Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Paradox knows what it did.

Creativity thrives under constraint. For some reason when the company creates fantasy games, basically "anything goes", they end up going generic, while in sci-fi, when they need some sort of plausibility, they can actually do something interesting. There are fantasy undead - we all know them. There are counterparts for them in this game. Except. Assembly, punk cyborg undead, made of dead flesh and metal scrap, rebuilding dead matter into their own image. Heritor, pyramid (literally!) lifeforce scheme, with posessing ghosts, ancient priests and flying sarcophagi. A corporation turned vampiric ghost immortality cult. Xenoplague, infecting enemies with the Virus, then turning the infected flesh into evolving monstrosities. Paragon, ancient elite cyborgs longing for the Good Old Days, so elderly and senile that most of them are even mindless. They still are a mean shot despite that. I feel like every single one of them is a more interesting take on undead than it's common in fantasy. And that's basically everywhere. Except dwarves, dwarves are just the same. They aren't afraid to be funny as well. An NPC faction of rebellious household tech. Amazons on tyronasauri with laser c…

I bought this game for Age of Wonders title but it's only in the name. This game is nothing like Age of Wonders, it's story doesn't even reference Elven Court, Wizard Wars or Shadow Demon invasion stories. DLC Cash grab is yet another issue of Paradox Interactive games

good sf 4x game

Age of Wonders: Planetfall can become repetitive, with drawn-out battles and empire management that feels tedious as the game progresses. Its steep learning curve and lack of variety in the late game make it hard for me to recommend.

Once you get past the steep learning curve, the game is fantastic. The empire mode, where winning each skirmish earns rewards and bonuses to your next game, is particularly unique and fun.