Age of Wonders: Planetfall

« Initially unwieldy but eventually engrossing, Age of Wonders' latest entry translates its Civ-meets-XCOM formula brilliantly to a new sci-fi setting. Even if the elements of that sci-fi are a bit rote. »

« Age of Wonders: Planetfall brings a new setting, and lots of improvements, to a classical 4X series. The increased complexity can be occasionally overwhelming, but the strategical experience remains top notch. »

« The depth of Planetfall's decision-making, presentation, unique features and overall high quality of polish alone warrant a look. »

« Age of Wonders: Planetfall gives me almost everything I need from a 4X game and a turn-based strategy game in one neat package. Both sides could (and doubtless will) be expanded upon, but the overall package as it stands is extremely good at what it does. If you wanted more depth to XCOM’s strategic overworld or more involving combat in Civilization VI, this is the game you’re looking for. »

« You will hardly find a more elaborate sci-fi 4X turn-based strategy. Functional diplomacy, solid AI and brilliant battles are further supported by a highly modular approach to hero and unit customization. »

« Age of Wonders: Planetfall perfectly mixes the XCOM series with the Civilization one without renouncing to the peculiar characteristics of the past chapters of the series. »

« An impressive 4X/Tactical game hybrid whose only major fumble is that it fails to communicate its vast array of features in a simple, beginner-friendly manner. There are months of exciting gameplay here if you're willing to persevere. »

« My overall experience with the mechanics of Planetfall is that their complexity brings the worlds to life, but the mechanics described above may be too much for beginners, even with the comprehensive tutorial system. That said, I really hope that Triumph Studios takes some design decisions for future fantasy installments. »

« In spite of some very daring improvements over the previous title, the game itself is a rusted chain connecting anticlimax to anticlimax. All to labor in vain under the shadow of much more worthwhile predecessors, and the grueling truth of better future endeavors. »

« Planet colonisation tactical RPG that plays like a cross between Civilisation and XCom. Each of the two elements are not strong enough on their own to carry an entire game but blended together, they kind of work but there is not enough of a forward narrative and so it all feels quite repetitive. »

« Pro's Interesting hero creation system Plenty of options for custom games Nice SCI-FI soundtrack Con's Exceptionally bad AI AI cheats more than most 4x games AI too predictable when it doesn't cheat Save scumming allows easy victories Terrible quests Buggy AoWP feels more like Civilization V than an Age of Wonders game, it doesn't help that the tutorial doesn't really explain much either and definitely doesn't help its case, I often had to resort to youtube for some tutorials to explain a few things which did it better than the tutorial. The problem here is that AoWP fails at being a civilization clone and feels like it abandoned its Age of Wonders heritage, not to mention research is also extremely limited tech trees which limits the overall enjoyability as well. The AI has such typical behavior patterns, and sometimes just wacky attacking patterns that completely disregard attack strength making them waste units spectularly, and other times I've seen that you could have a far higher attack strength, heck you could have an entire party of hero's with rank IV gear and a higher attack strength vs a group of enemies with lower attack strength and pick auto battle and inexplicably lose. Diplomacy as always is a complete joke, with the ability to sweet talk potentially enemies whilst you build up an army and most of the time, if you are going to be attacked by **** can see it a mile away, or if you keep taking **** AI can take sectors away from you without really suffering from any significant penalties, sure you'll gain Casus Belli but once again, its a system that really doesn't benefit you at all except reducing or eliminating any potential morale penalties from your civilian populations, and I'm pretty sure this doesn't effect the AI at all. Lets talk about bugs I've had a few, especially related to enemies sitting on top of resources and being unable to attack them, and the buttons would just freeze up. Seems like a common issue too that was never fixed with the only reliable fix was to restart the game. In closing, Planetfall fails at 4x game imho, and fails at being a civilization clone as well and as per usual, the AI is the big issue here. Anyone reading this, you can easily just google yourself the results of this issue and youtube has quite a few video instances of this, which really doesn't help this game and no amount of apologizing for bad ai is going to change that, this aspect of 4x has always been a problem but other 4x have managed to find creative ways around this problem, planetfall feels like it falls into the the category of Civilization 2 level of AI cheating and because of that, I'm not really going to recommend AoWP to the casual fans of 4x games, basically if you want a good spacey 4X/Civ clone then look to sid meier's Alpha Centauri which is so much better than this. AoWP has its fans, and if you like the game - more power to you. But for other people who haven't played any 4X games, or are new to the AoW franchise then I suggest to avoid this one. »

