nijuu: WHy is this game series normally so expensive?
AFnord: I guess there are two reasons for it:
1: It has quite a reputation among diehard strategy fans. Even at a relatively high price-point, they know that the game will sell (luckily they don't expect you to shell out 60€ for it anymore, which was the price it had before they decided to sell the game on GG, steam & Desura)
2: It has a dizzying amount of content. Dominions 3 had over 2000 different unit types, with individual graphics for all of them. There were also somewhere in in the region of 850 different spells, and a grand total of 66 different nations (all of which had its own unique playstyle).
I've played a decent amount of Dominions 3, and in my opinion, the game was well worth the asking price. Yes, the graphics is simple, but Dominions 3 had a lot of depth to it, it was fun to play, and had a lot of replay value. From what I've heard about Dominions 4, it takes everything that Dominions 3 had, adds some more things (new victory conditions and obviously more units and such), and makes the interface a bit more user-friendly. If that is true, then the game is well worth the asking price. I'm downloading it right now, so I'll soon be able to give my opinion on the game.
*edit*
After playing the game for roughly 1h, it feels like a worthy sequel to Dominions 3. It does not reinvent the wheel, but it does refine it a bit, and makes it shinier. Overall, it feels like an improvement to an already very good game.
For some reason they put it on sale again LOL. only 50% off this time on GG...