Description Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne follows in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Age of Wonders, offering the best in turn based strategy. Expanding and improving in almost every area, Age of Wonders will capture turn based fans, as well as fantasy fans through it's innovative fantasy design.
Error: 'align' is an unexpected token. The expected token is '='. Line 7, position 13. usercontrols/crpricecompare/sdcpricecompare.ascx
Rating Reviewed by: G(Unregistered User)
Review Date July 30, 2003
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Visitors rate this review 4.50 of 5,
6 votes
Review NaN of 20
Summary: Theres nothing quite like a good turn based strategy game is there? I mean, there you are, brooding over your minions next move with all the time in the world to immerse yourself in the gameplay, soak up the athmosphere, admire the scenery and form plans so cunning a fox would be proud. Arcade gamers enjoy thier games with a bag of pretzels and a can of beer to glug between bouts of action, TBS fans prefer to sip a fine malt whilst carefully orchestrating thier opponents demise.
After playing this one for many hours, leaving it for other things for a few months, coming back to it again etc. etc.. I can honestly say this is the best RTS game I've ever played, period. I love the fantasy setting and the RPG elements, the high strategy and the exciting tactical combat.. its wonderful (groan)!
Rating Reviewed by: Mark Iradian(Unregistered User)
Review Date April 22, 2003
Overall Rating 4 of 5
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
2 votes
Review NaN of 20
, from Mississauga, Ontario
Price Paid:
$30.00
from Electronic Boutique
Summary: Turn-based strategy gamers are very patient when compared to players who are into Quake or Warcraft. Not because of the constant turn waiting or thinking of a move like a game of Chess, instead, not many turn-based games appear in the market like wildflower. Age of Wonders, a Master of Magic clone, was released a few years ago that surprised many players. Age of Wonders 2 now comes along with a lot more content, ready for TBS gamers to chew on, but it still play like a Master of Magic clone.
The world is now into chaos, the Age of Wonders has ended, and you happen to play a role of a wizard called Merlin (not that Merlin) who is trying to master all seven spheres of Magic, from the elements such as fire and water, to life and death itself. By doing this, Merlin, played by you, must commit genocide to whoever opposes him. Merlin does this by sitting in his Wizard’s Tower, casting spells from a distance, while his heroes and troops do all the messy work.
Rating Reviewed by: Andrew Kato(Unregistered User)
Review Date December 30, 2002
Overall Rating 3 of 5
Review NaN of 20
, from College Park, MD
Price Paid:
$20.00
from Wizards of the Coast
Summary: Turn-based game that combines operational and tactical level combat using fantasy units. Most of the game is spent looking at a large terrain hexboard and moving stacks of one to eight units around to capture income producing buildings, unit producing cities, fog of war reducing observation towers, and defended bonus item vaults. Once a stack comes into contact with another stack, you zoom to a closer up turn based battle mode that resembles a Final Fantasy Tactics/Shining Force/Tactics Ogre type combat system with I guess more options and complexity.
I have not played this multiplayer online, so I will only comment on single player aspects. The game comes with 19 single player missions, of which you only need to play 13 to "finish" the game. By the time I got to the last mission, I was so tired of the game that I didn't bother finishing the game and sold it without even attempting the 19th mission. Even the small maps can take hours to finish for reasons i'll describe below.
If you love tactical games and have extreme patience, this is an outstanding game. I didn't have the patience for it though.
Summary: A well-balanced, colorful turn-based strategy (TBS) game set in a prototypical fantasy milieu. As with my other reviews, I resisted writing this one until passing through my initial honeymoon phase -- if I have one request to other reviewers on this site, it is to do the same. Age of Wonders II (AoWII) is a slow-paced fantasy wargame that differentiates itself from others of its ilk (e.g., Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples) through more complex city building (somewhat reminiscent of Civilization), and a highly developed magic system. There are 12 races to play (humans, elves, dwarves, undead, etc.), and each race has 8 units. One of the greatest strengths of this game is that the races are well-balanced and yet play quite differently. As the halflings, you will scout with your eagle-flyers and defend with slingers, but as the orcs you will attack viciously with warlords. Perhaps the greatest fun I got out of this game was exploring the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different races as I progressed through the single-player campaign, as well as experimenting with the various spells that are grouped in 7 different "domains" (fire, air, earth, water, cosmos, life, death). However, once I got through about 75% of the campaign and had played with most of the units, AoWII began to get tedious. This is not a heavy criticism, as it is rare that I am capable of maintaining my attention span and dedication to complete a game's entire single-player campaign. But I consider it a mark of true greatness if a game DOES grip me in such a fashion (Dungeon Keeper 2, Sacrifice). As noted, there is a lengthy campaign of linked scenarios that delineate the story of one "Merlin", your avatar. I can't say I was enthralled by the plot, but again, that is a rarity in computer games and usually reserved for RPG's (Morrowind). There are also many individual scenarios packaged with the game, and numerous more available for download on various fan-sites. To the chagrin of many hard-core strategy fans, there is no random map generator -- but this did not phase me at all. I can honestly say that there is plenty of gameplay in AoWII. You will get your money's worth, but you'll probably burn out at some point like I did. Overall, an above average fantasy wargame that will appeal to those who eschew RTS titles for their lack of strategic depth, but avoid hard-core grognard titles because of their inaccessibility and stunted graphics.
Summary: I really can't believe there are only 15 reviews for this awesome game. This is what HOMM-4 should have been but failed miserably. I have been addicted to this game since purchaseing it and think it's one of the best Strategy games of all time. Right up there with Civ2, MOM, and HOMM3.
Don't let "The BortiiS" review down below scare you off. Otherwise you'll miss this gem.
5 of 5
4 of 5
3 of 5
