The major "letdowns" here will be the lack of QoL features from newer titles, as well as gameplay loopholes that can be a major problem if you're playing these games purely for the gameplay/competitive experience.Īge of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne - A gentler step in the 4x direction, where city/race management became a bit more nuanced than in the first game. I'd recommend playing it because it generally runs in anything without too much of a hassle, is dirty cheap, and is still one of the best in the series. Its campaign and narrative delivery is still unsurpassed to date, and the hand-drawn graphics aged like a charm. The more recent ones are much more "modern" in all aspects - good and bad - and that sometimes mean the experience is marred by marketing and financial choices/limitations.Īge of Wonders - The more eminently playable of the three older ones, and more "HoMM-like" of them all.
Generally speaking, I'd say that, the further back in time you go, the more problematic the technical and QoL aspects become, but you also get more passionate and deeper products. All are fun, on their own way, and might be fun to you, depending on the experience you're looking for. I've played all of them, at one point or another, some more than others. Well, evidently, YMMV - but all of those were considered "good games" when they launched.
I'm calling them "adventure strategy games" these days to better diferentiate them from the 4x and Grand Strategy TBS games (like Civilization or Crusader Kings).Īs a more passionate fan of the former types of games than the latter, I felt quite keenly when the series started inserting more and more 4x elements in its gameplay - it began with Age of Wonders III and reached a peak with Age of Wonders: Planetfall, but these have been thouroughly streamlined and toned down in Age of Wonders 4 - thankfully XD.īut to get closer to your question.
The first three entries in the series ( Age of Wonders, Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic) come from another lineage of game design, and they veer much closer to Heroes of Might & Magic and Master of Magic in their gameplay. To be entirely honest, IMHO, Shadow Magic could give the newer tiles a run for their money, if it weren't so unstable to play in newer machines.
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