Galactic Civilizations III
Galactic Civilizations III is the long-awaited sequel to Stardock’s enormously popular Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords and the third title in the Galactic Civilizations series. It was published by Stardock in 2015 and has since then received two expansion packs, Mercenaries, and Crusades, and a third is to be released later in 2018. Similar in nature to the Civilization series of 4x strategy games, Galactic Civilizations holds one of the premier positions among the space 4x titles of the 21st century.
At its core, GalCiv III follows a familiar pattern of 4x gameplay. Individual planets take the place of cities or settlements, with each planet featuring a number of build slots where improvements can be added to increase planetary production of such resources as research, credits, and production. Each planet contributes to a global fund for credits and research but utilizes production individually and production is further diversified into social production, which is used on other improvements, and military or ship production. All planets that sponsor a shipyard can contribute their military production to the construction of space vessels.
Endless Space 2 – Prologue
Endless Space 2, developed by Amplitude Studios and published by Sega, is the direct sequel to Amplitude’s previous 4X title Endless Space and the latest release in the Endless series. After a widely publicized and well-received early access period Endless Space 2 was released on May 19th, 2017 for PC and Mac. As yet I have not had the pleasure of experiencing everything the new release has to offer so until there’s some real review material to present I’m going to put up some quick notes about the eager anticipation surrounding Endless Space 2.
Out of the numerous 4X titles released in the last decade few came close to matching the vaunted Civilization series’ quality and appeal as Amplitude’s last title, Endless Legend. Endless Legend combined Civilization’s highly accessible user interface with the Endless series’ science-fantasy mythos and invigorating territorial control mechanics to make a 4X experience that was able to capture and hold a player’s attention across each game’s progression. The enjoyment remained consistent across single player and multiplayer and a new take on 4X diplomacy, while not perfect, kept competitive and cooperative play intriguing.
Civilization: Beyond Earth & Rising Tide
The news that Firaxis was developing what would essentially amount to a combination of one of the principle 4x in space games, Alpha Centauri, which was released in 1999 to wide acclaim, and the hugely popular Civilization V, released in 2010, created a great deal of excitement in the 4x community; particularly from fans of both previously mentioned titles. It was prime time for a new title to be released and after the history-centered Civ V a fictional change of pace was welcome. Civilization: Beyond Earth, published by 2K Games in 2014, and its expansion Rising Tide, released in 2015, was the final result of this ambitious development.
Civilization: Beyond Earth took a lot from Civilization V, which can be considered its closest predecessor in terms of its mechanics, display, and user interface. Expansion, exploration, exploitation, and extermination are still conducted in the traditional formulas that players of Civ V and the Civ series in general are familiar with. Settlers are used to start cities, which gradually grow their citizenry over time depending on their food supply; land and sea units, particularly scouts, reveal unexplored terrain to find new resource deposits and treasure caches. The five resources of food, gold (restructured as energy), production, culture, and science make their return to drive the player’s faction as it develops into a mighty and advanced empire.
Technology is perhaps the most obvious change from the tech-tree of older Civilization titles. The progression of technological research is now a web of interconnected and often inter-related technologies. Players can expand on certain aspects of their scientific development to a very advanced degree while leaving others for later, or can pursue a very exhaustive but well-rounded sort of clockwise research program.
Players need not even complete all technologies to qualify as a superior civilization and it is not uncommon for a game to end before the entire web is researched. Researching new technologies doesn’t just unlock new buildings and units but also reveals certain resource types and makes new abilities available to certain units, particularly where the toxic and alien miasma tiles are related.
Miasma makes up one of the alien aspects of the game, the others being wild and potentially friendly or hostile alien creatures and the long lest ruins and relics of the planet’s bygone days. Miasma is a constant effect, similar to radioactive fallout, that damages units that remain on the tile. Technologies can be researched to clear miasma or even spread it to hostile territory.
Along with worker units one of the principle methods of manipulating miasma, and terrain in general, is to utilize satellites. Satellites are units that are produced in cities and made available for launch when completed. When launched they go to a separate layer of the game board that players can toggle on their interface. Satellites effect all tiles in their range with a variety of abilities depending on their type like increasing tile yields, finding new resources, or attacking enemy units. Certain ground units can destroy satellites, and satellites expire after a certain number of turns.
Culture has also received an overhaul in Beyond Earth, particularly in the limited but detailed scope of options now offered. Players can invest in four culture trees representing social, military, scientific, and industrial development. The trees are divided into four tiers and additional bonuses are unlocked whenever all traits in a tier are purchased. Each tree aids the player in pursuing one of the victory options available; the traits are also slow to unlock and it is rare for more than two trees to be fully unlocked by the end of the game.
