Age of Wonders 4

The amount of DLC and the cost to fully get into this game is ridiculous... i don't think the DLC is worth the price of 20$. You can get so many good games for under the price of DLC. Put your focus elsewhere id say. Or stay to the base game but then ya feel somewhat screwed bc you don't have any of the DLC.

Absolutely fantastic 4X game. Charming graphics, phenomenal soundtrack, deeply engaging combat mechanics, extensive build options and every map is jam-packed with interesting sights and compelling points of interest that always have you weighing your many options for expansion. DLC is slightly expensive, but mostly worth the content, plus the base game is actually really good by itself. Furthermore, the multiplayer policy is generous - the host's content is unlocked for all participants. Although they're made by different studios, Stellaris and AoW4 nonetheless share the same publisher, and nominally fall into the same genre, and I'm very happy to say that all the criticisms I leveraged against Stellaris do not apply here. This game is exactly what I wish Stellaris could have been. Amazing.

Игра шедевр, очень вариативная и интересная, но сетевой код писал криворукий уебан - поэтому минус.

I loved AoW3, and really wanted to love 4, but I've never once managed to bring myself to finish a single game. I tried again as a dragon, I tried again as an eldritch god, I tried again as a giant. Can't do it. TL;DR: 1. Endless customizability instead of lovingly-crafted pre-made playable (and facable) options makes the experience feel to me like a soulless simulator/sandbox instead of a game with character and identity. It's like the opposite of a Homm3. Where AoW3 and AoW gave you even MORE character and identity to play around through the combos of factions and class, here it feels like nothing has character or identity. 2. Each game very quickly starts feeling like a chore. Every single turn you have dozens of choices you need to make and carry out. I'm not saying we should never have gone more complicated and more options than HoMM3, okay? But it is kind of the polar opposite of that beautiful simplicity-that-breeds-strategy. It just feels like much more of a chore than AoW3 and even AoW Planetfall. Not to mention that the game essentially wants you to auto-combat to survive it (as every single player will tell you), while the actual mechanics of the game inherently discourage and clash with it. 3. The artstyle also feels a bit soulless to me, unfortunately, though I want to like it, and don't outright hate it. Longer ranty version: 1. I think that perhaps the central difference here for me is the lack of all character and identity to playable.. Factions? What do we even call the thing that you go into a game with anymore? In AoE3, each combination of species and class was a lovingly custom-made playable option, and so many of them felt worth trying out and finishing a whole game with. And maybe with different settings, and the cool dwellings, and stuff on the map modifying your cities and your units, and items and choices for your heros... In AoW 4, you fully customize your species (meaning a couple of traits), making the actual models you choose meaningless in terms of gameplay, then you pick your "culture", which is basically most of what the species was in 3, then you pick the type of hero, then the class of the hero, oh, yeah, and a couple more traits for your culture actually, and then also some more stuff for your hero... Takes an hour just to start a damn game up. And then you can also pick whatever tomes (wholly different research trees) you want throughout the game. It's like the exact opposite of a HoMM3, or an Endless Legend/Space, or AoW3. The Frankenstein you play, after it has drained your life force just to create it, feels soulless. It has no character, no identity to it. I've tried playing into a bunch of tropes that excite me, but none of them felt like I was discovering anything, or embodying something lovable. It felt more like... tinkering. 2. And this goes into my other big issue. After a bit of joy of exploration and discovery and optimization and building, the game just starts feeling like a chore. Micromanaging every single unit both on the overmap and in each combat - unless you want auto-combat to lose you units, which is especially painful due to the experience system. And inherently, the battles you want to be taking to be playing well are those that require tactics which the auto-battler will never use. Separating buildings and recruitment is a stroke of genius for long-time 4X players, but it ends up also adding another layer of constantly having to make a choice for every single one of your cities at any time. And choosing the tomes, and the research within the tome, or to reroll it, and the extra recruiting method on top of the extra recruiting method (rally the marches or whatever it's called), and so on a million more choices to make and carry out every single turn. By the time you're strong enough to clear that tier 3 dungeon that you built the idea of your second city around (let alone being ready to wage war on another empire), you're feeling like you're doing an unpayed job rather than playing a game. It's like that movie Click, where you just feel like you want to fast forward and not actually play most of what's going on to enjoy the idea of what you want to like about the game. 3. There's also something about the artstyle, where a part of me wants to tell me it looks great, but another feels it to be soulless Raid Shadow Legends type stuff, with everything so mega-saturated and exaggerated that it feels samey and fake rather than immersive and exciting. In summary: Maybe I'm just older and employeder than I was when I played AoW3, when it comes to the choreyness of it all, and to losing the childlike wonder I felt both about the playable options and about the artstyle. But I do think that there's something deeper going on with the soullessness and fiddlyness of endless customizability over pre-made, lovingly crafted playable (and facable) options. It's no longer a game - it's a simulator, a sandbox. And at that point, I'd rather just imagine custom worlds and cultures and species and landmarks in my head, or with friends, over having the chore of playing them out within this game.

