For those of you who like a lot of meat on the bones of your games, searching in every nook and cranny for just that tiny bit more optimisation for your cities and armies, then look no further than Age of Wonders 4 for you to live out your empire dreams.
Releasing today on Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC, Age of Wonders 4 builds upon the foundations set out in previous iterations in the franchise, and adds a whole heap of empire-building, strategy and role-playing to the formula. Utilising powerful Tomes of Magic, the player will have to rise up against the evil Wizard Kings who are hell-bent on terrorising the region: it is therefore up to you to devise plans, form your armies, and enchant them with powerful magic to fight back against this wizardy foe.
Developers Triumph Studios are keen to emphasise the power that your decisions and actions will have on the landscape, with a new event system ensuring that no two campaigns in Age of Wonders 4 are alike. As well as creating your own environments to battle upon, such as an ice-ravaged region ruled over by an equally icy monarch, you may even experience squaring off against your own character from a previous campaign – a real equal fight!
A full list of features coming to Age of Wonders 4 includes:
- Create the Empire of Your Wildest Fantasies: Craft your followers by combining bodily forms, societal traits and arcane powers. Build anything from a clan of cannibal halflings to mystic moon elves, or recreate your favorite fantasy tropes. Seek powerful tomes of magic to enchant your armies and see your people physically change as they morph into angelic beings or scions of chaos to face their enemies.
- Strategy Meets Role-Playing Like Never Before: Every choice opens up new possibilities and tactical advantages; deep, multilayered strategy allows you to try new tactics or explore new powers at every turn. Tactical turn-based battles bring your armies to life, from skirmishes with roaming monsters to vast sieges with many units on each side!
- Write Your Own Legend: A new event system provides unexpected levels of storytelling for 4X games. See your decisions shape the world around you as you seek glory through brutal domination, cunning alliances, or ultimate arcane knowledge. Your own creations may even appear as potential rivals or allies in subsequent games, as you experience the next chapter in your own story!
- Make Your Mark on a Vast, Reactive World: Explore a new realm in each session – or create your own! Challenge new variations and combinations of locations and features, from frozen wastelands ruled by ice queens to desolated ruins where dragons roam. With a tremendous variety of empires, units, and environments to keep the game endlessly replayable, Age of Wonders is more open-ended – and mod-friendly – than ever before in the series’ history.
If you find yourself looking for a proper tactical RPG to get stuck into, then Age of Wonders 4 will have you well and truly covered. You can now pick it up for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC. On the Xbox side of things, over on the Xbox Store you can pick up the Standard Edition of the game for £41.74, whilst the £74.99 Premium Edition delivers come cosmetics and the Season Pass to you also.
You can’t play this one on older Xbox One consoles, but if you are Series X|S enabled, keep an eye out for our review.
Game Description:
Rule a fantasy realm of your own design in Age of Wonders 4! Explore new magical realms in Age of Wonders’ signature blend of 4X strategy and turn-based tactical combat. Control a faction that grows and changes as you expand your empire with each turn. Triumph Studios’ award-winning strategy series has emerged into a new age, evolving the game’s iconic empire building, role-playing, and warfare to the next level. A new storytelling event system and hugely customizable empires provide an endlessly replayable experience, where each game adds a new chapter to your ever-growing saga. Powerful Wizard Kings have returned to the realms to reign as gods among mortals. Claim and master the Tomes of Magic to evolve your people, and prepare for an epic battle that will determine the ages to come.