Culture and technology are important in the function of Beyond Earth’s primary new mechanic: the affinity system. Three factional ideologies, dubbed affinities, are available for the player’s civilization to pursue. Each affinity, Purity, Supremacy, and Harmony, effects the technological development of all military units as well as the player’s most profitable attitude toward the indigenous alien creatures and miasma. Affinity also effects the player’s standing with other civilizations; sharing affinities is a good start to friendly relations and the opposite is also true.
Players advance in affinity levels by researching technologies and unlocking cultural traits that grant points in their particular affinity. As the player’s affinity level progresses passive benefits are unlocked and eventually the way is made available to conduct the affinity’s unique victory condition. Purity constructs a massive warp gate to bring settlers from Earth; Supremacy constructs a similar gate with the intention of conquering Earth; and Harmony constructs a massive brain that will bring about a single collective consciousness.
Although victory conditions are exclusive to each affinity, players do not need to stay true to one affinity and this is especially true in Rising Tide where hybrid affinities are introduced. Players can upgrade their units with a number of options from strict or hybrid affinity lines. All bonuses from each affinity can potentially be unlocked if the player has the time and the resources to do so.
Apart from the affinity victories players can also pursue the traditional conquest victory by taking their opponent’s capitals or a sort of science victory where they receive and de-crypt an alien signal, then construct a massive beacon to send a message to a mysterious progenitor race. This victory is by far the shortest and easiest to achieve requiring little expansion for the player’s civilization and it can be hurried along by finding traces of progenitor technology in alien ruins. Once the beacon is finished and activated all civilizations have thirty turns to destroy it before the civilization that constructed the beacon wins.
It’s easy for players familiar with Civ V to dive right into Beyond Earth; in fact familiarity with the latest Civilization games eliminate most of the learning curve. It is in those new areas that Beyond Earth introduces that it struggles the most to portray. The technology web was thankfully patched in Rising Tide, color coding the numerous units, structures, and upgrades each tech made available as the unfamiliar names and icons make color coding the only visual aid the player has to sort through numerous technologies on a freeform path.
Most unit types are intuitive in their battlefield roles, but don’t always seem to perform as they should in given situations. The combat breakdown of Civ V is gone and there is really no way of knowing why a unit does so much damage in a single attack. Siege battles in particular are very cumbersome with cities easily shrugging off regular units but folding rapidly in the face of a few siege units. However those same siege units actually lack the maneuverability of their 20th century counterparts in Civ V which contributes to the crawl that most campaigns of conquest are reduced to.
On the flipside the technology, and themes behind it, is a very immersive and entertaining feature in Beyond Earth. Culture, trade, and even to a point Diplomacy have been sidelined in favor of the technology and research narrative. This may be disappointing to some fans and rightly so, but for the most part it cuts down more on the re-playability of Beyond Earth than the actual enjoyment of each game. Most games rarely follow the same technology path and the mixing and matching of affinity bonuses alone can occupy an entire playthrough. Beyond Earth is not so much a game about creating a civilization from primitive barbarism, but expanding an existing civilization and seeing what new advances it can achieve in the many scientific fields.
As a science fiction fun-ride Beyond Earth excels. It modifies the Civilization formula just enough to keep the idea of exploration and advancement on a new alien world central to the gaming experience. Sadly this comes at the cost of losing many of the elements that make 4x games what they are. Culture is mostly a grind for bonuses and Diplomacy, although expanded on in Rising Tide, is hindered by apathetic and one-dimensional AI.
Gamers who want to experience something new in the sci-fi field, particularly in the 4x genre will find that Civilization: Beyond Earth is good for enough playthroughs to be worth the investment. Of course Rising Tide is pretty much a requirement as well since Beyond Earth isn’t truly complete without the changes and upgrades the expansion brings. However casual 4x players may find the experience of more complete 4x games to be much more gratifying and dedicated fans of the series are better off investing time and money in Civ VI.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Two hefty expansion packs, numerous DLC, and a vibrant modding community combined to give Civilization V a long full life in the gaming community and formed what will probably be an enduring legacy. When Firaxis announced the development of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI in May of 2016 the fanbase was energized, not so much with dissatisfaction over the current title in the Civilization Series but with gleeful anticipation of the new material Civilization VI would introduce.