Feels like i'm missing core parts of the game without the DLC's. And don't get me started on the DLC prices, HOLY F***!

I'm over 450 hours in and I've had this game for a couple of years now. When I need to relax after a heavy day at work, or when I want to just explore what it would be like to play something in a unique new way - this is the game I come to. I enjoy that I can create a cult of goblins that follow a giant king, or that If one day I feel as if running one megacity and conquering the continent is the realm I wish to take - I am more than able to do so as well. I really enjoy the pantheon system (when you win a game with your custom faction, you can choose to ascend them to a pantheon where you can either run into them again - or replay the hero with a new buff attached to it.) What I think is most impressive is that I genuinely do not find many modern games to be as fun anymore - however - after 450 hours of this game I still continually return when I want to get lost in a new world/seed and spawn a new idea. My most recent adventure was creating three different culture/race combinations for three different variants of the same vampire (A young ranger vampire, a version of them middle aged and dark, and then an old elder vampire with mystic traits). Thank you @Paradox Interactive & Triumph Studios! You've made a fan out of me!

I want to like this game, but too many core elements don't work. RPG hero elements, but the combat is complete ass. Interesting civilization management, but the AI is balanced via lazy-af cheat multipliers. Multiplayer, but horrible, constant desyncing across the whole breadth of players. And the standard Paradox DLC creep atop it all.

