It’s hex-based, as is standard with every 4X game since Civilization V, but Planetfall groups these hexes into larger provinces as well, amorphous blob-shapes with explicit boundaries. I also really like Planetfall’s approach to the strategic map. And as you’d expect, their doctrine is similarly nature-focused, with “Verdant Awakening” the first tech you’ll encounter. The Amazons, for instance, focus on Biochemical and Laser weapons-pterodactyls with neck-mounted lasers, bow-wielding hunters who lob acid, and so on. While not as bespoke as Total War: Warhammer’s tech trees, these three slots are enough to give Planetfall’s factions some much-needed variety. Each focuses on two different types of weapons, and also has a societal “Doctrine” attached to it. I’d say that’s half the battle with strategy games, as evidenced by the breakout success of (relative) newcomers like Amplitude’s Endless Space and Endless Legend.Īnd like Amplitude’s games, Planetfall is great at delineating its factions. That said, it’s an entertaining setting with outsized characters and ideas you can immediately grasp. As I said, these are all bits and pieces with obvious corollaries in science-fiction-at-large. None of it’s particularly groundbreaking. ![]() The Vanguard are standard “We want to reestablish the empire” folks, the Kir’Ko are a “shattered hive mind” of bug-slaves, and the Dvar are basically cyborg space-dwarves. We also got a glimpse of three more factions during our demo. Thus we have the Amazons, women who’ve mastered genetic engineering to create an army of dinosaurs. The gist: Long ago a galaxy-spanning empire fell into ruins, humanity lost the means for interstellar travel in the aftermath, new societies developed in isolation, and now those societies are starting to make contact once again, fighting over the planets (and technologies) of the old empire. In any case, Planetfall’s left behind the fantasy setting for the aforementioned space setting, which personally is more to my tastes. ![]() Too rich, maybe-one of my complaints with Age of Wonders III was that it inundated you with lengthy text logs and called it “storytelling.” Oh, and the previous Age of Wonders games built out a rich fantasy environment for these wars to take place in. Here, the main conceit is you fight battles manually, zooming in on the action and managing your units on a tactical (albeit still turn-based) map. ![]() But the 4X genre is so often defined by the ways games differ from Civilization, and Age of Wonders is no different. “It’s a game like Civilization.” You’re building up your nation from scratch, investing in industry and research, keeping your cities happy, forming an army, engaging in diplomacy, and so on. At its core, this is a 4X series-the ol’ explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate, a.k.a.
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