Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne

"Read why this game is a must have."

This is my first review, so if I mess up or anything, feel free to mail your comments.

Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne (henceforth AoW2) is the sequel to Age of Wonders (henceforth AoW), both great games by Triumph Studios. AoW2 is set in the same world as AoW, but much after the events of the first game. In this game, you assume the role of Merlin, a wizard trained by Gabriel to restore the peace to the Circle of Evermore. This game has 12 races, 10 back from the original installment, and 2 new ones, the Tigrans (desert cat people, substituting the Azracs) and the Draconians (Dragon like humanoids, in place of the Lizardmen).

This game is differently oriented from the first one. The most important change, is that now you do not play a race like you did in AoW, you now play a Wizard with a specific magic sphere. Wizards are powerful beings trained by Gabriel to command the powers of a sphere. There are the same seven spheres as in the original, those being Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Life, Death and Cosmos. Wizards have areas they can influence with magic. This area is known as a wizard's Domain. The wizard can cast any spell he knows as long as the target lies in his domain, and provided he has enough mana to cast it.

Another major difference between AoW and AoW2, is that now, the player can improve cities by building individual structures, in place of the generic city upgrade in AoW. These structures provide a city with additional benefits, from increasing production, to allowing the creation of more powerful units, to healing all units garrisoned in it at the beginning of a turn. Also, one of four shrines can be built per city. These shrines worship different Spirits. The four spirits are War, Order, Nature and Magic. Once a Shrine is built, Spirits may offer the player quests. These quests include killing a party of ''infidels'', capturing or razing certain structure, or building a city add-on. Spirits reward those who accomplish their quests by offering them gold or mana, and sometimes spells or items.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
This game shines on this aspect. Tactical battles are fun and interesting. Also, with the corrections of the new patch, the damage is more constant, instead of varying wildly. There are several levels of difficulty, from very easy (Squire) to very hard (Emperor), these make sure the AI does not get boring too fast. The new domain rules allow the player to cast combat magic without endangering the wizard, so combat magic plays a larger role in this game. Also, wizards are almost immortal, as when they are killed they revive in a wizard's tower in their control. These increases to leader power ensure that players no longer have to save/reload constantly if their wizard gets killed.

Story: 8/10
The story is good. While there is not anything out of the ordinary or exceptional of the story, it gets the job done very nicely. The history revolves around you, Merlin, a human. Since the fall of the undead King Inioch (as narrated in AoW), most races turned against the humans, nearly hunting them into extinction. Merlin almost dies when the Air Galley he is traveling in is attacked by dragons, but he is saved by Gabriel. Gabriel, a powerful wizard, is the leader of the Circle of Evermore. He trained other wizards in the control of spheres, so they would help him maintain balance in the circle. The problem is that the wizards he trained have turned from him, seeking to further their power and war one another. Gabriel wants you to find out why the wizards are behaving like this and to correct it so peace can be returned to the Circle of Evermore. To accomplish your mission, Gabriel trains you as a wizard. So you set forth to investigate the wizard's revolt.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are great. Spell effects are gorgeous, the units are very well done, the wizard units and animations are great. There is nothing better than seeing Serena the Life Wizard slap those pesky goblin swordsmen into oblivion. Or looking at Karissa the Fire Wizard using her magic gestures while casting fireball to slay those lowly frostlings.

Sound & Music: 8/10
Sound is well done, however, the selection is pretty limited. Sure, that sword slash sounds great, but after hearing it for the 25th time, it starts to annoy. Also, ambient sounds have a tendency to get ''stuck'', especially that wind-in-the-mountains sound. However this is easily remedied by turning off ambient sound, so it is a minor issue. The music is great, really immersive in the theme of the game. And, if you ever bore of the music, you can always customize your in-game play list by adding any mp3 file to it.

Replay Value: 9.5/10
The game is addictive. What can I say? Each turn involves you more and more into the game until you discover that it is actually the next day. Also, multiplayer gaming is a plus. With IP connection, PBEM (Play By E-Mail), and Hot Seat (Players taking turns on the same computer), there is no excuse for not playing this game online. Finally there is always the possibility of downloading some player created maps, or even creating your own with the easy to use map editor.

Buy or Rent?: Buy
This is a great game, worth more than the measly 40 bucks they ask for it. I recommend you buy this game. If you have liked any other Turn Based Strategy game, you will like it.

Overall: 9/10
This score is not an average. Because of GameFAQs' integer score scale, I cannot give this game a 9.5. The only things keeping this game from achieving the perfect 10 are several technical issues (i.e. bugs) which still plague the game, even after the 1.1 patch. As soon as other patches address these issues, this review will be updated accordingly.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/02, Updated 08/04/02