like the idea of a story being existing, and there being a framework mythology for the game to exist in, it's not even close to the drawing point of the game for me. It's not how I ever spend most of my hours playing an Age of Wonders game, and that's true of a lot of people.

Now I'm not going to begrudge a story existing, but with a finite number of developer-hours to spend on a product, what I want is primarily rock solid core systems. I don't want the studio to spend 40% of their time developing handcrafted scenarios which would represent <5% of my total playtime.

I think they've realized this is the way the community is leaning, and honestly, I'm incredibly delighted by it. The game is a procedural framework now for telling the stories of your pantheon of demigods as they settle the multiverse. There's a sprinkling of story in it via the official scenarios, but most of it is driven by a metagame meshed into how people actually play. EVERY map is a story mission, during which you're making persistent progress.
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steamcommunity.com

No Campaign or Story, Straight up skirmish's or Multiplayer :: Age of Wonders 4 General Discussions

Game looks great but a lack of Campaign or story? Why leave that out? Review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Blazor26/recommended/1669000?snr=1_5_9__402
steamcommunity.com steamcommunity.com
steamcommunity.com

Campaign an afterthought? :: Age of Wonders 4 General Discussions

Can anybody who played the "campaigns" tell me more about it? I don't personally care for multiplayer or random maps. Only for campaigns. Seeing as I liked the predecessor (AoW3, especially with the added campaigns from the expansions) I was hoping for more of that. My current concerns are...
steamcommunity.com steamcommunity.com
While I understand there is a small "story realm" (with 5 maps) it doesn't really sound like an actual campaign in the way other Age of Wonders games including Planetfall did.

Just typical 4x stuff which is probably why the game was released so quickly. So yeah it's now more of a 4x game instead of a TBS game with story like Age of Wonders 1-3.

And for me that's a damn shame.(n)
 
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Thanks for insightful and informative post once again @Couchpotato. If the fans want campaigns, perhaps they'll make them in DLCs. Personally, I did not find the Planetfall campaign interesting and never played AoW3 campaigns so I might be fine with this direction. Anyway, as you, I and many others said, there seems to be little new so I am still debating when I'll get this game. If I'll get it. I was disappointed by Planetfall and games from this studio are not an automatic day 1 purchases for me any longer. There are too many good games to play given the time I have to play them.
 
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largh said:
Thanks for insightful and informative post once again @Couchpotato. If the fans want campaigns, perhaps they'll make them in DLCs.
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Most of the DLC sounds like added options for customization and a new story realm.
  • Dragon Dawn (Content Pack, Q3 2023): Features new dragon ruler type, a reptilian race form, and new tomes of magic.
  • Empires and Ashes (Expansion, Q4 2023): Features a new culture, tomes of magic, empire building option, and a new story realm (campaign).
  • Primal Fury (Content Pack, Q1 2024): Features new beastly race forms, culture, tomes of magic, wildlife, creatures, and resources.
  • Eldritch Realms (Expansion, Q2 2024): Features new race forms, monsters, and magical realms and locations.
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Looks like Pardaox has influenced the studio.:D
 
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I played for five hours yesterday and had a hard time stopping. Getting up early today to play again. Hitting all the right notes for me so far. Made my own race of elves that were smiths and had extra hit points from all the forging. Set up the world I like to play in. A Pangea that is mostly forest and jungles and inhabited with lots of undead and many old ruins from a lost civilization. I can make my own stories with that setup.

Empire building and tactical battles have been very good so far. You get quests and the enemy AI seems to play well. Haven't had any bugs yet and I like the graphics. Enjoying it way more than AoW3 so far.
 
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I have yet to complete all 5 available story maps, my experience thus far, is the game's much different from the rich storytelling, and character development of previous games.

AOW 4 feels more like an army skirmish generator based on AoW property vs a proper sequel to the series. I'm not saying it's not good - it is good. Just vastly different.

I just wish they put more work/focus on the story or campaign side.

It's always been a big part of previous games.
 
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Couchpotato said:
AOW 4 feels more like an army skirmish generator based on AoW property vs a proper sequel to the series.
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Oh, that's a bummer. :(
I had really for a proper sequel in the same spirit.

I don't know if I'll try it at all now. Perhaps in a sale.
 
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