Age Of Wonders 2

The first Age of Wonders was great. When I saw the second come out, I couldn't wait to tell someone to buy this for me for my birthday, Christmas, etc. In fact, I don't have the expansion that is out now. So, if one of you could pick it up for me that would be swell.

Anyway, back to the review. Age of Wonders II does take the basic premise of the first, but definitely makes large changes. There is still the turn-based strategy with a general map. You have many of the races from the first. Your objective is pretty similar, and you are in the future of the first game after many of Age of Wonders happenings have shaped your present. To keep all these things was a good idea.

What they changed in the game had both good and bad impacts. The biggest change that I would say is that your leader (named Merlin) is now a bad fighter and does not level-up. This changes the game in many ways. You obviously don't parade him around to fight, but also you use him to cast global spells. In fact, if he resides in a wizards' tower, his power can stretch to other towns and heroes that you acquire. So, this affects the strategy part of the game. You protect him but he is still key for large board movements.

Age of Wonders (AOW) also adds a growth part of the game to cities and kingdoms. I had just tested Civilization III, and at first I was worried that this game was trying to emulate Sid Meier's invention (This is not good since CIV III has automatic fighting and is based more on growth and town issues.) The main likeness is that you have a settler that you can create new townships. The towns can then grow which is unlike the first AOW where they were a fixed size. The towns have more capabilities as they grow. In the beginning of the game, this is very overwhelming. It would have helped if they would have eased you into this. However, as you get the understanding of it, it becomes quite interesting and challenging, and is clearly not trying to include rules that are not overly micro managing.

There were some very good parts that changed from the first. In the first AOW, the races were incredibly unbalanced. Frustration often arose from having a race that is clearly outclassed. In the second installment, the races are more even and there are ways to get around some of the imbalances. Also, there aren't a lot of individual units that are unstoppable like the first. All units are at least in some way vulnerable.

Other changes tended toward the bad. The game has about 15 chapters to it but if you lose in the 5th chapter you don't start over from the beginning of the 5th chapter. You either start from the 1st chapter or a save. If you made a huge error before your earliest save, you are in trouble.

Other dislikes from the first AOW include the manual. It's fine but looks like it was rushed. They also make the challenges too hard too soon. A person who didn't play the first game might be dismayed and turned off. They even got rid of the in game clock which was great if you were trying to sneak in 15 minutes of game time before you left for work.

I don't want to make it seems like this was a bad game. In fact, I really enjoyed it. There were some very commendable parts to it. The AI was great. It was challenging, and you could win with strategies, not just tricks in fighting mode. The gameplay itself was fun. I thought they kept a lot of the feel of the first.

The story was not great but fine. If you liked the first, you will like the second and opposite probably holds true, too. I would have liked to see them keep the multiple path story lines like the first. Here, you only can be Merlin and can only act out in the way the chapters make you. They seemed to have an end and beginning that were clear, but it seemed like they strung a lot of loose, not well though out subplots in between. Even the ending was not that great or unpredictable.

The sounds were as good as the first. They tried to be a little more serious, so, some of the funnier sound bites are gone. The graphics although different from the first and well lauded, I found were below average. There were good magic effects but the units were stiff and characterless. It really looked like they dressed up mannequins to make the different races and beings. I didn't feel that they were achieving a more realistic look that they seemed to be trying. However, they did employ a really effective zoom tool.

Overall, the game play outweighed a lot of the bad. I don't think it quite holds up to the original but I think it stands as still a superior game. They seemed to have shifted their goals of what they want their game to be and this is a good first step. It would definitely be worth buying if you like turn- based games.