Oh, and plenty of combat, both in the core story and in side missions.

Gameplay involves managing your people’s happiness, diplomacy with other factions, research, constructing building and applying upgrades. Age of Wonders can be a tad overwhelming though, especially if you’re a console player and didn’t play anything like this before. Perhaps it’s not an obvious match for consoles, but Stellaris has shown that it can successfully be done. With very diverse factions to choose from (ranging from robots to a race that rides around on dinosaurs), it does still tick that imaginative fantasy box – even though the factions also comfortably fit into existing genre tropes.ĭespite the change in setting, Planetfall doesn’t abandon the turn-based combat and 4X-inspired foundations of the series. Thematically, Planetfall abandons the fantasy-rich setting of the previous games somewhat, and instills the franchise with heavy sci-fi elements. A week in, I’m still wondering if that’s a good or a bad thing…. Successful franchises like Stellaris and Cities Skylines have both received console adaptations, but Planetfall is new in that it’s the first time that Xbox and PS4 owners are getting the game at the same time as their PC cousins. Formerly known mostly for their strategy titles that were exclusive to Windows, they’ve released RPGs in recent years (including the excellent Pillars of Eternity) and have also been dabbling more in the console domain. Paradox itself has been branching out in recent years as well.

It’s out for Playstation 4, PC and Xbox One – our review is based on the latter one. After the self-published Age of Wonders III, Paradox is handling publishing duties for the multiplatform release of Planetfall. Almost twenty years after their first game, Triumph has released Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

Age of wonders: planetfall tropes