Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

"Really great - Never thought it could be this good actually!"

Ok, so this is my first review, so please be not too critical with me :) Up to the game:

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (I'll call it ''SM'' from here) is the Sequel to Age of Wonder 2. It is more of an expansion, but nontheless, it's an entire game, you don't need AoW2 to play it.
If you play this after playing AoW2, well, at first you have to look hard to find the differences (except maybe the Random Map Generator, but more on that one later), but there are plenty, trust me.
If you are new to the game series, this is a wonderful game to begin with, since with the 3 new races of the expansion, there is _so_ much to do, and _so_ much to explore...

Well, let's get specific:

Graphics -- (8/10)
What do you expect from a Turn Based Strategy Game in terms of graphic? It's surely not looking like UT2003 or Battle Isle The Andosian War, but for this genre, the graphic is nice. Actually, it is pretty good. All units and items and stuff seems to have been pre-rendered, and then put into the game as 2D-bitmaps. Which, considering you are viewing them as relativly small figures on the map, makes up for some nice graphics.
The spell effects are where the 8 comes from. They are colorful, and nice, but I wish the big spell would have some overwhelming flashy thing, which take a while to subcede...

Sound -- (10/10)
The sound is astonishing, expecially the music. The unit sounds are fine, nothing one could argue about, but the music (orchestral sounds) fits _perfectly_ into the game!

Gameplay -- (9/10)
Now, the gameplay, the most crucial thing in such a game. Fortunatly, SM doesn't fail here. It's easy to learn, yet the possibilities are endless, giving you hundreds of thousands of strategical option. The game doesn't fail you in the actual combat either. The ability to cast into your units fights can shift odds greatly in your favor, while you have to expect the same when fighting the enemy wizards, so beware.

Replay Value -- (10/10)
Now, with the Random Map Generator (which works nicely, and gives out cool messages like ''dropping one player in the ocean'' or ''discarding perfect map'' *gg*), plus the map-editor, plus eMail-Gaming, you are set to put _far_ too much time into this game. ... To sum it up shortly :)

So in essence, I think this is really the shining star of TBS-games today. Granted, I focus on Multiplayer, and haven't really looked into the Campaign so far, but even with only that, this is crazily addictive. If you at least partially like turn-based-strategy, be sure to look into this!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03