Civ VI maintains the core elements of the Civilization series. Players use Settler units to found cities which generate gold, production, food, science, culture, and faith fueling all the options and projects the player must undertake to achieve victory over competing civilizations. Regional terrain types also remain alongside bonus, strategic, and luxury resources. Combat most closely resembles Civ V with single units each occupying a hex; although a new feature allows two or three units of the same type to merge into a corps or army.
City planning is the most noticeable overhaul that the series received in Civ VI. In addition to a roster of buildings and the tile improvements constructed by workers cities can now produce districts in any workable tile. Districts resemble great person tile improvements from Civ V in that they focus on one type of resource. Only one of each type can be built in a single city and the city can produce buildings to improve those districts. Some districts like the encampment and aerodrome focus on unit production while others like the entertainment district and neighborhood improve the city’s happiness and growth.
Districts emphasize the importance of city tile management in Civ VI. Districts must compete with world wonders and worker-built tile improvements for space around the city. Districts also yield more resources if they are adjacent to other districts and some can only be built on certain terrain types. City specializing is heavily encouraged along with the importance of founding cities early in the game. Great people, which are now generated in competition with other civilizations, can only be utilized on a district appropriate to their type (holy sites of great prophets, harbors for great admirals, etc.).
Luxuries and population growth have also received an overhaul. Now luxuries are referred to as amenities and each city has its own count of amenities that affect its populations mood. Luxury resources provide an amenity to every city in a civilization. Entertainment buildings and other factors now only affect the city they are constructed in, however cities no longer suffer penalties due to the number of cities the civilization owns. Also occupied cities do not cause the rest of a civilization to suffer unrest.
Housing is determined by the base capacity of a city and any buildings in that city that increase housing as well as other faction specific research and benefits. When a city exceeds it’s current housing limit population growth slows significantly regardless of the food the city produces. District production is also limited by housing as a city can only produce a certain number of districts for each level of population.
The social policies of Civ V have been heavily redesigned to resemble scientific development. Culture generated by cities contributes to research through a tree of available civic techs. When a civic tech is researched, new civic policies are made available. Civics are divided into military, economic, diplomatic, and great person categories and a civilization is limited to the type and number of each civic based on the government they currently have. Civic techs unlock new governments over the course of play with some governments emphasizing military or economics by by allowing more military or economic civics to be active. Civics can be swapped out anytime, and can be changed without penalty whenever a new civic tech is researched.
Culture and scientific research now benefit from a bonus system. Most civic and scientific techs have an optional bonus objective, like clearing a barbarian encampment or constructing a mine, that will decrease the research cost of the tech by half. These boosts can’t always be easily completed each game but savvy players can use them to jump ahead in certain areas as the game progresses.
Civ VI features the series’ first official religious victory option. Cities follow a religion if a majority of their citizens convert to it. The faith resource can be used to purchase missionaries, apostles, and inquisitors that spread the player’s religion or combat opposing religious pressure in friendly cities. The victory condition is fairly straightforward: simply convert a majority of cities on the map. Certain religious units can even engage in theological combat, which is functionally the same as combat between conventional units, but cannot be healed.
Diplomacy is all about exploiting in Civ VI. AI opponents now have one pre-programmed agenda and one randomly selected hidden agenda that dictates their attitude towards the player. They also receive a randomly generated hidden agenda that is only revealed to players with sufficiently advanced diplomatic relations. The agendas allow the players to engage more tactfully with the AI, however they also have the side-effect of making the AI very one-dimensional. AI civilizations will denounce the player if the player’s actions fail to satisfy their agenda within a few turns. Additionally, even when the AI has moved to this passive aggressive state they still initiate trades with the player giving their convictions a mechanical feel that destroys immersion.
Graphically Civ VI is very beautifully designed. A more cartoonish approach to details was taken but the colors are vivid and the units and buildings are animated and precisely detailed. The game also features optional daytime-nighttime transitions giving the effect of passing days although it does not have an effect on the actual speed of play. Even on lower graphics settings Civ VI is pleasant to look at and meeting the minimum requirements for play is sufficient to enjoy the game completely.
Civilization VI brings no shame to the Civilization series and re-introduces some of the concepts that Firaxis attempted in Civilization: Beyond Earth. Bugs are virtually non-existent and it’s release is overall very polished. Some elements could use refining, like the similarities of several civilization’s unique buildings and bonuses, but a good expansion can fix those easily. One notably pervasive change is the slower environment of play on standard speed. The early and mid-game are very well fleshed out so it doesn’t detract from the game, but players used to the active and hectic end-game of Civ V may be surprised at the crawling science victory requirements or slow build times for modern units.
