Let’s say a humble leader asks for your aid in paying off their debts. Narrative and diplomatic events will appear from time to time and how you tackle them is up to you. I hope you’re not tired out after all of that choosing, as there are still plenty more choices that need to be made. Most importantly, you’ll only ever have enough resources to do a small number of things at once, so there are some difficult decisions to be made, which is where these games really sing. There are all sorts of aspects and elements that you can specialize in, and you’ll get bonuses accordingly. Then you’ll end up on a skill tree that looks like it’s out of a Diablo game. Naturally, these choices can sprout out almost exponentially, as you can later pick another tome and research even further. Some are just for combat, but you’ll eventually be able to change your race’s appearance, adding strange features like icicles or rocks on their body. This isn’t a Civilization tech tree though, you’ll be given three options from a pool of research topics that could be anything like units, building, or new spells. This is all dependent on your research and overall culture. You can build plenty of infrastructure like farms or mines and eventually start to develop specializations and upgrades for your buildings. If you’ve ever played a Civilization game then you’ll immediately recognize a lot of the basic layout when you get into a game. It also has a lot of familiar elements for fans of the genre. It’s the pinnacle of UI design for strategy games right now, and every game in the genre should be adopting it.

If you’re worried about the overwhelming complexity then never fear, as the nested tooltip system from Old World and Crusader Kings 3 is here to let you look up any keywords and understand all of the game’s interconnected mechanics. Do you want your world littered with ancient ruins of a forgotten civilization? Or ravaged by devastating blizzards? Or maybe a bit of both? Don’t forget about the underground layer either.

There’s a big chunk of random generation, but you can modify elements of it if you wish, even in the campaign mode. They all make a difference to your playthrough, and you can fine-tune things to your heart’s content. You choose your race, then give them physical and mental attributes, decide their overall culture as well as additional traits, and then finally customize everyone’s appearance.

Age of wonders 4 age of wonders