Recent reviews by Cythil

I should have written this reivew a long time ago. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a great game. A interesting twist on Age of Wonders with is new Science Fiction setting (with some more fantastical elements like Psionics.)

It is a game that still looks great in my book. One of the best looking 4x games still in 2025. Has a lot of interesting faction. And if you want Age of Wonders, but a bit more directed. A bit more constrained then Age of Wonder 4, then this is a good option. The two games play diffrent enough that I find this game still interesing even if I like Age of Wonders 4 to. So if you missed it, get it! The very fact that I when back to this after Age of Wonders 4 should show that this is still a strong game. And I love Age of Wonder 4!

(Oh and at this current time there is a lot of chines reivew bombing of this game. Has nothing to do with the game. Just hate directed at the published of this game. Should mean they own the game however if they are leaving reivews. So cool... Maybe they should go and play game instead and become a bit more happy.)

This is my favorit MOBA game by far. And I do recomend it. It is a great game but there is one issue. And that is the game has a low player base. What player based the game once had was lost when it was closed down. And even back then it was pretty low. So for it to work you sort of need a crew of willing player to play it. If you do then you have a great game.

Even I who like this game do not play it that often right now. So I am a part of the problem. But I do not play most of the MOBA games I own or have played anylonger. Simply do not have them. By making this game a standalone game at least it is preserved. But it would be aided of having letting you have bot matches.

This game is not that costly ether so I do say buy it. Just to preserve it legacy. And hay. If any of my friends read this send me a message if you want to play a game.

Great game if you like the orginal. And if you missed the orginal, get this anyway if you like RTS games.

It is Sins of the Solar Empire I.... But better! This is a clear ittreative improvement on the first game with all it expations. If you liked the first one you will like this. And if you missed out on the first one give this a go.

And if you are new to this game series. Well this is a stratigy game that is sort of a cross between something like Grand Strartigy/4x game like stellaris, and a tradtional RTS. Takes a lot longer in general to play then a tradtional RTS with matches taking hours to play. But faster then former as you usally can do a match under a day. 3 unique factions with 2 subfactions for each side that are pretty unqiue on there own. It looks nice and plays nice.

What this game is not is not you confort Civilization game. So if you like the nice predicable formula that Civlization presents, then this game is not for you. But if you want something that do thing diffrent, whant to experiment, then give this a go. The game has a lot of interesting mechanics and can get a bit complex. By no means the most complicated 4x game out there. But a fair bit to take in. Which I love.

The game has it issues however. The combat is pretty trash, unegaging. We are talking about combat on the level of Call to Power, which this game resembles a bit. (But I bet few have heard of.) But yes. The combat complexity is about on part on early Civ games. Infomation could be presented a bit better. It is very barebones in may parts. It is not horried but compared 4x games that are that the top, it is severally lacking in all respects. The wiki helps out a bit but and the popup system is a pretty decent implementation. But it just a bit behind the curve. And another thing behind the curve is the graphics. It is one, or maybe even two generations behind the curve. Not only does it lack a very the fidelity we see in games like Civ 6, Humankind or Age of Wonder 4, the art direction is also far weaker then these games. And yet the game actually runs a bit slow at time I feel in rendering. Which I suspect is just poor optimization. Now the visual presentation is not what matters most for me. I play a game called Dominions after all that looks like it was stuck in the mid 90s. But I do feel it a weak point.

So yes. I have mention a lot of the shortcomming of this game but I think think is great. The unique mechanics of the game do carry it quite a bit. Ages do feel diffrent and are often well done. You shape your civilization, you do not just pick one. And that is what I love. The game is doing a lot of thing I would have wanted to do with my own 4x game if I ever made it. So do pick this up if you want something that tried to break the mold.

Edit: Now that the new expantions have come out and there have been some updates, the game has moved in the right direction. It is going for a game that I recomend, to a game I recomend even more. Still have some of the same issues. But now it also have mod support. And I do feel that it may be running a bit better. So C prompt have worked on the game to make sure to fix some issues. I do hope more people pick up this dimond in the rough becouse it is far more enjoyable then a lot of 4x games out there. Especially if you do not want to focus on just combat. Figuring out how to expand and build you empire is at least as imporant. And you can force peace in a way that you can not in many other games. Though still build a pretty sizable militarty early on since in standard setting the barbarians are quite hostile. And rember. This game is about you making your own path. Not you picking a civilization and then following the same pre-determined stragy to victory. In this game you need to adapt. Which I like.