Any 4x fan will enjoy Civ VI and even at its release price its a valid purchase for any casual strategy gamer. Online performance is very stable and playing with friends is one of the hallmarks of an enjoyable Civilization experience. Not everything veteran Civilization players enjoy may have made it into this latest release but there is still plenty of new and improved elements to warrant numerous playthroughs.
Warlock II: The Exiled
After Paradox Interactive’s fun-loving, fantasy-filled 4x Warlock: Master of the Arcane became a surprise success it wasn’t long before fans of the game were delighted to learn that Paradox was producing a sequel. Warlock II: The Exiled, which was released in 2014, brought improved performance, a greatly improved user interface, and new content to the burgeoning Warlock series.
The first thing that should be made clear about Warlock II is that it should be viewed more as an expansion than a sequel. Warlock II contains tons of new content and new campaign modes but its foundation remains the same. Players will recognize the graphics, mechanics, races, units, and terrain immediately. This doesn’t in anyway detract from the enjoyment of Warlock II or its position as an improvement over its predecessor but it is important for players to avoid the potential disappointment of viewing Warlock II as a true sequel in the same vein as Age of Empires III or Warcraft III.
The story of Warlock II follows the narrative setup by the Armageddon DLC of Warlock. This is reflected by a major change in the campaign layout. Players now follow a linear progression of story quests and scripted events to return from the outland shards of the multiverse to Ardania where the United One, a Great Mage who successfully cast the Unity Spell, awaits to confront them. All of the 4x elements of Warlock remain for this campaign mode (except the Unity Spell victory, which is not available in the campaign mode). Players can explore the outland shards through portals by completing a quest to open a portal and sending units through to the new world. Story quests can be completed at the player’s discretion allowing the player to explore all of the randomly generated shards before finally proceeding back to Ardania.
An alternative form of the campaign called Battle for Outlands mimics the outland shard environment of the campaign without the story quests turning it into true 4x freeform gameplay. Each shard is based off of a single terrain environment found in Warlock on Ardania and the various underworlds. Several new terrain types were added to the previous underworlds of Warlock and seventeen shards can be found in a single game on the largest map size. Each shard has enough room for three to four full sized cities, but this isn’t a serious problem with Warlock II’s new special city mechanic which allows players to convert unwanted cities into specialized minor cities that can produce gold, mana, or serve as fortresses. These special cities only occupy the tiles immediately around them and do not count towards the game’s new city limit feature. A city limit should seem unusual in a 4x game but it can be expanded through research and is sufficient for player needs in all but the largest maps.
All units, structures, spells, and great mage perks from Warlock return in Warlock II and are joined by two new races: the multi-racial Planestriders and the mechanically oriented Svarts. The new races feature entirely new unit rosters and each brings two Great Mages to the usual selection of Great Mage profiles. As with the previous races, the Planestriders and Svarts specialize in the production of certain resources and emphasize certain unit and damage types. They blend in very well with the existing races and add greatly to the sandbox potential of mixing racial combos in large games. Warlock II also adds several new Great Mage perks and starting spells; including ways to moderate the city limit and the possibility to select starting shards and even a spell that can summon a random lord for hire. DLC has also been released providing more start locations, starting lords, and unique spells.
Perhaps one of the most notable changes in Warlock II is the enhancement of the spell research system. In Warlock five low tier spells appeared randomly at the start of the game for the player to research. Each spell would be replaced by a related, higher tier spell when it was researched. Now spells have been divided into Sorcery, Wizardry, and Divine categories and further broken up into several tiers based on their cost and power. Researching a certain number of spells in a category unlocks the next tier of spells for research giving the player much greater freedom to choose what spells to get and when.
Sadly, multiplayer has not seen much improvement since Warlock. The campaign and Battle for Outlands modes are both compatible with Warlock II and, despite a buggy launch, are for the most part very stable. However, the lingering lack of simultaneous turns, while appropriate for a 4x game that emphasizes combat, is a real damper for a game with limited demographic and economic micromanagement. The additional fact that the interface is only somewhat successful at keeping track of units strung out across the many outland shards makes turns in the later game laborious as each player checks on their multiple worlds while the other players idly stand by.
Graphics requirements have not increased by any noticeable amount. Machines and internet connections that handled Warlock should be able to just as easily manage Warlock II. The voices and sound for the new units is a welcome addition to the existing cast. Another minor change was the transition of several of the Great Mage’s expressions into fantasy languages. This change certainly increased the flavor of encounters with other opponents, but considering the limited number of phrases utilized in diplomacy it can be a minor annoyance as the AI babbles random words at the player over and over.
