Age of Wonders | 
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| From: Gathering of Developers
Category: Video Games
List Price: $49.95
Buy New: $18.95
You Save: $31.00 (62%)
New (6) Used (8) from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 11330
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 95
ESRB: Everyone
Media: CD-ROM
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 7.7 x 1.6
MPN: 2020541
Model: 2020541
UPC: 663593110114
EAN: 0663593110114
ASIN: B00002CF8Q
Release Date: November 12, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Enter a world of strategy and conquest! You'll go on an adventure and explore different role-playing elements. Conquer your enemies using stealth, deception, magic, brute force, and diplomacy.
Amazon.com Review
Berry gathering and cave painting may best illustrate the real story of mankind's formative years, but making more room by slaughtering a few of the earth's previous inhabitants ensures a far better game in Age of Wonders. This addictive, turn-based strategy game can keep you immersed for hours in a Tolkeinesque, high-fantasy earth that just begs to be conquered. Age of Wonders is not overly original in any aspect of its game play, offering a familiar interface and a proven formula that emphasizes a town-based resource-management system, mana-based magic, and unit-based combat, with the always satisfying end goal of conquering your enemies. Here, the resource-management system is somewhat more simplistic than others found in games of this genre, drawing almost all of its depth from town size and the acquisition of mines and farms. The combat portion of the game is easily grasped, if sometimes silly, and the magical model found here is of the "bolts from above" variety, straight out of Master of Magic, which allows you to personally influence individual battles or plague your opponents from across the globe. At first glance, it would appear that Age of Wonders is nothing more than the classic Master of Magic's dim-witted younger brother. This unfavorable characterization is avoided by the enticing nature of the plot and a diversity of play options that allow gamers to play in up to 22 different scenarios, with 12 engaging races to choose from and a campaign feature that is more versatile than a choose-your-own-adventure novel. The campaign feature allows you to try and save humanity or destroy it, with many possible means to those two ends, and the scenarios range from very specific objectives to the classic crush-your-enemies free-for-all. There's nothing new here, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. You can definitely still get lost in this latest offering of a classic theme. --Joshua Coombs Pros: - Versatile campaign feature and numerous scenario options allow for great replayability
- Well designed for multiple players and Internet games
- Rich plot provides excellent backdrop and inspires play
Cons: - Mediocre graphics
- Simplistic control of town economy
- Weak sound
Amazon.com Product Description
Welcome to the Age of Wonders, once a time of magic and peace. An age swept into the ravaging gale of chaos by the arrival of a single, uninvited race: the Humans. The fragile balance that existed between the ancient races--Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other--has changed into a struggle for power and survival in the wake of the turmoil the Humans have brought to the land. Prepare for an adventure where you will uncover wondrous ancient artifacts, awesome magical power, and the secrets of a shattered empire. Ally with the forces of light or darkness to determine the fate of the earth in the Age of Wonders. Age of Wonders is a strategy game in development by Triumph Studios and Epic MegaGames and is being published by The Gathering of Developers. The setting is a rich fantasy world where magic and primitive technology coexist. Age of Wonders lets you utilize hundreds of fantasy units, heroes, items, and spells to overcome your opponents in strategic and tactical fantasy warfare. Age of Wonders also incorporates role playing and adventure elements, with many mysterious places to explore and a diverse array of characters to encounter. Play the game in a captivating nonlinear single-player campaign or with friends. In the single-player game, your decisions influence the outcome of the entire fantasy realm. The game features an exciting magic system, including spell research and more than 100 spells spread over seven spheres of magic. You can even hand tailor your heroes as they grow in experience and power. This software is a native Windows application with DirectX support, and it runs in either a window or full screen. Other features include a point-and-click interface with tool tips and online help; DirectPlay and Play-by-email (PBEM) support for multiple players on a single PC (or over Internet, LAN, modem, or direct connection); a choice of Round Robin or Simultaneous turn schemes for multiplayer games (simultaneous turns greatly speed up multiplayer games!); and a rich, orchestral soundtrack and digitized sound effects.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 One of the greatest classics September 9, 2008
This game was released in 1999 and here it is 2008 and I still find myself playing this game often. I even have age of wonders 2, yet I still play this way more than AOW 2. I even have a friend that comes over every-so-often and all we do is play AOW together for hours.
