I’m completely new to 4x games. I’ve always wanted to get into them, but the idea of it has been overwhelming and intimidating to me. I read that AOW4 is somewhat friendly to newbies. I went all in and purchased the game with the Season Pass 1 while it was on sale some time back. I tried the game then, but felt like I was drowning in information. AOW4 is, by far, the most complex game I’ve ever played, coming from a more traditional RPG, JRPG and Adventure gaming background (Elden Ring, DQXI S, Hogwarts Legacy, etc.), and also being big into cozy games (ACNH, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Coral Island, etc.). The developers have truly done a marvelous job, though, of providing depths of information on every single mechanic, linked within drill-down screens. You could spend untold hours just reading about mechanics and lore.

I really enjoyed the world, graphics, and *idea* of the game though, and I’m a sucker for magic systems, so I kept wanting to revisit it, which I did this week. I’m very glad! I went in with a new mindset: “Don’t try to understand everything. Bask in the confusion for your first playthroughs.” :D This mentality helped me immensely, and allowed me to relax, as if I was just tinkering with a MASSIVE board game and its thousands of pieces. I was able to just enjoy my utter fascination with the AOW4 world. The name of the game is doubly fitting, in that sense, as it’s sparked for me a sense of wonder, and more of a willingness to just “try” something out and “see what happens.” Rather than being stressed out, as in my first attempt several months ago, I found myself just slowly tinkering with new things, without fear of consequences. It’s just a game, after all. After this very fun second try, I took a break and watched several YouTube videos for beginners, which has proved helpful, as I recognized terms and systems and proudly found that I had learned more than I’d realized during my second attempt in the game.

I’m so eager for more that I purchased the Season Pass 2, to double-down on my plans to really get into AOW4. It’s clear that the developers are extremely passionate and dedicated to their fan base, so I wanted to both support them, and also know that I have every single bit of available content at my disposal for at least the next year. It seems to me that this is a great game to play while watching TV, or listening to an audiobook or podcast, if you’re not wanting to take it too seriously, and open to simply fiddling around and learning slowly. Or, it’s a fantastic game for hardcore 4x enthusiasts, as I have seen many people on forums noting their 1000+ hour playtimes.

I remain, in theory, totally overwhelmed by all this game has to offer. However, I’m returning to AOW4 with a more grounded and realistic mindset, that it may take months and hundreds of hours to understand everything, and—this is key for me to remember—that’s part of the fun! So the “overwhelm” is now “overwhelmed, but in a good way.” My intention is to play AOW4 alongside my RPG and cozy games, snagging a few hours here and there to continue learning and exploring, so that I retain the relaxed “exploratory wonder” vibe I’m seeking out with this genre.

Also to note, the game works beautifully on my Steam Deck OLED. Only slight oddity was the launcher; other than that, the design and controls for the Deck have been flawless for me. During the setup (character and world creation) screens, I kept the settings on Medium, as I was getting frame stutters with anything higher. I found that Medium settings, in the world, made my characters and map look a little too blurry for my taste. So, I the turned everything up to Ultra, once I was in the world, and it looks magnificent. I can’t speak to later game stages, as to whether Ultra will hold up, as I’m assuming there’s less going on in my map right now, being a noob and all. :)

Edits: Grammar, spelling, punctuation. :D

The Game itself is a very good tactical turn based game. It combines a campaign map with turn based battles. You can create your own civilization with its ruler and heroes, and play as the fantasy (or steam-punk) civilization you always wanted.

But I have some bigger issues with this game:

First off, since the last big update, the game has a tendency to crash on the campaign map. Which is really annoying, but dealbreaker for me is, that it also corrupts saves, so you cannot continue where it crashed. Especially annoying when you just fought a big battle and then lose all your progress.

Second is, that yes - you can create different civs - but in the end, they all play very similar. You always want to rush your city cap and just build as many armies as possible. Build wide, claim as much territory as possible. That's the strategy. The only difference is how your units look and what tomes you unlock. To be fair, some of the final tomes are very unique, but it takes a very long time till you get there and most of the game is already over by that point.

Third, the campaign map itself. You notice it is randomly generated. It's a combination of biomes with some features in it and some randomly placed ancient wonders. Every map looks similar. Sometimes it has more forest and sometimes more sand, but in the end, there are no "unique" landmarks or sights. After a few games, you have seen everything. Which would be okay, but one of the key points of this game is to go out and explore the map... which is just not interesting.

So, as of January 2025 Age of Wonders 4 is in a genuinely incredible state, both as a four-ex strategy game and as a turn-based tactical army battler. They've really put a lot of effort into tightening up everything and gotten huge value from doing that; this is not merely a high-fantasy build-a-bear anymore, it is also one of the most entertaining and complex strategy games in existence right now.

This game destroys EVERYTHING that you want to do in real life for the next 20+ hours the moment you start it.
So beware, if you are not on vacation, don't even attempt to LOOK at the "Play" button.

10/10

Would create 30 more factions with different traits anytime again.

Please, let me go.

Pretty good

The game has a lot of fun customization and the actual combat is deep enough to be satisfying, but simple enough to be accessible. It's just a very well crafted game. My only gripe is that it falls into the trap of endless, expensive DLC that a lot of games of this nature fall into.

It crashes every day at various times and situations but it never misses crashing at least once. The most unstable game I've ever played and totally unlike previous versions. They broke it and no one is fixing it!

It brought nostalgia of playing Heroes 3 for the first time, when everything was new. This, completely scratched an itch and craving for Heroes like game but more modernized. Thank you Developer Team!

Uses a launcher. Requires an external account for multiplayer. Some DLCs are only available through bundles.

It's worse then original Age of Wonders, Shadow magic or Age of Wonder 3, but it's still pretty solid game. Wish they would spend more time improving AI rather then adding new races