Warlock II is a very appropriate follow on to Warlock. Even though it lacks the all-encompassing content overhaul that marks a true sequel, Warlock II vastly improves on every feature of Warlock and fans of the first Warlock game, and the Majesty series of games in general, will certainly enjoy Warlock II. The added content greatly increases replayability even for those gamers who have already exhausted Warlock as the new races, game modes, and content provide even more options for exploration and racial combos. Perhaps the greatest mark of Warlock II’s triumph (and tragedy) as a follow-on is that after playing Warlock II, the original Warlock will appear too lackluster and uninteresting to revisit.
Civilization V Complete Edition
No series of games did more to establish a genre in PC gaming than Firaxis Games’ Civilization series. Since Civilization’s release in 1991 the Civilization series has set the standard by which 4x games are measured. Civilization V’s, the latest title of the series, has continued this trend alongside its advancement of the series in the gaming industry.
Single player and multiplayer in Civ V are effectively the same experience. As with most 4x games Civ V does not have a story driven element. Players start with a settler and a warrior unit from which they must construct a capital city and go on to lead their chosen civilization to greatness. The game world is divided into tiles, hexagonal spaces that units move over and cities work to produce resources, of which their are four primary resources. Strategic, bonus, and luxury resources can appear on terrain tiles and are worked by the owning city to provide benefits to the player’s civilization, research, and the city itself.
Cities produce citizens depending on the food available to that city with higher food increasing citizen production. Citizens work the tiles that the city owns, adding the tile’s yield to the city’s base production. The more citizens a city has the more food it consumes thus requiring increasing supplies of food to support large cities. Worker units can construct buildings on tiles and special resources to increase their resource yield and provide stockpiles of those resources for trade. Workers can also construct roads between cities and into the countryside to increase unit movement on road tiles.
Civ V is turn based so combat takes place between civilizations as the turns rotate. Military units are divided into ranged or melee categories. Melee units may not have melee weapons (Great War Infantry for example) but are classified as melee because they can only damage units in adjacent tiles. Ranged units can attack units one or more tiles away without fear of retaliation. Each unit can only make one attack per turn and only certain units can move and attack in the same turn. Military units can be upgraded into more advanced versions as the player researches technologies and advances in eras.
The core experience of Civ V comes from managing the myriad strategic, domestic, and diplomatic aspects of a growing civilization. Technologies must be researched to unlock new units, buildings, and bonuses as well as allowing the player’s civilization to progress through the games eras, groupings of technological level that range from the Ancient Era to the Information Era. Cultural policies must be enacted to grant empire wide bonuses and set the civilization’s ideology. Income, and the trade that helps it flourish, must be carefully managed and exploited to maintain building and unit upkeep while providing a surplus for quick purchases and negotiations.
There are five ways to achieve victory and each one focuses on, but does not require, certain playing styles. Like any good strategy game there is a Conquest victory; the player must capture the capital of every other civilization while defending their own. The player can win a Cultural victory by producing enough tourism from Great Works and Great People, items and units generated by culture buildings, to become the dominate culture in the world. The Science victory involves constructing the parts of an interstellar colonization spaceship; a laborious process but that one that is completely contained inside the player’s own borders. The Diplomatic victory involves the player’s civilization becoming leader of the world through election by the United Nations. Finally, if a turn limit has been set, the civilization with the highest score at the end the in-game year 2050 wins a Score victory.
Many of the Civ V’s gameplay features occupy the player’s attention simply for the sake of surviving one turn to another, but it is the player’s preferred victory path that truly determines the focus of overall gameplay. Different civilizations have unique units, buildings, and bonuses that aid them in achieving one victory type over the others, such as Germany’s reduced upkeep for military units and Babylon’s science boost from Great Scientists. However, the beauty of Civ V is that no component of a developing civilization is obsolete. Trade, Great People, and even religion can be leveraged to speed the player toward any of the victory options throughout the eras. Certain aspects can be sacrificed to prioritize a chosen strategy, but no amount of culture or diplomatic weight can protect a civilization from a military superpower. A truly successful civilization will master, if not dominate, every aspect of Civ V.
The AI in Civ V is well designed for a game with such layered complexity. Each civilization has its own flavor that bends them toward a particular path to victory, but the AI will also adjust to accommodate shifting developments as the game goes on. However AI diplomacy can still be one dimensional, with the AI rarely forgiving past wrongs and making illogical economic and military decisions. It also has some trouble going beyond the swarm mechanic for unit combat. This doesn’t inhibit the AI’s ability to be a true threat, but does decrease its capacity to hinder the player as games progress.
