I didn't expect much from AoW3. Just because I see the overall trend in modern gaming industry.
Nonetheles I preordered it, for the first time in my life. Just because I love AoW1 and AoW2 that were not perfect but had some special charm.
I didn't want even to install it. Just because I almost knew what I would see.
But I gave up and installed it.

It's horrible. I don't care if someone like it, if someone is really excited about it - I tell only about MY feelings. This game is absolutely unsavory. It has absolutely no charm of previous parts of AoW saga. It has hundreds of details that really annoy me, and the most annoying of them are details that were borrowed from previous AoW games, from music to little graphical motives. For me personally, this borrowing is the surest signal of what happened.

Lack of ideas, lack of creativity, lack of charm, lack of spirit, lack of ALL. I don't care a fig about 3D graphics, I sincerely believe that 3D makes games even worse that they could be - but in this case I won't tell about graphics, 'cause graphics can add or substract nothing if Game itself is Dead.

Forgive me, developers, forgive me, admirers - I don't see any Life in this game. To hell with bugs, glitches, online accounts - it's a dust when your game has no Life in it. Only multicolored flickering, some imitation of Life. All your models, hero customizations, icons, spells - how flat is it all, how vapid...

I don't believe your game. I don't believe the world it tries to propose to me. You can release patches, DLCs, expansions... but have killed something in your game that made it unique amongst fantasy TBS. Maybe it's just because you, the developers, grew older. It's a game made by adult men and women. Do you believe in your fairy-tale yourselves? What have you lost over these years?

Look at Eador Genesis (made by one man), look at Dominions and Conquest of Elysium (made by two men)... These people believe in their own fairy-tale.

Hrm, well, different opinions.

I would have genuinely been annoyed if more had changed. I like that it's an iterative improvement, simply because I didn't want AoW:SM to change much, at this point. AoW3 seems to make it a little bit more palatable to newcomers, which is good, and once PBEM is in can take over the multiplayer-aspects.

And that + a graphics update was seriously all I'd ever want. More would be unwelcome, there's other games (as you say) if I want a different experience.

I just don't understand what you're talking about.... AoW3 is 90% AoW and 10% "3", with a more focused and faster battle system, what has been so much "broken" that you hate it ??

I think I will write a review on AoW 3 soon. Personally I believe it has ups and downs. There are a lot of nice things and some annoying factors. I can understand that the game left a bitter taste in your opinion. That's a shame and you're of course entitled to your own opinions. I for one like it a lot and can/'t play it until sunday unfortunately.

To each their own.

I loved SM. I love Aow3

I thought Genesis was one of the worst titles I have played in years.

However, I had never heard of CoE3 so thanks for mentioning it!

I wrote a 1000+ word review on AoW 3 on gamefaqs. Sadly GOG does not allow elaborate reviews. :(

It is a shame. I am holding back on reviewing AoW3 myself. Mainly because they still need to implement certain features. (AHEM PBEM AHEM)

I took that into account as well. My score is a 7.5/10. With mutiplayer 8.5 out of ten. That would include PBEM. There are just too many little things, especially in manual combat that keep me from giving it a 9.

lol what a joke of a comment, troll day today?

you spend 3 huge paragraphs saying that you don't like the new installment of AoW, but NO comment about WHAT is it you don'T like!

i know conquest of elysium, i own eador genesis (and have played eador 2), both games are nice but VERY limited in terms of gameplay mechanics / gameplay layers. in terms of lore and believable world is AoW3 miles ahead of them.

how are you trying to pinpoint when a world is not believable?

i can also say conquest of elysium and all other fantasy strategy games are garbage, their worlds are just unbelievable and not really fantasy-like at all. no reasons just not good. your whole post sounds like a rant coming from a 10 year old. if you want to criticise a game then please provide some arguments instead of a whole page of bla bla without any sense!

they kept most of the core features from previous installments cause ffs people wanted an AOW3 and not some other game, people WANTED a game like the previous age of wonders game with better graphics and some new features....guess what...WE GOT IT! they added more depth to the combat by adding things like flanking, charge, etc.

they made the main character able to actually be a fucking hero and not sitting in the capital for the whole duration fo the game. they added classes where granted, the races have lost some of their touch BUT the unique parts of the races came mainly from their diverse units which are now more focused in the classes. and boy i love the new class system, it allows for so much fun interactions!

now yes i would've wished if they would give the races some more unique traits instead of small stat changes and some few perk differences, but the big difference in gameplay now comes from the classes. they alreaded hinted that the undead will come in form of a necromancer class where basically you can turn every race undead, which sounds great!

the game has such a huge potential and the devs are continuing to support the game even after launch with more small futures and improvements while listening to the community.

if you hate this game so much then why waste your time writing such a huge text which basically says nothing cause it has NO value in it, i can see NO ARGUMENTS. just a buy who wanted to have unicorns as the main race (sarcasm) now is butthurt cause he liked the old 2D graphics more. every unit has lore / small lore texts with it. the map with its graphics and all the animations just look gorgeous.

but maybe you can't even run the game properly cause all i saw in your text are two very old / low low budget games which a potate can run.

EDIT regarding EADOR:

eador genesis or master of the broken world (its sequel which is only like a 3D remake) is an mediocre game. mediocre because you have ONE city and every other city you conquer generates just some more money. you only can build in your ONE city. now granted there are many buildings etc. but the menues are quite cumbersome to use and not really userfriendly. the battles are ok-ish, where they have pretty much stolen (or tried) the best of HoMM3 battles or looked at kings bounty. the maps are very limited and in terms of depth its both on the strategic and combat layer way inferior to AoW (every title of the series).


conquest of elysium 3: has some interesting / new game mechanics but is besides some unique strategy aspects quite shallow. there is no tactical combat, no real base / city building and the graphics just give me eye-cancer! i mean i even play ASCII-roguelikes and i love dwarf fortress with a nice tileset but conquest of elysiums graphics or the overall presentation and UI are just horrible. i don't care if only two guys did this, the game is garbage for me!

To each his own, I guess (even if I'm not entirely sure what you don't like other than maybe you think it lacks the charm of the old games) I personally think that it's pretty awesome and almost exactly what I wanted from a new Age of Wonders. Also, it's totally an iterative sequel. This isn't even a Heroes VI situation where you could very rightfully rail against the developers for taking it in a direction you aren't fond of.

Eador is pretty great, but I think that game gets bogged down by its own minutiae. I've messed around a bit with Conquest of Elysium, but it never really grabbed me.

Where on gamefaqs? I only see reviews from review sites listed on its page there.

The review has to be reviewed before it will get into the reviews. :D
In other words they have not approved my review yet.

I'll wait then. Wouldn't want to miss a long review from a fellow AoW1 fan. :)

I can PM the review if you like. I love AoW 1 to death, but SM never appealed that much to me. I do like from what I played of AoW 3 though.

That would be great! :)

I'm of a same mind as you. AoW 1 I love but AoW 2 and AoW: SM never really hooked me. They're fun but doesn't have that special AoW 1 magic for me. :)

I'm still on the fence about AoW3 so I'm hoping your review will help me decide if I'll buy AoW3 now or wait.