So I am updating my review this after the game itself have gotten a lot of update. Still recomend the game and it has only gotten better. Many of the flaw have been adressed I feel so they do actually listen and try to improve the game. Which is why I recomend people to go back to it and try it if they have not played it for quite a while.

The other reason I wanted to update my review is becouse I feel people might not get this game and how it works. Limiations are a essential part in creating a challange in a game and this game which offer up so much customizablity and the ability to potentially research every tome in the game may seem to open. Like the openess both kills charcter and challange to some. But in reality, especially with the change made to research, it really about how you progesss in the game. Yes in theory you can research every spell and unit in the game. But in reality it is the path you take that matters. And is a game about evolution. You commit when you research and have to handle those consquences. You are given great potential to shape you playthough with a host of diffrent options. But if you do not adapt you may be in real trouble. You have to commit since the deeper you go, the harder is it to change course. Like I said, this game is about Evolution in a similiar way as a lot of more modern 4X games are and it is one of the game that does this the best.

For those that are more in to a more older school of playing 4X games. Not fully old school but more mid school I would say, where you have very distict factions and a specific way you play the game depending on that early choice, this game may not be for you. Civ 5 and Civ 6 falls more in to this style of what you pick to play deterims how you play the game. This is not how you play the game.

Age of Wonders game also where more in this style before but it start to change, especially with Plantfall, but this goes full on out on the evolving gameplay. This mean some people who are in to Age of Wonder 3 or older may get a bit confused. Even the change of focus with race now only being cosmetic, but culture basically replacing race, may be confusing to older players of the series. But this is a matter of prespective shift. A lot of those things are there but in another form. Culture is what deterimns who you are playing like picking a race before did. But by having race be more cosmetic allows you to freedom to create you own faction as you see fit. The classical example is the Dark Elf vs Wood Elves vs High Elves trope. There all elves, but with diffrent cultures in the game. In older games they would have been 3 diffrent races instead. Some may feel this make races shallow, but I find that culures are more imporant. And it allows me to recrate some bit odd fictional races (like canibal halflings, you know if you know) or make my very own unique group which I love. Note the game come with a lot of pre-existing faction that fall more under the classical tropes and the random generation is also slanted towards what is the classical depiction of these fantasy races.

Overall it is a game that has a lot offer and is prefect for those who like a tactical combat as well as a dynamic 4x experience.

It is a good game if you like a L4D or Vermintide game with a Warhammer 40k theme.

Age of Mythology is a lost gem when it comes to the Age of Empires games. A spinoff with a interesting premiss. One of the greatest!

But if is so great why do I not recomend you getting this? Well the Extended Edition could be better to start. It is not the most stable one. And more care could have been put in to the remastering of this old gem.

But the other reason is that a proper remaster seems to be in the works with Age of Mythology: Retold. We do not know much about it. But if as much care is put in to it as the Defintitive edtions of Age of Empires, then that is the version to get when it comes out. Even if it cost more. And maybe they will fix the Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon expansion which was a great idea on paper, but poorly implemented. So I say hold off if you can. This game deserves a better version.

This version is still playable and can be fun, but can also leave a bitter aftertaste due to it issues.

PS: I may change my view depending on how Retold turns out.

PPS: So I got to play the Retold beta and it seem like Retold will be far better. The beta was still a beta but even in that stage it feels better then what this is. So wait. Get retold. Not this. At this moment is just a little more then a month away. So do not buy this. Not even on a sale. I am pretty confident that you will like Retold over this.

This game works very well on a mobile device like the steam deck. Great on the go. The only issue being that each round can be a bit long. If that is a issue really. So if you want something super quick then maybe something else. But still. You can play this quickly especially with modifiers. And yet there is a sense of progression and discovery that keeps the game engaging.

Mexico is a very interesting Civ with a lot of complexity to play. And most importantly, fun to play. There smiliar to USA but absolutely have there own charcter and I even find them more interesting then USA. And USA is a good civ on it's own.