Multiplayer provides an added benefit over the somewhat predictable patterns of the AI. Players take their turns simultaneously, which can cause some lag on lower quality connections as the game tries to resolve all actions at once. However this does ensure that players aren’t stuck waiting for a single player to finish his or her turn. Diplomacy also takes place interactively, with a player’s offer displayed for the other player to modify, accept, or reject at their leisure. Civ V does feature an automatic re-synchronization system, which can be surprising during play as the game activates it automatically, but it does ensure that progress and continuity are preserved over game sessions.
Civ V’s graphics requirements were extensive for its time, but present little problem for modern computers. Full maps covered with development and activity can cause long load times on some older machines but do little to impact actual gameplay.
Ultimately, in what is perhaps Civ V’s single greatest feature, this latest title in the Civilization series cannot be fully experienced in a single game. A multitude of civilizations, maps, and paths to victory are available in myriad combinations. Random maps can also be generated for additional variety. The Complete Edition offers a total of 43 civilizations and any gamer should find at least half of those appealing for multiple games. Any strategy gamer would find Civ V fresh and thoroughly entertaining over multiple playthroughs. Fans of previous Civ games should note that Civ V brings new material to the genre, wisely choosing not to attempt to rehash Civ IV. This doesn’t make it better or worse than its predecessors but rather it is a new way to play Civilization; which is precisely what it should be.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane
By the time Paradox Interactive released one of its titles set in the Majesty universe game setting in 2012 the 4x genre was well established with the Civilization series and its latest iteration Civilization V serving as standard bearers. Warlock: Master of the Arcane takes many traditional elements made popular by these other titles and adds a strong fantasy combat aspect to it. Indeed, saying that Warlock is a ‘fantasy Civ V with more combat’ would be a pretty accurate summary of the game’s overall appearance and performance.
Warlock, despite its similarities, was not meant to be a Civ V clone but rather uses reliable mechanics of 4x play to facilitate its new concepts of fantasy adventure and conquest. Domestic management, particularly in the areas of ideology, policies, and great people are toned down or practically non-existent. The centrality and dynamics of military conquest takes a prominent, almost central role with each faction featuring its own unit and unique building roster and special Lord hero units appearing to add their considerable ability to a faction’s might. Spells also make a significant appearance, providing the only element that could be equated to technology as the spells must be researched before they can be used.
As with many 4x games the storyline is oriented around the characters that represent a faction’s leader, in this case the Great Mages. When selecting a Great Mage the player can view several paragraphs of biography and backstory. This ties into the in-game lore, accessible when clicking on the portraits of units, and to a lesser degree the narrator’s exposition when the player achieves victory. Aside from this there is little story to be found, with most of the in-world immersion coming from interaction with AI Great Mages and the exploring of the uncharted Ardanian landscape. While this does effectively limit the game to one mode in singleplayer and multiplayer this is not a major detriment to the enjoyment of Warlock. Just as in other 4x games the narrative is primarily crafted by the player. Players can even customize or create their own Great Mages by choosing a portrait, name, faction color, race, and starting spells or abilities.
Other prime elements of single player enjoyment stem from exploring Ardania and parallel worlds. With each new game resources, monster lairs, and neutral cities are randomly generated offering new challenges each time a new game is begun, ensuring that each race can be thoroughly tested before the process becomes routine. Sadly the AI is less lacking in staying power with limited diplomatic ability and generally simple (if sometimes effective) defensive tactics. The world’s monsters however form a vastly greater threat, particularly in pursuit of holy sites or rare resources in the parallel worlds.
Although multiplayer doesn’t exactly bring anything fresh to the experience of Warlock (aside from the obvious benefit of another human) the game is fairly easy on internet requirements. It’s turn-based play is sadly limited to the active player, no simultaneous turns are present, but as a turn-based game with little in the way of In-between-turn processes the game experiences little variance in bandwidth requirement. Unfortunately random crashes can be more common than one would like and frequent saves are recommended. Several patches have ensured that primary functionality are maintained so simply playing the game is unlikely to induce an error, yet with the release of Warlock 2 further multiplayer support is not to be expected.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane for all its flaws is a masterful first step in what could become a very entertaining and endearing series. Warlock 2 (which will be discussed later) follows in its steps with many improvements and gives great credit to everything Warlock served as a proving grounds to develop. Warlock’s games are lively, humorous, and for the most part fairly prompt with a fair amount of customization options for players to explore. Any 4x player, skilled or casual, who wanted to see fantasy and more combat in their Civilization games will be more than satisfied with what Warlock: Master of the Arcane has to offer.
