Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 5, 2013

  One of the best strategy games of all times if not the best. A turn based game that is nearly perfect at all levels. The game conquered my heart with its great ambiances and environments, magical songs, beautifully animated 2D units, great scenario, original playable races, badass characters, well-made dialogs and difficulty level. I consider this as the hardest strategy game that I have played. Custom scenarios were amazing and the editor tool was so easy to use. I ended up crating new maps although there were no one to play with. Imagine Warcraft III and Civilization IV combined.. No you don't need to imagine, because this game exists! Cat humanoids called Tigrans, out of this world creatures Syrons, Dragonians, Arabian and Turkish inspired people Nomads, arctic hobbits, evil bug like creations Shadow Demons... Even goblins had their own race... All these original races are so remarkable and unforgottable and playing with them is still fun and intense even after a total of ten years. Be whoever you want to be, add a character bio, put your photoshopped picture on it, create new heroes and lead them to fight... Fight aganst good or evil, it does not matter, because you don't always get to play with good leaders. Be an evil Elven wizard or be a heavenly good Orcish shaman. Summon beholders, elementals, dragons and crack the earth under their feet while you separate their army with your tornados. Go deep in the woods, find camps and ask them if they want to join you. If they answer "No" then kill all of them and take their money. Get ready for more adventure, visit old ruins that are full of zombies and skeletons, steal baby dragons from their mothers, hire a drunk Dwarven engineer from tavern to protect you and improve their fighting skills in arena. Explore sunken shipwrecks and kill pirates, or just simply be a pirate! Visit beautifully made underworld to catch some outlaws and find new allies, like Goblins, Tigrans and Dwarves. Trade spells with their leaders and expand your empire. Banish terrestrial beings from their homes and get extra money from it. Be a bad person for once in your life! They'll hate you, they'll talk about you and they'll fear you and your undead champions! Raze cities and loot them! Destroy empires and rise yours! Open the doors of engineering schools and buy some flame throwers and baloons to fly over the mountain. Order them to build up a tank for you! Move your army into the tank and raze enemy's wall and ruin their buildings over their head, because you know that they deserve it! Teleport to the Shadow world, exterminate all evil and good spirits! Stamp big insects, larvas and feel the beauty of this place. Help Syron giants and occupy demonic cities with their power. Enjoy the game, enjoy the gameplay, enoy the song, enjoy every step you make, every unit you kill and every hero you hire, every city you conquer, every mountain you climb, every cave you explore, every turn you make... Enjoy it!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2014

  I have to say, this game is the end all, be all for turn based strategy games for me. As a long time fan of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, as well as other less well received TBS games, this one continues to shine and take up space on my hard drive. This purchase marks the 3rd time that I've bought the game. One hard copy, once on GOG, and now the steam version, almost soley so that I can review this bad boy. First of all, forget the campaigns. Games like these were MADE for the random maps. The campaigns, while entertaining, are really just long tutorials to ready you for the random map generator, which is where this game shines. 12 races, multiple combinations of magi, and a multitude of play styles lay before you. That enemy city before you just a little too tough to take? Scorch their lands and transform them to deserts and watch their populace riot from their discontent at their new, inhospitable world. A mountainrange in your way? Level the terrain and march your troops across it, backdooring your opponent into new depths of discontent. That being said, play it with your friends to elevate this game to the height that it deserves. This is the ultimate multiplayer strategy game. Get your friends together and LAN this game. You won't regret it. After purchasing AOW III, I have to admit, while that game IS awesome, I still make time in my day to go back to Shadow Magic. It's well worth the time. Every fucking time. Stop reading this now and go buy this game. If you're a turn based strategy person, or just a strategy gamer at all, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Good luck, and may your wizard towers provide you all the spell range you require! Disclaimer: I have literally played hundreds (and I don't mean one or two) of hours of this game and expect to play hundreds more. Buy it. you won't regret it.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 20, 2013

  Insane fantasy 4x game with great multiplayer options!!! Random scenario generation and MODs make for tons of fun but beware, it's is quite difficult. Scales well to 1080p despite being ~12 years old.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 17, 2014

  This game is as fun as the old Heroes of Might & Magic series or Disciples. I think it's very underrated. Deserves much more popularity...
• gamedeal user

  Jan 17, 2014

  I would recommend anyone who enjoys turn based games to give Shadow Magic a shot. It is a of game that superficially seems rather simplistic with its movements and hex board, but upon closer inspection a plethora of various elements are revealed. This game can give several tactics, such as creating an amphibious army of dwarves, a flying army of leprechauns, and explosive goblins. The balance between unit production and economic policy focus is just right. The only downside that I could say about this game is the possibility that, due to how attacks and damage rolls are done, luck can ruin your day. That and heroes are arrow and bullet magnets because of how powerful they can be if they aren't restrained. Needless to say, these do not detract from the possibility of fielding an army of flying hobbits that can rain havoc and drop flaming meteors on fiendish skeletons. If that has any sort of appeal to you, pick this game up. And do note that there is a sequel, Age of Wonders 3, in the works.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 11, 2016

  A good game for those, like me, that have nostalgia for the series. However, I am uncertain if I would recommend this to a newcomer--while it is fun, there are certainly parts of it that grow stale, and there are probably better strategy games of this sort out there.
• Motherball

  Apr 9, 2023

  A beautiful and classic 4x. Some of the best unit diversity and music in any retro fantasy strategy game. Great customization and replayability. I personally prefer this title to AoW:3 or Planetfall in many ways. Lots of nostalgia. Reminds me a lot of Lords of Magic, which was my first 4x game outside of Civ back in the 1990's.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 18, 2013

  A Civilization type game with Tolkeinesque races, such as Elves, Dwarves, Undead etc. Despite being ten years old, I still find it to be the best of its type. Very similar to most other turn based strategy games, although the difficulty can be a barrier for new players. You control a race, build\control cities, produce armies and buildings and spend time either allying or destroying other races. You control a Wizard on the map who acts as the races leader. Should the Wizard die without any means to revive, your race is defeated. You can take over mines, mills, farms etc on the world map to give you gold per turn. You can use that gold to build and train units, however you have to be aware of how much your spending. Once you've trained units, you also need to pay them a wage per turn. If you don't have enough gold, they may get disgruntled and leave you - possible joining up with your foes! I like this because, rather than just duking it out on a battlefield, you can work on removing your enemies resources and forcing his army to dwindle without ever facing open war. Bad points: the AI often makes nonsense moves, and the diplomacy towards AI is irrational - often they will offer an alliance, before instantly breaking it and declaring war against you. The Steam edition doesn't come with the MASSIVE manual that came with the CD version, so it's worth flicking through an online wiki to get to grips with the game. A tutorial is there, but it's pretty brief. Best played against humans. There's online options, as well as a play by email function which I prefer and tend to be quite active on. The community is still going strong after so long, and maps can still be downloaded. Age of Wonders III is due in 2014, so if this looks too dated for you, might be worth holding out for that.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 29, 2022

  I've been playing this since it released back in 2003. Still one of the best strategy games out there.
• gamedeal user

  May 11, 2020

  It's an old game. The turns take forever. But I love this game. I like it better than AOW III, but then again I've played this so many years (I love making maps with the editor), I'm a bit biased.