Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

For the uninitiated, Age of Wonders is a turn-based strategy game series. Shadow Magic is a quasi-expansion pack/follow-up, which adds more races, better balancing, better magic and more features to the existing Age of Wonders 2 title. Age of Wonders 2 featured a host of improvements both in terms of graphics and in terms of gameplay balance over the original. Shadow Magic deals with complaints that Age of Wonders 2 was too difficult for beginners and provides plenty of new content for more experienced gamers.

Learning the ropes

One of the problems with Age of Wonders 2 was that it had a very steep learning curve. Shadow Magic introduces a comprehensive (although slightly patronizing) tutorial. This takes the shape of several levels of the campaign that walk you through the interface, manual combat and the basics of the game. This is essential for anyone new to the genre as the game features a great deal of depth and complexity, which really isn’t terribly easy to get straight into. Once you get the hang of things it does become more intuitive and this is where a basic tutorial really comes into its own. The tutorial here is presented in a rather too basic fashion as you follow wizard Simon through an early quest. Concepts such as movement points are described to you by explaining that although you can use magic to make Simon walk all day he will become tired and grouchy as a result. I found this to be a rather patronizing way of getting me into the game. It is also rather restrictive with the interface. You can only click on what it tells you to click on and when it says so. This means that if you explore the options on the interface you are often prevented from changing anything until it is time for that part of the interface to be explained to you.

Plenty of history

Once you get to grips with the interface you can start to get into the story. This is presented with a flashy opening movie and cut scenes introducing each of the scenarios in the campaign mode. The story follows three wizards Merlin, Julia and Meandor as they explore the Shadow Realm, which has suddenly appeared due to an inter-dimensional rift. This helps to gradually introduce the three new races (on top of the existing twelve) to the gamer. These are the Nomads, Syrons and Shadow Demons, all of which are now playable. The Syrons and Shadow Demons are the residents of the new Shadow Realm and as such are dark races. Any units entering the Shadow Realm, except these races, suffer from a shadow sickness that gradually drains their movement ability, attack and defensive abilities. The Nomads are a race always on the move that have the ability to pack up their town and shift the whole thing to a more hospitable area. The existing races get a bit of spit and polish as well with new units being added that fit in with the general feel of the races. The Undead, for example, get a necromancer whilst the elves get treemen. New structures are also available for the existing races to live in which give abilities suitable to each one.

Turn-based combat

A lot of turn-based strategy games shy away from combat, generally taking any control away from you and just calculating the outcome. Shadow Magic offers this type of combat but also allows for an interactive combat system. Manual battles allow you to take control of your army as you do battle. This allows you to move troops around interactively and to determine where to concentrate your forces. The battles are turn-based so the defending side moves first. You can then move each troop to fight or retreat or to attack a castle wall if you need to break in to attack your enemy. You can use your wizard to cast spells that help your army out, such as a hail of stones or lightning. You can use your projectile units to provide cover whilst you put your ground troops to work breaking into a stronghold - but beware, since your archers can hit your own ground troops if they get in the way. As you do battle you will start to notice the improvements that Triumph Studios have made to the title. The game is better balanced than before and all units have their own strengths and weaknesses. This makes battles more realistic and the production costs of units now relate more closely to their battle value.

Research and Development

As with any strategy game research is an integral part. Shadow Magic allows you to create units and structures based on the current state of your city. It’s pretty standard stuff with a wide variety of units available from peasant types to advanced archers and specialist swordsmen. A surprising variety of structures are also available, ranging from troop production facilities through temples and wizard towers. Sea units are also available for transporting your units around water-based levels. Magic is also researched by your wizard, who has a certain number of casting points and a certain number of research points each turn. You can choose to research several schools of magic so that the spells you learn suit your particular playing style. Spells available include war spells, transportation spells and healing spells. Diplomacy is also important in Shadow Magic, as you are able to ally yourself to other races in the game making you stronger and less vulnerable.

Music from the shadows

The sound and visuals of Shadow Magic is lifted more or less directly from Age of Wonders 2. This means that the 2D graphics are basically the same and the sound is basically the same. Both have been slightly tweaked, as with everything else in this title, but nothing has been majorly improved. That’s not to say that this is a bad thing. The 2D graphics are well detailed and colourful. The units are pretty small on screen but they are sufficiently detailed that you can tell what they are meant to be and they are well animated given their size. The sound is pretty standard fare for a strategy game and my advice would be to turn it off and put on a CD in the background. The sound isn’t terrible but it does get repetitive quickly, although this is a common thread in this genre of game.

Leave it in the shadows or something magic

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic will doubtless please fans of this series as it offers everything that previous titles have offered and more. The refined gameplay and additional units would be enough to sell most fans but the improved tutorial could be enough to attract new ones who were previously scared off. The game also adds a random map generator and a pretty comprehensive map editor so you will never be short of maps to play on, especially with the very active fan base this title already has. There’s depth here to keep hardened fans coming back to it for a long time yet and enough levels that they’ll never get bored. New fans should be able to get into this title with a control system that is simple enough once you’ve got the hang of it and that allows enough depth to play the game the way you want to.