« Definitely addictive, putting ticks in a lot of boxes for what it set out to be. Procedurally generated worlds; an interstellar empire to build via multiple playthroughs; campaign modes that introduce you to the story and characteristics of the many factions in the game. Everything I don't complain about below is likely OK, or even great. TLDR: If you've been looking for a marriage of Hex Map 4X + XCOM, then Planetfall will be an entertaining and addictive experience for you. Its good, not excellent. You may feel overwhelmed by the vast amount of enemy variety. The learning curve can feel pretty bad and you will never truly 'learn' this game, but it gets better as you invest the time to familiarize yourself with all the factions and tech trees in the game. I was surprised to find that the combat in the game felt balanced, given how much variety there is in tactical combat and unit modding. I was initially attracted by the blend of two of my favorite worlds: Civ V-like 4X and XCOM-like tactical combat. Planetfall does a good job at both, but not as good as either of those two games individually. The 4X manages to feel too fast and too slow at the same time. It always became a chore after midgame. However your mileage may vary if you don't set your mind on world domination / conquest, which I expected to keep me invested in the process, but I may have been shooting myself in the foot going after this particular victory condition. While I was initially intrigued by all the unit modding options and branching empire research paths, I started to borderline hate it all after I purchased the DLCs, which introduce even more factions and units (and variables). The learning curve was already steep, but it exploded after including more factions. It literally got exhausting when there is an entirely new challenge around almost every corner - how does one properly prepare for... everything? The simplicity of Civilization V and our familiarity with real world history really helped in getting through the chore of learning the game and getting to the fun part, but in Planetfall I always found I had to read and learn more than I like, because no two fights are ever the same and if you're going to play at your best (which is usually the mindset in any strategy game), then unfortunately you may feel obliged to thoroughly inspect every single unit in every single fight before making your first move. I felt I have a certain capacity for going through this process over and over again, or perhaps domination mode simply doesn't work well for this game. Its likely more enjoyable if you got one of those big math brains. Or you've played this game for hundreds of hours and you already know what this or that mod, unit or effect does. What to expect, which enemies to focus, how to approach them etc. The fun only starts when you've properly familiarized yourself with the situation. Impossible to enjoy chess if you don't know the rules, right? Well expect to go through the learning process many many times here. The AI is fairly easy to dominate if you prepare well. Diplomacy in this game is unfinished garbage and the AI is often too forgiving. They show no mercy when the odds are already against you, but in evenly-matched fights I found it easily achievable to come out of it with all your units alive and ready for the next battle. Very often the AI doesn't seem to have good priorities when confronting you - they tend to move to unfavorable positions and seemingly make a point out not forcing you to lose some important unit you misplaced yourself. Auto-resolve could really use a deep learning engine (make it happen for the next Planetfall!) - While the outcome was impressively fair for the most part, I still had to manually take over in fights where you absolutely do not need to lose a single unit if you use one brain cell. And screw the vocal narration in the tech tree! I wish there was a way to turn that off. It is essentially a bunch of made up nonsense narrated by accents and quirky voices from every corner of Earth, there to distract when you're trying to read. They even vocalized the made up name of the made up dude who is supposed to be the author of the made up aphorism or quote being narrated... AAAGH!! At least in Civilization I learned some wisdom from actual wise men who lived. »

« I'm having a blast with this game. I absolutely love the complexity of it compared to previous AoW games. Here you have 6 races with game styles so different that you can't just go wit »

« An excellent copulation between Civ & XCOM series. It even feels like might and magic sometimes too. »

« Cool game, combinaiton of civilization and xcom in the combat (that can be alittle boing a tedious) so far the management looks great and the civ part too »

« With the updates and expansions this game is greatly improved. I have been playing since the original release and enjoyed the game when it first came out but now with the addition of 'Empire Mode' and more choice of technologies and factions this game is a fully fledged turn-based wonder. For me the game synergises aspects of Civilisation and X-COM in the fact that you have both turn-based map strategy and turn-based combat. The game is sci-fi themed and futuristic and the available factions that you can choose to embody are both creative and repayable. »