Age of Wonders III
After a healthy experience of the Eternal Lords expansion to Triumph Studio’s latest title in its Age of Wonders series it seemed like a good time to mention recent 4x contender Age of Wonders III. The Age of Wonders series has brought up 4x fans since 1999 and features many traditional elements of 4x play such as turn based strategic and tactical modes, city building and management, and multiple resource requirements such as gold, production, and research.
Faction design in Age of Wonders III takes two intertwined forms. Players must choose a class from six choices (seven with the latest expansion, Eternal Lords) and a race, of which there are a total of nine with all the expansions included. Each race comes with a set of generic units as well as strengths and weaknesses in their economics and unit abilities. Player classes determine what the player’s faction leader class is as well as what spells, technological upgrades, and specialist units are available. Any combination of race and class is allowed and part of a successful strategy is determining which class and race best combine to fit a player’s style.
Leaders are chosen at the beginning of a random game or scenario (and preselected in the campaigns). Players can also create custom leaders, allowing them to customize the leader’s appearance, starting preference, and adept and mastery spell skills. All adept skills are available at the beginning and mastery skills can be chosen once the corresponding adept skill is selected. A leader can have a maximum of three skill selections and does not need to choose a mastery. Skills contain a set of spells that correspond to their type (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water originally with several more added in the expansions) and are useful in supplementing racial and class strategies.
Notably among most 4x games Age of Wonders III focuses heavily on combat. Players will quickly learn that two moderately prosperous cities are superior to one large, wealthy city. Thus the ability to conquer new cities and protect existing ones is paramount to success. Triumph Studios put a lot of effort into the detail of class and unit designs and perhaps the most strategically critical and unpredictable part of the game is the tactical combat mode. Racial and class units all have their own strengths and weaknesses and most classes are not necessarily all encompassing. The Rogue class for example has a wide range of stealth and support units and is very flexible in most combat environments. However the Rogue class is the only class which lacks a Tier IV unit (the highest unit tier) and can be swiftly overwhelmed by more martially focuses classes.
Combat is certainly the prominent feature in the single player story mode. Players can choose between two campaigns, with each campaign following a faction on one side of a global war for racial and ideological supremacy. Each mission in the campaign begins with a pre-chosen leader and a small army. A settler is usually included, although in roughly one third of the missions the player must conquer a nearby neutral city to begin building their economy. Several types of objectives like recovery or conquest appear throughout the campaign but the usual formula for victory involves keeping your leader and hero units alive while eliminating the AI factions.
While this is a fairly common approach to campaign development in 4x games it tends to lend a fairly abstract difficulty curve to the campaign. Oftentimes the player is simply dropped into fog of war with no ability to sustain an army no indication on the best route of exploration to take; all while the AI opponents are building up their forces and claiming treasure sites. Additionally the requirement to keep certain heroes alive, while certainly flavorful and effective at giving the leaders importance, discourages the player from using that leader unit in all but the safest and most secure combat encounters. It can be a frustrating feature in a game where just one wrong move or a lucky shot can turn a battle.
The Random Map and Scenario part of the single player experience has much more potential and opens up the full race, class, and leader customization options. Scenarios are single, pre-build maps with pre-selected leaders and races for the player to choose from. Each scenario has a storyline governing its setup but once the game begins it functions more like a Random Map with the players free to develop their chosen factions as they please.
Random Maps are blank slate single and multi-player maps for 2-8 players. At setup the player or host can adjust such features as the percentage of different terrain types, the number of monster lairs and treasure sites, if there is an underground level to the map, and other options. Players can start with anything from their leader with a small army and settler to a large army and a metropolis level city.
The standard AI, while certainly an able opponent, tends to be more frustrating than dangerous. Players can usually spot an AI’s advancing army through effective use of watchtowers and/or flying scouts; yet its complete awareness of the map means it can always find any vulnerable or unguarded cities. The AI will target wounded and valuable units in combat even if it puts its own forces in danger. It also behooves new players in Random Map games to leave the hero resurgence option checked when generating the map as the AI is fond of attacking leader and hero units.
Most 4x fans will enjoy the familiar genre elements in Age of Wonders III. However those players accustomed to styles emphasizing economic or diplomacy victories may find Age of Wonders III underdeveloped in those areas. However strategic and tactical combat elements are among the most detailed for a 4x game in the diverse number of units, abilities, and options available to the player. Players seeking familiar 4x play with a strong fantasy setting will not be disappointed in the latest of the Age of Wonders series.
