Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is excellent.
This is the 3rd standalone game of the series and they've once again kept everything good and improved (even if only slightly) on anything wrong.
The strategy is vast, the customization is huge. There's so many races (Humans, Undead, Firecats, Frostlings, Halflings, Orcs, Goblins, Archons, Dwarves, Draconians, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, Syrrons, Normads and Shadow Demons...think that's all) each with about 8-10 very distinct units and special abilities. Then there's a legion of heroes you can convert to your cause and level to your whim, each with their own class and race and special abilities. There's seven different schools of magic for your wizard to pick combonations from. The spells range from unit buffs to global effects which can alter the terrain.
The art ranges from insanely detailed to hilarious to extremely moody. The animations and detail of terrain and units is excellent (IMO they can spend more time on it because its a 2D game and so its much better off because of it). Some of the animations of units are comical such as the Leprichaun which does a little ditty even while dishin' out Irish death, and the Water Dancer which looks like he's getting down at a freaky disco. The rest of the art, mainly the still portraits are excellent and full of character. They are all done in a very similar style so it doesn't jar you when different portraits pop up (*cough* NWN *cough*). Best of all, most of the portraits are just small samples of the full work which is made available at the end of missions when you can check out full sized pics of your wizard opponents. The most stunning artwork is behind the main menu, though. Opening the game and seeing that feels like someone picked me up, 'put on my robe and wizard hat' and threw me into the game world.
The sound and voice are good, and sometimes over the top. Some of the combat and spell noises can really be grating (the teleport noise really gets me sometimes) and some of the spell effects get a LOT louder when they effect more units. Couple that with the distortion of the Shadow World and you might as well as be listening to some Mogwai. A lot of the sounds are reused but such sounds are pretty unobtrusive anyways. The music is excellent, but I wish there was a little more variety. When you play a game where a turn takes 20 minutes, the music is going to get repetative, but at least its good music and definately fits the game.
The cinematics are well done and well placed. When your are being instructed on the situation for your next step in the campaign, a narrator speaks while an animation loops in the background. A few of them loop seamlessly which is an excellent detail. A couple of them are pretty corney (such as the intro) but the game never really takes itself too seriously. In more than a few spots, the game goes out of its way to make bad jokes (re: halflings and midget wrestling, Oompa-loompas, references to Gladiator and LoTR) which usually results in some sarcastic remarks from some of the other story characters.
The story so far is interesting, although some things have not been explained and will likely result in 'dramatic' twists later on. Currently it revolves around the capture of the main character from previous games at the hands of murderous Shadow Demons who are invading the fantasy world through rips in the dimension which lead to the Shadow World. The player takes on the roles of a small band of Wizards who are trying to fight off the Demons but have been chased out of town by a very Inquisitor-ish human who is the main villain. He's leading the Humans on a Crusade against magic under the belief that the Demons have come to feed off of it. Ofcourse, he's just a big asshole and isn't really stupid. He's just making the best of a chance to overthrow the other races then fight off the Demons and be sole ruler of the world. You continously clash with him and he always pulls a teleport out of his ass and gets away.
The Shadow World is the major addition to the game. Its a new layer on the battlefield, making the total three: the Surface (a typical TBS game map with trees, mountains, rivers, ect), the Underground (tunnels, rivers, and digable walls) and now the Shadow World. It has a lot of plantlife and structures which all blend together making it very hard to see things and it also distorts the sound massively so things echo in a weird way - kind of like a dream. Obviously this dissorientation is intentional since almost every mndane creature gets sick when they visit the Shadow World. Everyone gets increased movement speed (some of the really fast units can cover the entire tactical map in the Shadow World) but anyone who isn't immune to the Shadow Sickness gets their combat values halved. Ofcourse, there's a lot of items, spells and monsters that are immune or can give immunity. The Shadow Demons are nasty on the surface, but in the Shadow World, they are truely bitches.
As for gripes, I have few. The major one is common to all the AOW games, and that's with the programming. The game has a very sluggish feel to the interface, scrolling and particle effects. There still seems to be a big memory leak in the particle effects which can get annoying with load times after 4 or so hours of being in-game. Its much better in this game, though, than previous ones. By AOW7 they should have it running perfectly! The second gripe is also one common with a lot of games: the AI. I spent several hours trying to get some Frostlings and Dark Elves to form an Alliance with me. It was at the point of the game where I controlled the entire map except for their territories and was several times more powerful than them combined. Despite how much gold, mana, items, spells, and cities I offered, they would not accept. I went so far as to offer the Frostlings EVERYTHING I OWNED and they wouldn't ally with me. This DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Eventually I killed them all which seemed like what I was expected to do anyways, but the mission objective stated that I could ally with them. There needs to be some realistic Diplomacy instead of the constant butchery.
As usual, my problems with a game are more or less standard problems with the entire genre, but this game more than makes up for a couple tiny annoyances.