首先从卖相上来说，人类一直有一个幻想话题叫做“如果人类社会没有进入科技文明而是进入了魔法文明会怎么样”。奇迹时代4完美的讲明白了这个话题。在当代所有竞品中，他是讲这个话题讲的最好的。从一开始的刀耕火种到最后上天入地改造自然，它的发展理念非常暗合人类文明在现实社会中发展的探索思路与意识形态。所以如果你喜欢这个话题，这可以是你购买的契机之一。 之后是dlc，作为一个发售了很多年的游戏，游戏的一多半内容以dlc的形式发售，这使得如果你刚入坑就一次性购买所有dlc会非常昂贵。但是奇迹时代4的本体内容已经非常充足，足够500小时以上的内容体量。因此非常建议先在打折时购买本体，确定自己能够接受或者喜欢它的战斗模式之后（当然每个玩家都一定要给自己学习和适应本作战斗的容错，本作非常重视战斗且战斗跟所有的回合制战棋均不同，如果不适应战斗，必须退款。），在考虑以打折季票的形式补全后续dlc。dlc单独买会比较贵，有的给种族，有的给英雄职业，有的给剧情，每个dlc都给的只有魔典。我认为只有一个季票合起来三个dlc才能做到种族职业剧本战役和魔典全部内容充足的水平，约莫够得上大半个新游戏的体量，卖个一百多块，可以接受。 本作的战斗是必须要提的一部分。我玩过奇迹时代3和奇迹时代太空版两部前作，对于前作的战斗是非常不感冒的，不理解它们的计算逻辑和解题思路，只会傻爆，然后自动战斗比我自己打得效果好或者不相上下，在我看来这就是回合制战棋完全不适应战斗设计的表现。对于本作战斗限于篇幅我不一一展开，只说三点。第一，本作的战斗是敌人一回合动所有的兵，然后我们一回合动所有的兵，循环往复，没有atb。所以防守比冲阵收益高。学会一开始先把自己的部队全部抱团，最大化盾兵防御和支援防御的收益，是开始学习战斗的第一步。第二，很多单位的攻击如果原地不动直接a可以a三次，如果移动消耗了行动点，则可能导致该单位的输出在本轮直接降低66%。因此活用炮灰单位吸引仇恨，聚怪，让敌方重要目标陷入我方全体3次平a的火力网进行秒杀，你就掌握战斗的七成精髓了。第三，整体规划交战第一回合的行动顺序，活用各种机制破防拆反，破除控制区域压制，读懂buff debuff的克制逻辑让输出最大化，你就掌握了这游戏战斗系统的九成了。最后一成就是理解次要种族转换和兵种附魔对于战力的本质提升，这一点反倒是基础的，几乎每个人都会提。这游戏所有的bd都有最高效的达成路径，所有变态机制高难挑战也都有解题思路，属于是既考察整体规划又考察解题思路，是我认为非常有意思也有挑战的亮点。 关于游戏目标，因为游戏本身非常丰富，因此这个游戏的玩家我认为是可以自己给自己设定非常多元化的目标方向的。我一般的游戏目标是pve在最高难度的战斗压力下战胜开场优势最大的AI敌人。这个目标我认为在当前版本更平衡了，前期压力会小一些，后期也没有以前那么无脑。这极大地缓解了以前版本的老问题，即后期垃圾时间游戏体验过于同质化，且垃圾时间进入太早。当然如果你设定其他的游戏目标，比如爆铺，或者pvp，这游戏也都是支持的。 对于以前本作的一些重大问题，游戏在当前版本都有不错的优化和提升。比如之前大地图100回合左右开始，AI势力较多的情况下，过回合时间会非常之长，长到十分钟以上的情况都有，且容易导致游戏崩溃。这让我觉得游戏在底层架构既定的基础上不断地再添加新魔典新单位新地图规则和效果，致使贪心不足蛇吞象，后续可能玩都玩不下去了。重构优化底层的代价可能非常大，工作量约等于程序重新做一遍游戏了。但是当前版本这个问题得到了极大的解决。100回合大地图过回合时间基本没有超过5分钟的。电脑的配兵、战斗AI和大地图寻路都进行了非常不错的优化。还有以前的墓穴，英雄尸体多了以后你要从中找到身上有四阶专属宝物的英雄进行卖尸体回收宝物，非常不人性化。几百个尸体能让墓穴的界面打开都变得非常卡，然后浏览尸体装备还不能翻页，不能检索。现在反正是一刀切了，无论给电脑英雄刷什么好装备，到玩家这统一自动扒下来一件并且删除其他装备，直接砍了翻尸体找装备这个玩法。现在的攻防公式也更合理了，以前是抗性有用但谁都没有很高的抗性，瓦解抗性打一切。现在是护甲的作用大大加强，连带盾兵的地位也有所提升。彩虹伤害不再无敌，瓦解防御、战法和支援的地位也相应的有所提升。应该说能调出现在的效果，开发者背后是经过了很多尝试和工作的。最终反映在玩家端的感受：有新内容，有新体验，能流畅玩下去。 游戏的百科和词条检索也非常完善，是我见过所有slg当中解释的最清楚且最高效的。这一点时过这么多年还是没有其他游戏能超越。这说明游戏开发者在初期立项的时候开发经验非常丰富，底层非常严谨。slg游戏众所周知各种词条叠加、化学反应之后可能产生很多bug，最有名的就是英雄无敌系列，看似体量不大，bug层出不穷。这游戏正好反过来，看似体量无穷无尽，实际真影响游玩的bug少之又少。 综上，10/10. 十分推荐给大家。