Endless Legend
Endless Legend: This past year saw two notable franchises release the latest titles in their series. For 4x giant Civilization this game was Civilization: Beyond Earth. Beyond Earth was highly anticipated and featured many revolutionary new takes on elements of 4x play as well as radical departures from previous Civilization mechanics. Yet despite this strong contender for the 4x spotlight the Civilization series’ most recent arrival seems to have fallen behind Amplitude Studios’ latest production in their Endless series: Endless Legend.
Any veteran 4x player will tell you that the 4x genre is not a story-driven genre. Indeed the appeal of single player 4x games is crafting your own story. Take a faction that starts out with literally nothing but the clothes on their back and turn them into an empire to dominate the world; success is dependent on your choices and management skills. Endless Legend is no different; the customization of faction perks and background info is half the fun in starting a new game. Yet there is one important variance that Endless Legend brings and that is the Faction Quest system.
Each faction in Endless Legend has an unchanging Faction Quest which is assigned on the turn after you settle your first city. Like the generic quest system the Faction Quest features a flavorful background or dialogue with short descriptors related to the quest objective. Each individual part of the quest also gives a reward which varies from anything like Dust or artifacts to technologies and even heroes. The Faction Quest provides the primary flavor for factions with each completed objective unfolding a narrative that describes the faction’s development from their first arrival on the world stage to eventually discovering the secrets of the long-lost Endless and culminated in the Wonder Victory condition.
Unless the Wonder Victory is the only victory selected the Faction Quest is not essential to the game although it is a convenient and reliable source of quest rewards. It also does not change for custom factions, taking its cue from the baseline race chosen when developing the custom faction. Although static and linear it is by far one of the best and most flavorful narratives ever inserted into a 4x game and makes the generally tedious Wonder Victory enjoyable and intriguing to pursue.
Multiplayer is seamlessly integrated into Endless Legends regular game mode and the game has no trouble switching between AI and human interaction (it even allows players to abandon their team and take control of an existing AI team in the game lobby after loading a save). Turns take place simultaneously ensuring that each player stays busy most of the time and turns are only as long as the slowest player. As with most 4x games data transfer between the host computer and the other machines is minimal and the principle source of lag is the few seconds after a new turn begins when the host updates the AI progression and activities.
The only weakness to Endless Legend’s multiplayer is its strangely bugged performance. The game occasionally suffers from corrupted save files which are usually caused by the host computer encountering an error and crashing. Thankfully Amplitude Studio’s has already released one patch which addressed many issues and is continuing to resolve different bugs in the game. This problem is also curbed in part by Endless Legend’s excellent re-sync system that allows the host to manually reload the players into the game with play resuming at the start of the turn on which the re-sync is initiated.
Like all 4x games Endless Legend’s re-playability is extensive with eight base factions to try and eight different victory conditions to achieve. Maps are highly customizable with variable terrain features such as rivers and hills as well as settings for temperature and amount of strategic and luxury resources; although this also leaves maps without flavor or a sense of setting and not a prime source of player interest. Factions however can be customized in many different ways.
The core faction trait, Faction Quest, and faction units will remain the same but all other perks and penalties can be swapped out for new ones from a list of every perk and penalty available to each faction. A point system with a maximum of eighty governs how many perks can be acquired with stronger perks costing more points and penalties providing additional points. Persistent gameplay will reveal that some faction builds work better than others regardless of faction race, but the number of possible combinations is quite large and can produce of hundreds of hours of extended play.
Endless Legend’s AI leaves a few things to be desired. Although adaptable, reactive, and surprisingly capable of adjusting to the wide variety of playstyles found among the factions the AI is diplomatically one-dimensional and heavily reliant on its starting circumstances to succeed. AI opponents devalue truces, even when severely losing a war, and flatter or insult generically rather than based on their current mood towards you. The AI is not totally devoid of reactive ability however; its relations will turn sour if you prove aggressive around its borders and AIs that are ‘terrified’ of you will happily embrace offers for peace and alliances, even going so far as to give gifts for free.
Yet the prime source of entertainment when replaying Endless Legend comes from making your faction grow and succeed. The AI serves more as a barricade and additional factor for determining strategy and should not be the sole focus in the endgame. Exploring ruins for special quests, finding new minor factions, and uncovering the best locations for new cities provide more than enough variable challenges for watching a custom faction grow from an idea to a monolithic reality.
In conclusion Endless Legend has extensive replay options with entertaining factions and superb customization options. I am confident that the bugs in its multiplayer system will be gradually eradicated and its simultaneous turns provide for fast gameplay among friends. This game is certainly worth the price and provides the adventurous and imaginative player with weeks’ of content and entertainment.