Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne | a Review
originally published on 12/08/2020;
Hello everyone, I am the doubly wonderful G.E.M.Simov, a super gamer who has no bias, and I’m talking about Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it. Also, I am a gameplay designer and a writer so I got the credentials to talk shit.
GAMEPLAY
Age of Wonders II is, much like Age of Wonders I, a turn based strategy game that also incorporates RPG elements. As one can expect from a direct sequel, the game has retained many features it had before, but it has also gained quite a few new ones, or has undergone some dramatic changes.
The fact of the matter is, however, that magic has been expanded. As some might remember from the review of Age of Wonders I, that was something I leveled critique upon - the magic system, although interesting, felt as if it was lacking something. Alas, the changes made have not added a value to mana, other than for casting spells, but now it can also be used as a means of upkeep for some units, which makes it somewhat more impactful.
The way magic works has also been changed. Categories have been introduced, splitting spells into three - Global spells that affect the world-map, working only in that mode, combat spells that can affect the battle-map, working only in that mode, and spells that work in both modes. Some of the spells are quite spectacular, having vastly more interesting effects than some spells in Age of Wonders I, but others are just as simple, if not even more simple, and even boring at times.
Magic is no longer truly global, in the world-map mode, however. Whereas the prerequisite for casting a spell in the previous game was having vision of the area one wanted to cast the spell in and the mana to cast the spell, now, there is another. Global spells can only be cast within the field of influence of the player’s wizard.
The wizard is a new entry into the game, a new unit, if one will, that is pseudo-immortal, and the player loses the game if that unit actually dies. It gets revived, after being killed, at any friendly town that has a specific building constructed. If there are no such towns with that kind of building in the domain of the player, the player loses.
The wizard also has a field of influence, which is the range of all the spells that can be cast by said wizard on the world-map and the area in which some persistent spells take effect. That field of influence can be expanded by having the wizard simply stand still in the middle of a town that has a certain building, capturing a certain world-map object, or having a hero waltz about.
That field of influence also dictates whether or not the player can use spells in battle. If the battle is taking place in the field of influence, the player can use spells. If that is not the case, the player cannot use spells. Heroes have a 1 hex ring around themselves that is considered a part of the player’s field of influence, allowing both the heroes and the player to cast spells while in battles involving the hero or in distant lands where they want to cast a global spell.
As mentioned, there are now buildings. More buildings than just walls and upgrades that allow the recruitment of units. Now, there are values like production, growth and population, which makes the game a tad more intricate than before, although management of those things is left to whether or not the player is building things and how many turns have passed.
The good news are that any town can produce any level of units, as long as said town has the required building. The bad news are that the process of building up a town has been massively slowed down, due to the presence of production. Having low production, which could mean not having built the appropriate buildings to increase it, means that the speed at which the player will complete the building, or unit, is vastly lowered.
The added complexity is, actually, a welcome addition, even though it is hard to manage and hard to find information on, due to the fact that population has always been some invisible stat that I could not find, even though I looked for it. I find that the added bonus of having a semblance of city management in a game that is about building up an empire is always a good implementation.
Combat has both changed and remained the same. Units are similar to what they once were, although they now have a strange gap between themselves. While in Age of Wonders I a level 12 unit was the creme of the crop, that did not make it so incredibly mightier than all lower level units that it was never a comparison. However, in Age of Wonders II I feel as if the strongest unit of each faction is so mind-blowingly powerful that it could not even be compared to any of the weaker units.
The balance of the game has been somewhat touched upon, but it still remains an inexplicably lacking in understandable stats mess, with 20 attack characters not hitting 5 defense characters and then 6 attack characters slamming 20 defense characters as if it were nothing.
There has also been a mechanic that gives units something like stamina, which depletes whenever the unit moves or attacks. The unit can only counterattack a number of times, and then it cannot. If the unit has moved its full movement, it cannot counterattack. That makes the process of throwing a maxed out hero in a 1v10 fight a grueling, bad idea, as the hero will, at most, get to hit 3 times for every 30 times he is hit, whereas in Age of Wonders I the hero would get to retaliate to every attack.
Some changes I like, others I did not truly appreciate. The fact of the matter is that manual resolution of combat has been made even slower and more tedious than before. The AI has improved, somewhat, but there is still a lot to be desired. Overall, the gameplay was a bit more interesting than the previous game. 2/3
PRESENTATION
Age of Wonders II takes what Age of Wonders I had and makes it look better. Alas, it also loses out on some other things. The visuals have remained great, although there has been a shift from the 2D that attempts to simulate 3D of Age Of Wonders I and now it appears as if the sprites are not actually sprites, but rather models… But not quite.
The backdrops and the way hexes are painted remain great, and the cutscenes, although short, are plentiful and possess that wonder that old game cutscenes had. I can’t help but feel that the visual quality of the game is not as comparable to what Age of Wonders I was.
The music of this game was a lot less memorable than the music of Age of Wonders I, which is quite impressive, as I felt that the music from the first game was passable, not great. The sound effects have also changed a bit, and I can’t truly find the comedic nature they had in Age of Wonders I.
The voice acting, what little there is, is sometimes bad, sometimes simply alright, which is saddening. However, overall, the presentation of Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne is good enough. 2/3
STORY
While Age of Wonders I had a spectacular story that seemed to do almost everything right, Age of Wonders II fails at achieving that. The second game takes place an indeterminate amount of time after the first game, with a human king fleeing with his people from some disaster. It never becomes clear where, exactly, he comes from, nor does it become clear where the locations visited in the game are in relation to the map from the first game.
That lack of certainty is doubled when, suddenly, there appears, in the story, something called the Wizard’s Throne. The introduction of a number of wizards so powerful they have created their own races and are treated as Gods made me truly disturbed, because the events of the first game did not, at all, hint at the possibility of such a thing existing. The only thing shrouded in great mystery were the Highmen, and they become even less coherent now.
The story itself has the human king slowly learning how to wield each sphere of magic so that he can succeed Gabriel (yes, the Gabriel from the first game who wanted to die, and died, but, apparently, is not dead and is the best wizard, sitting on the Wizard’s throne now). It’s a journey that is pretty intriguing, with highs and lows for the main character, whose name is Merlin, by the way. However, the writing is substantially worse. Many other characters in the story don’t seem to be written in a way that conveys that they have ever been bested by Merlin before, even if it is the last mission and he has already whooped them all, multiple times. Others behave in ways so strange and unreasonable that it baffles me. The story also incorporates a return of 3 characters from game 1, 2 of whom were supposed to be dead, but they are not, because… Yes?
The story has gone down in quality, and, although I enjoyed it, it was not as good as the story in the first game. 2/3
LEGENDARY POINT
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? No.
Age of Wonders II is a bit of a letdown when it comes to the legendary point. Due to its similarity with Age of Wonders I, and the fact that I was somewhat aware of how to play, as a result of that, The Wizard’s Throne became tedious far more quickly. In fact, it became so tedious, and it was so mind numbingly boring at points, due to the insane nature of how one wins, I considered ending my run with it.
So no, Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne does not get the legendary point. 0/1
CONCLUSION
6/10. Slightly above average, much like its predecessor, I dare say I recommend this game. It’s an interesting experience, one I would definitely urge avid fans of turn based strategy to get, as well as any fellow looking to spend some time running about and killing fools.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. It could have shone brighter, though.