Analysis of Age of Wonders: Planetfall

We have spent a few days well settled in our Takamikura enjoying and squeezing the most of the new game from Triumph Studios and Paradox Interactive that comes to our hands thanks to Koch Media. Today we bring you the review of Age of Wonder: Planetfall the latest installment of the famous Age of Wonder saga that this time leaves the medieval setting to take us directly to the stars.

For those of you who do not know this saga, it is a strategy game that mixes concepts from other referents of the genre as settled as Age of Empires, Civilization or the Total War saga that has managed to give a new boost to this type of games that have such a faithful base and that does not stop adding followers thanks to games like the one we are talking about.

A perfectly oiled hybrid

The main difference we found in our analysis of Age of Wonder: Planetfall is its mix between the 4X style of map eXploration, territorial eXpansion, resource exploitation and enemy eXtermination with its more leisurely and turn-based XCOM or Fire Emblem style combat. By mixing these two playable concepts we will have two distinct maps, the main one from which we will manage everything and the combat one.

The main map that we will find is typical of 4X games, from which we will expand our city, create an army to colonize territories and investigate new technologies to improve our troops and buildings and we will explore the map.

Fighting for the galaxy

The combat zone, on the other hand, can vary, depending on the defenses that we build in our cities or colonies. The system that we find here has reminded us a lot of what we saw in XCOM, with turns to move around a map divided into squares and action points to perform movements such as shooting, take cover or place guards to kill our enemies when they cross our area. This aspect is one of the least convincing since the use of cover has not seemed very useful to us.

One option that we will have to take into account to take advantage in combat is the customization of our troops and heroes. We will access a menu that has reminded us quite a bit of those seen in RPGs, which gives an extra touch of depth and versatility to give an extra to any of our troops and achieve victory for our army. This aspect is even more determinant in our heroes, since a good development will make us learn new skills that will make our life and conquest easier.

In Age of Wonder: Planetfall we will be able to choose between six factions and our abilities will be linked to this choice, being able to create synergies between our heroes that will give us an advantage over our enemies.

Our conquest campaign

Something we want to highlight in our analysis of Age of Wonder: Planetfall about it is that it has a story mode, something that is not usual in this type of games that focus more on individual games or online. This campaign is divided into small episodes that can cover up to 5-6 hours each. In addition, the story it tells us is very entertaining and interesting. It tells us how the old empire that dominated the galaxy has fallen and we will have to put peace and build a new empire. This has the positive aspect that we can enjoy many hours of campaign but also that we will have to repeat several processes that can be somewhat heavy, to alleviate this aspect we will find different challenges in each campaign that will give a differentiating touch.

Get the victory

As usual in this type of game, the online aspect is very careful. We all like to play against friends and strangers to measure ourselves on the battlefield and see who is the best. In the multiplayer campaigns we can find three modes depending on what we want to play and our possibilities. We will have the normal online skirmish to play against our opponent until we exterminate him. The hotseat mode we can play from the same device more than one person at a time and finally we have an asynchronous mode so that each player can take his turn when it suits him best regardless of our opponent. In addition, it has support for mods that is an increasingly indispensable addition and that extends the life of the games for many more hours.

Graphics and sound

The artwork in this new edition of Age of Wonder gives a radical twist to what we have seen in previous installments. This new approach feels great and, although we spend little time in space and focus the action on different planets, the environments that we will find are very careful, with vegetation or very different species depending on where we are. The soundtrack is also very careful, with themes that accompany very well to the situations that we find and do not try to hog the limelight of what is happening. In addition, it comes fully dubbed into Spanish, a fundamental aspect to thoroughly enjoy a game of these characteristics and with a steep learning curve. We have had the opportunity to try the PS4 version and they have managed to make this genre so predominant on PC and so linked to the keyboard and mouse is very well integrated and adapted to play with gamepad. Has anyone named Arkadia?

To conclude

In conclusion of our analysis of Age Of Wonder: Planetfall is that we found it a very remarkable game, which knows how to mix very successfully two very different aspects and offers a very entertaining story. For those who are lovers of this genre will enjoy it thanks to all these aspects and for those who come new and overcome the learning process will find a very deep game with many possibilities.

Strong points

• Hybrid very well adapted between 4X type gameplay and turn-based combat.
• Multiplayer very careful and with many options
• Very well translated to consoles
• All texts are in Spanish

Aspects to improve

• Campaign somewhat repetitive
• Somewhat high learning curve at the beginning

This review has been made possible thanks to a copy provided by Koch Media