Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (Windows)

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Description

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is a stand-alone sequel to Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne. Like its predecessors, it's all about turn-based strategy in a fantasy world.

In the campaign, a corrupt new empire led by the wizard Phobius, has launched an aggressive assault on the ancient races and all things magic. Meanwhile, an even greater evil in the form of hellish demons, breeds within its shadows. The wizard Merlin has been captured by the demons, but can still communicate with his old wizard friends. The player is cast as these wizards as they fight the human empire and the demons.

The main character is the Wizard, who most of the time stays in his wizard tower casting spells in his domain. He researches new spells and abilities and becomes more and more powerful as the game moves on.

One unique feature is the Simultaneous turns mode, where all players move their units at the same time. For those that like it old-school there's still a Classic turns mode.

The innovations and improvements compared to Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne are:

• Three new races.
• One new unit for each race, and all the old units has been balanced to make the races more equal.
• A third level, the Shadow world.
• Several new structures.
• Improved graphics.
• Improved AI.
• Random map generator.
• Better editor with modding tools and campaign editor.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "奇迹时代：暗影魔法" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
• "Age of Wonders: Магия Теней" -- Russian spelling
• "Age of Wonders: Magia Cienia" -- Polish title

Part of the Following Groups

• Age of Wonders series
• Fantasy Creatures: Dragons
• Game feature: Hexagonal map

User Reviews

The sad end of the AOW saga.	Technocrat (201)
Some changes and additions, good and bad. Still flawed but enjoyable, and may still stand out.	Cavalary (10805)
Best fantasy TBS there is	Grov (667)

Critic Reviews

Gameplanet	Sep 10, 2003		90
GamerDad	Apr 19, 2005		90
Game Vortex	2003	90 out of 100	90
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Nov, 2003		90
IGN	Jul 30, 2003	8.5 out of 10	85
4Players.de	Sep 30, 2003	84 out of 100	84
Jeuxvideo.com	Aug 28, 2003	16 out of 20	80
Joystick (French)	Sep, 2003	8 out of 10	80
Game Watcher	Sep 17, 2003	7.5 out of 10	75
Game Over Online	Sep 15, 2003	70 out of 100	70

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Trivia

References

In the description for the hero Ham Binger you can read the following :

His fame became an unpleasant weight in later years. Whole Halfling villages named their children Binger, or Ham, or some combination of the two. Ham disappeared centuries ago, but now and again, a Halfling named Ham appears, does good deeds, and heals a few wounds; and the legend spins up again. Sometimes there is more than one Ham, which gets terribly confusing, and whole towns have festivals or contests to determine who is the real Ham Binger.

This refers to a bug in AoW2, where you could end up with two Ham Bingers when playing the campaign. The bug was fixed in a patch.

Steven Woltering

Steven Woltering, credited for "Scenarios & Additional Design", was before he was hired by Triumph one of the fans hanging out in the AoW forums at HeavenGames. Among other things, he made the map "Rise of Kings" that came with patch 1.3.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Strategy Game of the Year

Related Web Sites

• Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (official website)
• Age of Wonders Heaven (The best and biggest fansite for all AoW games.)
• Gathering: Age of Wonders - Shadow Magic (The official site)