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- Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
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Microprose's Master of Magic was an innovative turn-based strategy game that combined six distinct magic systems, fourteen highly-specialized races, city building, diplomacy, plenty of combat, dozens of heroes, and a random world generator. Five years after its popular release, the Dutch company Triumph Studios has done its own MoM-style game. Eliminating the city building, Age of Wonders focuses heavily on combat, magic and diplomacy--with mixed results.
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AoW shows its indebtedness to MoM right after the opening animations. The spellbook and attractive, 2D isometric main screen are simply hi-res updatings of the earlier title. The city screens add a sense of artistic flair that Sid Meier would do well to keep in mind while working on Civ III. The unadorned battle screens again are MoM's, with an added tactical element of occasional buildings and trees to provide cover from ranged attacks.
Combat can be either turn-based, or computer-resolved. There are hundreds of unit types individually rated for combat values, each with its own set of skills (poison darts, flame protection, concealment). One notable improvement AoW offers over any other turn-based game is that when one of a series of adjacent unit stacks owned by a player attacks an enemy, all the adjacent stacks move to the combat screen, as well.
By contrast, dungeon combat (which occurs when you send a stack into a ruin or dungeon to search for gold and magical artifacts) is singularly disappointing. Where they could have employed randomly generated room elements, Triumph Studios chose to use only five small, redundant dungeon templates with generally very narrow corridors. As a result, dungeon combat tends to resolve into one-on-one attacks, minus any tactical interest.
While diplomacy provides many options--making war and peace, cementing alliances, threats to attack, paying tribute, suggesting mutual wars on third parties--many appear inoperative. In more than forty hours of play, I never saw the AI threaten to attack or offer tribute, even when I was standing outside an opponent's stronghold with several groups of killer squads. I could never get a single very friendly faction to ally, although bribed with all my extensive gold and mana reserves.
AoW's magic is extensive, and well balanced. There are six spheres of magic, similar to those in MoM (life, death, water, fire, air, and earth). You can spread the number of spells you learn through research across several magic types, or concentrate on one for maximum depth.
AoW offers two standalone campaigns of twelve scenarios a piece. There are also twenty-three scenarios for one to twelve players. Multiplayer options include the internet, local network, HEAT.NET or email.
It remains to mention AoW's soundtrack, a series of twenty New Age-flavored melodies that can be played in any order. They're easily the best music in a game that I've heard since Roland Rizzo's Renaissance arrangements for Magic: The Gathering.
AoW's combat, magic, atmospheric graphics and music make this a very tempting turn-based strategy release. True, dungeon combat is poor, diplomacy is hobbled and there's no random map generator; but the game balance is excellent. Overall, we like what we see.