This is the 3rd standalone game of the series and they've once again kept everything good and improved (even if only slightly) on anything wrong.
The strategy is vast, the customization is huge. There's so many races (Humans, Undead, Firecats, Frostlings, Halflings, Orcs, Goblins, Archons, Dwarves, Draconians, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, Syrrons, Normads and Shadow Demons...think that's all) each with about 8-10 very distinct units and special abilities. Then there's a legion of heroes you can convert to your cause and level to your whim, each with their own class and race and special abilities. There's seven different schools of magic for your wizard to pick combonations from. The spells range from unit buffs to global effects which can alter the terrain.
The art ranges from insanely detailed to hilarious to extremely moody. The animations and detail of terrain and units is excellent (IMO they can spend more time on it because its a 2D game and so its much better off because of it). Some of the animations of units are comical such as the Leprichaun which does a little ditty even while dishin' out Irish death, and the Water Dancer which looks like he's getting down at a freaky disco. The rest of the art, mainly the still portraits are excellent and full of character. They are all done in a very similar style so it doesn't jar you when different portraits pop up (*cough* NWN *cough*). Best of all, most of the portraits are just small samples of the full work which is made available at the end of missions when you can check out full sized pics of your wizard opponents. The most stunning artwork is behind the main menu, though. Opening the game and seeing that feels like someone picked me up, 'put on my robe and wizard hat' and threw me into the game world.
The sound and voice are good, and sometimes over the top. Some of the combat and spell noises can really be grating (the teleport noise really gets me sometimes) and some of the spell effects get a LOT louder when they effect more units. Couple that with the distortion of the Shadow World and you might as well as be listening to some Mogwai. A lot of the sounds are reused but such sounds are pretty unobtrusive anyways. The music is excellent, but I wish there was a little more variety. When you play a game where a turn takes 20 minutes, the music is going to get repetative, but at least its good music and definately fits the game.
The cinematics are well done and well placed. When your are being instructed on the situation for your next step in the campaign, a narrator speaks while an animation loops in the background. A few of them loop seamlessly which is an excellent detail. A couple of them are pretty corney (such as the intro) but the game never really takes itself too seriously. In more than a few spots, the game goes out of its way to make bad jokes (re: halflings and midget wrestling, Oompa-loompas, references to Gladiator and LoTR) which usually results in some sarcastic remarks from some of the other story characters.
The story so far is interesting, although some things have not been explained and will likely result in 'dramatic' twists later on. Currently it revolves around the capture of the main character from previous games at the hands of murderous Shadow Demons who are invading the fantasy world through rips in the dimension which lead to the Shadow World. The player takes on the roles of a small band of Wizards who are trying to fight off the Demons but have been chased out of town by a very Inquisitor-ish human who is the main villain. He's leading the Humans on a Crusade against magic under the belief that the Demons have come to feed off of it. Ofcourse, he's just a big asshole and isn't really stupid. He's just making the best of a chance to overthrow the other races then fight off the Demons and be sole ruler of the world. You continously clash with him and he always pulls a teleport out of his ass and gets away.
The Shadow World is the major addition to the game. Its a new layer on the battlefield, making the total three: the Surface (a typical TBS game map with trees, mountains, rivers, ect), the Underground (tunnels, rivers, and digable walls) and now the Shadow World. It has a lot of plantlife and structures which all blend together making it very hard to see things and it also distorts the sound massively so things echo in a weird way - kind of like a dream. Obviously this dissorientation is intentional since almost every mndane creature gets sick when they visit the Shadow World. Everyone gets increased movement speed (some of the really fast units can cover the entire tactical map in the Shadow World) but anyone who isn't immune to the Shadow Sickness gets their combat values halved. Ofcourse, there's a lot of items, spells and monsters that are immune or can give immunity. The Shadow Demons are nasty on the surface, but in the Shadow World, they are truely bitches.
As for gripes, I have few. The major one is common to all the AOW games, and that's with the programming. The game has a very sluggish feel to the interface, scrolling and particle effects. There still seems to be a big memory leak in the particle effects which can get annoying with load times after 4 or so hours of being in-game. Its much better in this game, though, than previous ones. By AOW7 they should have it running perfectly! The second gripe is also one common with a lot of games: the AI. I spent several hours trying to get some Frostlings and Dark Elves to form an Alliance with me. It was at the point of the game where I controlled the entire map except for their territories and was several times more powerful than them combined. Despite how much gold, mana, items, spells, and cities I offered, they would not accept. I went so far as to offer the Frostlings EVERYTHING I OWNED and they wouldn't ally with me. This DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Eventually I killed them all which seemed like what I was expected to do anyways, but the mission objective stated that I could ally with them. There needs to be some realistic Diplomacy instead of the constant butchery.
As usual, my problems with a game are more or less standard problems with the entire genre, but this game more than makes up for a couple tiny annoyances.
