Age of Wonders: Planetfall

For console owners, Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a rare treat. It’s not only a 4X strategy game that they can play from the comfort of their couch, it’s a bloody good one at that. It doesn’t do the best job of getting players up to speed, but once they have everything figured out they’re in for what is perhaps the best strategy experience currently available on console. It just requires a little bit of patience and persistence to work through a confusing first few hours. After that, there’s little to disappoint those seeking to display their colony-building prowess.

With Age Of Wonders: Planetfall (and I’m using its full name to underline the fact that its title doesn’t do any favours in dispelling the ‘generic SF’ vibe), I found the opposite - a glimmering space crystal, including some great story elements, buried under a patina of lowest-common-denominator grime. A lovely bone, full of marrow, specially formulated for growing ogres. Don’t make the mistake I nearly made and disregard it: if you enjoy the tactical and strategic game styles it draws from, you’ll find a game that doesn’t go out of its way to innovate on either front, but one that performs a...

Despite concerns with the shift in setting, Age of Wonders: Planetfall presents a fun, 4X-style turn-based strategy experience. It's already stellar combat is bolstered by some solid diplomatic options, excellent race design and well-designed environments.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall injects fast-paced, tactical fun into the 4X's aging conquest model.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a dazzling, slick, diverse 4X with snappy and exciting turn-based combat and a story I was always eager to discover more of. My biggest concern is that when I finish the last couple faction stories I'll feel like I'm done with it altogether. The randomized maps haven’t convinced me they have enough going on to keep me coming back for hundreds more turns. But even if that's the case, it's an experience I can already recommend highly. I guess you could say I've Planet-fallen for it.

Triumph Studios brings two great genres together once again.

Homeworld bound.

Age Of Wonders Planetfall is a stellar strategy title. It’s easy to learn but is deliciously complex enough for strategy fans to sink their teeth into. It’s deep, well-balanced, and loaded with content. The number of well-thought-out systems it contains is jaw-dropping and they intertwine incredibly well. From its common sense economics, intricate diplomacy, and tactically deep combat.

A complex strategy game with some severe accessibility issues, especially on consoles, but give it a chance and it’s a rewarding and deep sci-fi experience.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a polished, gigantic, and complex sci-fi strategy game. It has loads of different features, factions, and quests, and there's enough content to keep players active for weeks, months, probably years. But while the possibility of such a deep well may be alluring to 4X fans, it's a bad fit for the rest of us working-class citizens. If you've got time to spare, Planetfall has more than enough intricacy to keep you occupied, but if you're someone without a lot of free time, the game's demanding pace, meandering tasks, and compulsory conflicts will prove to be more frus...

In this modern age of game design, genre-melding has become a gimmick critics and consumers alike can all get behind. ”What if this game I loved could play a little like this other game I loved?” The savviest devs swoop in with an answer that changes the way we look at landmark games from then on. Others manage to nail the concept on the surface, yet still fail to be remarkable. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is the latter.

2019 has been a banner year for strategy games, with critical and commercial successes like Total War: Three Kingdoms and Fire Emblem: Three Houses raising the bar for the genre. Age of Wonders: Planetfall, while not quite reaching that mark, is an enjoyable game in its own right.