Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

"Now this is a worthy expansion for any game"

Age Of Wonders has long been thought of as the spiritual predecessor to the long favorate of the old schooler, turn based, fantasy gamer known as Master Of Magic (or by the faithful...MOM). After microprose went under, many people turned to other games of the same ilk...but generally the 'replacement' was met with less appreciation and interest then MOM. Indeed, MOM was unique and will always be remember fondly as the benchmark for fantasy turn based games now and in the future. However, two games came close to capturing the feel of MOM....Heroes Of Might And Magic and Age Of Wonders. For a while there, both ran pretty much neck and neck with solid fan bases and continual updates (both in and outside of the developer). However, with the recent troubles with 3DO and the less then stellar productions of the last couple of Heroes games...may have jumped ship to join the Age fanbase. Now we are presented with the next installment of the Age series with Shadow Magic...and while not all changes made have been met with positive response in the past....it cant be said that Gathering of Developers (or GoD for short) havent been paying attention.

Gameplay: As said, all Age of Wonders (called AoW for short here on) games have been turn based games. Basically, this means that generally you take a turn to move units around a field and take things over, fight things, go different places. As far as this general premese goes, its nothing original. But, because its a tried and true formula, it controls very well and anyone who has played any of the other games will have no problem jumping on without skipping a beat. The AI varys, but typically it plays with a reasonable about of logic behindit and can be set to really give one a challange if you choose so ahead of time. Turn based play is a bit of a niche market (in an age of real time stratagy games popping out everywhere) but anyone who is into this genre will find that this is at the top of the group in terms of sheer fun and ''just one more turn'' syndrome.

Story: I dont play campaign mode too much, so I dont have all that much to say about story. However, my general understanding is that it takes place within months of the end of the last AoW game. Basically the main character from the last one discovers the location of a race of beings who have grown an interest in the real world and seek to take it over. This character attempts to stop it but instead becomes trapped in their world. Meanwhile a new empire rises up out of the old one that prohibits magic and thus a sort of witch hunt insues. It is in this chaos that the monsters from the other world attempts to gain a foothold into the real one. As far as stories go, its not totally original, but its not a rehash either.

Graphics/Sound: AoW:SM has brighter graphics then the last one and some of the pictures and sprites have a real polish to them. The new ''shadow world'' is an array of muted blues, purples, and blacks that give it a really creepy kind of feel, but a good kind of creepy for sure. As this is technically an expansion, many effects are reused from the last one. But there are enough new effects to make it stand out and some of the old ones have been adjusted for the better. A perfectly bright colorful world for running around and waging war on. Sound-wise, many of the old tunes have also been reused (again this being technically an expansion), but there are plenty of new tracks as well. Some more memorable then others of course. But this too is not a bad thing either. The sound effects itself is kind of muted but some of them are really funny and some are just cool sounding also.

Replayability: With 5 campaigns, multiplayer hotseat, online multiplayer, a random map generator, map editor, and even a rules editor its hard not to find a reason to play again. When you figure in all of the online community content out there and yet to be done and the stuff you may make on your own, you find that you'll have a winner on your hands with this.

Conclusion: What else is there to say....this game really is a worthy addition to anyone's library if they are into turn based stratagy. It might even turn the heads of of turn based gamers who may not play fantasy settings. But this wont recruit people from the real time camp. Still, all around, its an excellent game and I highly recommend it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03