The reason for this is simple, it is one of the greatest fantasy, turned-based strategy games of all time!
First of all the single-player campaign is great. You chose between the Keepers (good guys) and the cult of storms (bad guys). From there you chose your hero's race and then as your leaders and heroes level up you chose what abilities they get, and if you use the Dragonlance mod like I do, you can really get good heroes with some uber abilities(ie flying and physical immunity), and then (mod and non-campaign only) you have dragon heroes, the granddaddy of them all. Anyways as the campaign progresses you have the option to chose your path. Your ultimate goal is to reach the valley of wonders, but the way you chose to get there is up to you and affects much - what heroes you pick up, what allies you will have in the final battle and what artifacts you pick up and what troops you have at the end. All in all it leads up to a very nice, and hard, final battle against an opponent on the hardest difficulty. Good luck, you will need it, cause unless you played the campaign up to that point right you will not do well. That is an element that I love, if you didn't do right in the beginning you either cannot win the final battle, or it will be immensely hard.
As for the rest it comes with a great map editor, which I use to a great degree to make my own maps...which can take a couple days, even weeks to win. There are twelve playable races (though not all races are on every map) Each race is truly unique. For example the Dwarves have some amazing machines. They use a cannon while everyone else uses a normal catapult to destroy walls(save the undead who throw massive skulls at walls from a catapult made of bone with a wicked looking skull at front).
It is also balanced quite a bit. For example, the undead all regenerate their health, but all other race's priests have abilities that do massive damage to undead. Heroes can even learn this ability.
You can also chose between different spheres of magic, but if you chose one you cannot chose its opposite. For example, if you chose fire magic you cannot use water magic. The spells in the game are really where the fun is. Nothing like seeing your opponent standing there and then water spews up under him and sends him high in the air and then lets him drop to the ground, killing him or hurting him badly, or seeing massive amounts of black-boned daemons flying through the sky as your enemies quake in fear.
All in all, a terrific game. While it cannot compare in terms of graphics to any of today's games it still possess that charm and re-playability that I love. It has been out since 1999 and I have owned it for many years and still don't tire of playing it.
Spiritual Heir to MOM September 26, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This game carries on the tradition of Master of Magic and Master of Orion II perfectly. If you like turn based strategy then you will love this game. Even after all this time it still holds up and still has a place on my hard drive.
The great thing about the game it lets you play in two modes. You can choose to have the battles decided in quick combat which is similar to Civilization games where you are just in charge of choosing what units to build and sending them off to battle. You can also choose the strategic combat mode where every battle is fought on the strategic map and you take control of every unit.
If you are a fan of turn based strategy and don't mind a game with older graphics, then I would highly recommend this game.
Excellent storyline August 20, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While it is true that this title borrows heavily from many others, there are some differences. First, a great story behind the campains that gives you some insight and tips on the upcoming mission. Excellent (IMO) characterization of the main hero of the story, which evolves as the campain unfolds. There are abilities beyond regular Leadership/Spell casting/Markmanship that can give you competitive edge (my favorites are Domination/Charm). As the campaing progresses, the features come into play more and more (e.g. on early stages ruin exploration are somewhat hindering speed, whereas on later stages artifacts/rescued troops can play significant roles).
Overall, very involving (and time-consuming :-)
Great for fantasy fans everywhere. August 17, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're into the whole "middle-earth" atmosphere (like me), then you're sure to love this strategy game. In addition to a myriad of scenarios and campaign options, this game boasts a wonderful, "Tolkeinite" style story (complete with briefings and journal entries to urge the plot along) and race/character descriptions that anyone who is a little obsessive should love. It's also a game for people who aren't strategy game pros because it's not that hard to master and anyone with some common sense could figure it out. I personally love the often complex maps on which the scenarios/campaigns are played on. The gameplay is quite fun with it's alternating turns and automatic/tactical battle options. Just an overall neat game. P.S. The music is lovely, too!
 Transparent, short lived gameplay June 19, 2003
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
I found this game to be FAR to obvious. The races have merely a percentage of a difference between them. The game has zero variety. Play it for an hour . . . and then you'll see how it will ALWAYS play. Boring.
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