In 2014 the studio Triumph lived up to its name by releasing Age of Wonders III – a wonderful global strategy game in fantasy style. The work turned out to be so strong that you could even pierce walls with it or hammer in nails. Imagine the surprise of fans when at the last E3 they announced that the series was turning from a fairy tale about elves and magicians into a space opera. No more magic – instead telepathy, infections and computer hacking. Necromancers were replaced by cyborgs, draconians – creatures resembling mollusks from "District No. 9", and the dwarves were dressed in spacesuits. Is such an aesthetic whim justified??

For faith, the king and purulent mutations

Externally new Age of Wonders it’s really unrecognizable – now atomic pepelats fly here and laser tyrannosaurs run around. But the foundations are the same: we are still laying the capital, improving it with useful buildings and growing the state in breadth, capturing resource-rich areas. And if the neighbor is unhappy, he asked for it himself. We issue him an ultimatum, backed up by “casus belli” points, and prepare the troops. Armies, as in the previous strategy Triumph, are groups of five squads led by a hero. It seems like nothing serious, but if you gather a couple of such gangs on neighboring cells, you can kick anyone.

The chance of victory is especially high with veterans: each of them becomes more powerful due to the experience from won battles and new weapons added in the editor. Change regular cartridges to armor-piercing ones, and standard grenades to plasma ones – and check the result in a turn-based battle. The hero inventory is updated in the same way. In a word, at the forefront is the well-forgotten old. Unless in Planetfall paid much more attention to shooting, relegating melee attacks to the background. It’s understandable: why do you need a sword when you have a blaster at hand??

Maintaining morale in a colony is not difficult. Purchasing units takes energy – an analogue of currency, and rearmament consumes cosmite – the only rare mineral in the game universe. Add points of production, food, science, diplomacy – you have all the resources you need to thrive. True, to learn how to properly manage them, you will need several trial batches. Otherwise, there is a high risk of releasing cosmite on several ninjas, who will be dismantled for organs in the first battle.

The developers didn’t bother with the plot intrigue: they say, a terrible catastrophe tore the Star Union into pieces, after which it’s every man for himself. People from the Vanguard and their former slaves, the intelligent insects Ker’ko, are trying to restore order in the universe. Gangsters from the Syndicate sort things out with the Amazons, tech-savvy short dwars and a race of robotic constructs. The battlefield is planets on the outskirts of the galaxy, keeping traces of past greatness – either the ruins of former civilizations, or the villages of paragons, who once ruled the affairs of the empire.

As is customary in the genre, each side has its own characteristics. The constructs, for example, are sensitive to hacking and electrical attacks, but they are hinged on infection and hypnosis, they can revive fallen cyborgs, and their snipers are damn strong entry-level attacking fighters. Dvara, on the contrary, have become skilled in defense.

In addition to race, https://sistersitescasino.co.uk/casinos/swift-casino/ the ideology of its commander is very important: in the new “Age of Miracles” there is a choice of policies that open up unique technological branches. Let’s say, xenogenetics are no strangers to microbes—they strengthen themselves and weaken others. And the Prometheans sleep and dream of how to burn and bomb everything around, and even build a giant robot.

However, it’s one thing to know about your advantages, and another thing to use them effectively. Suddenly there are problems with this: let the employees Triumph Studios nothing was invented, learn the basics Planetfall more difficult than understanding any of the genre’s recent hits. Even if you ate the dog on 4X strategies, the new Age of Wonders will still sit you down at your desk for a few hours. Learn technologies to understand which branch opens advanced soldiers, and which one opens purulent mutations of xenogenetics. Understand the management of cities and resources, delve into diplomacy, and through trial and error find out what the consequences of certain actions towards small factions are. What did you think? The path to the stars lies through thorns.

Mixed style

At first the fourth Age of Wonders really seems confused. But this shadow on the fence was created by borrowed and simplified developments from other series. We saw a similar development of settlements, the level of satisfaction of citizens, the distribution of food and production, as well as two trees of development – scientific and cultural – in Sid Meier’s Civilization. Yes, and the space setting was already in Beyond Earth. Only in “Civilization” the interaction with the population is more diverse, the management of cities is much more subtle, and discoveries have more global consequences.

If, when looking at the diplomacy system, areas with anomalies and tasks of neutral factions, you did not remember Endless Legend, you just haven’t played Endless Legend. Planetfall in many ways similar to the creation of the French Amplitude, however, there are deeper differences between races, a more interesting world (just the change of seasons is worth it)!), and small nations are not so inundated with orders that at some point it is easier to start a war with the customer than to take on his next whim.

What else should be borrowed from a competitor five years ago is the clear development of science by era and simple, but at the same time varied leveling of heroes. However, take the employees Triumph these ideas would also be put into service, their fresh strategy would no longer be needed: why buy a parody when there is a unique original?

Well, the battles say hello to the last ones XCOM. As soon as you switch from the global map to the tactical one in order to pour the first number into the enemy, a familiar picture unfolds – with action points and morale, flanking, shelters that can be destroyed, one-time skills and the probability of a successful attack expressed as a percentage. 65% for point-blank shots are included. What is missing is the verticality of the levels and scope. But the inheritance from Age of Wonders III there was an unpleasant little thing – the game does not “cut” the damage from the squad, even if there is only one cripple left there. Therefore, there is no point in weakening the enemy – his units must be beaten to death immediately. Frankly speaking, this does not diversify the tactics.

What happens? The strategy targets those who are familiar with several similar works at once, but at the same time does not offer half of their advantages. But it weaves together diverse elements and a bunch of fantastic terms – hence the problems at the first acquaintance. That’s why advise Planetfall for beginners – the solution is so-so. But will long-time 4X connoisseurs enjoy it?? The question is what is needed.

Hey, why not "Commendable"?

Because we are talking about a global turn-based strategy that requires concentration and creative passion for tens of hours. If you had the same makings of a shooter-attraction, there would be no problems with the assessment. And what? The graphics are more or less decent, the design is decent, optimization has been done well, bugs are not noticeable – all the components of a successful release are in place. Why not have a blast? Only here is a special case.

Planetfall belongs to the amateur genre, where you rarely come across a timeless masterpiece, but it has more than enough picky fans. Therefore, changing the setting from fantasy to space is not enough for a complete blast – you need an innovative and bright idea that pulls the entire gameplay along with it. Any honest reviewer should certainly emphasize this feature, as if telling the audience: here is a reason to fork out money and forget about sleep for a while. How things are going with the artistic part is of secondary importance. But in the five years that have passed since the release Age of Wonders III, studio Triumph never created a cornerstone capable of taking on the burden of gamer demands. There is simply nothing to focus on.

There is no need to keep armies close to your possessions – any raiders can be dealt with by automatically recruited militia.

To reach the title of a good strategy, you need originality. A Planetfall resembles an exhibition of achievements of the genre: if you are familiar with the last three Civilization, Age of Wonders III, Endless Legend And XCOM 2, the new product will not give you any thrills. Rather, on the contrary, it will cause boredom in just a couple of games. No matter how much we would like to praise the authors of “The Age of Miracles” for the amount of work done, no miracles happened in 2019.

Pros: working organs were removed from the classics of the 2010s and transplanted into one body – it shows signs of life; good design; music on the level; Tactical battle locations are rarely repeated; to the series Age of Wonders for once, console adherents have been introduced.

Cons: not the most intuitive interface; sci-fi clichés; lack of originality in gameplay and mercilessness towards beginners.