Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Ignore the reviews saying that it "forces" a 3rd party account. Those poor souls just lack basic reading comprehension. Creating an account is entirely optional and the skip button is in the top right when it asks.

I should have written this reivew a long time ago. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a great game. A interesting twist on Age of Wonders with is new Science Fiction setting (with some more fantastical elements like Psionics.)
It is a game that still looks great in my book. One of the best looking 4x games still in 2025. Has a lot of interesting faction. And if you want Age of Wonders, but a bit more directed. A bit more constrained then Age of Wonder 4, then this is a good option. The two games play diffrent enough that I find this game still interesing even if I like Age of Wonders 4 to. So if you missed it, get it! The very fact that I when back to this after Age of Wonders 4 should show that this is still a strong game. And I love Age of Wonder 4!
(Oh and at this current time there is a lot of chines reivew bombing of this game. Has nothing to do with the game. Just hate directed at the published of this game. Should mean they own the game however if they are leaving reivews. So cool... Maybe they should go and play game instead and become a bit more happy.)

After trying AoW 3 and 4, I can firmly say that this is the best one of the three. The maps all feel very different from each other, I always get the feeling that every city is unique, The combinations for race and secret tech give place to very interesting playstiles, and your troops feel endlessly customizable with the addition of mods. After playing for a while the other AoW games, I felt satisfied with them, but I never had the urge to someday return to play a game, unlike what I feel with this one from time to time.

This game is really fun to play, even though it took me long time to invest the right time into it, to understand my ways.
You dont need any mods, its rich of story and the turn based fights are very fun.
I like the different approaches of the different races and their style to win... or loose the game :-)
In a sale its pretty cheap to grab and it will grant you alot of hours of fun.
One point feels really cool and remind me on the AOW series the most - levening up the heroes and their equipment! Its amazing to see how they get stronger and attain an enhanced playstyle with a developing skilltree.
Thumbs up, you cant really fail on this one.

Here's the bullet point for the less patient people:
Positive:
- A lot of diversity, thanks to units having 3x mod slots and thanks to the SciFi setting there is a lot of options ranging from firepower to otherworldly things with waaaay too many teeth, melee, range and "magic" is strong and you will need to adapt your positioning when facing the different factions.
- On top of the already diverse enough roster, there is a sub faction mechanic that will unlock special "spells", units, equipement for your troop and commanders while also allowing for even more diverse playstyles: from the lunatics that trapped sentients Godlike spirits into computers to the slightly pyromaniac
- The theme is great, it's an actual SciFi game, there's a bit of cliché factions but there's also things that are a lot more inspired: the genetically spliced Human sized anthro rabbit that are wearing exo-armours while also rocking a desperado style pair of handguns/vibe is neat, the former "pleasure bots" that revolted and can "seduce" enemies are comical, etc...
- This is an actual 4x game, military and combat isn't added in the game as an afterthought and/or to tick a box on a checklist for the marketing department, this isn't a CIV or EndlessXXX that are economy games pretending to have "combats", thanks to the SciFi setting some fights are quite close to Xcom too (including the 95% chance to hit that not only miss but can fumble)
- The automatic save feature won't break your immersion, even in multiplayer and allow for a seamless experience
- The music have all the longing synth and the beep and boop that any SciFi game should have, so is the artwork
- It's turn based, even the combats meaning that it's usually less stressful and can even be relaxing at time, the game even have a function for the IA to play your army so you can just observe the firework
- Every technology come with a side of lore that happen to be fully voiced, it's a nice touch
Negative:
- On the graphic side, the game is decent looking but the animations are very stiff and can be underwhelming: tanks and larger constructs don't have much weight when firing which can be disappointing since those units are very late game and represent an achievement to field, obviously Triumph do not have the same budget to play with than other studios yet it's a reoccurring problem in their titles (yes, even in Age of Wonders 4)
- You WILL desync in multiplayer, you WILL have to re-observe a battle that was 95% done
- The Age of Wonders community is a bunch of princess that want to get a fantasy game over and over and over again, they manifested it pretty vividly, sometimes in a cruel fashion towards the devs, this also affected the bottom line of Paradox/Triumph, meaning that this game got abandoned and swept under the rug very quickly, which is a shame on everyone involved in this debacle
- Paradox have a nasty habit of letting their political opinion seep into the media they are touching, which can range from mildly annoying to very frustrating if you're playing video games to relax, expect to get lectured about "the good guys" and "the bad guys"
- The usual semi-unavoidable janks and quirks of 4x/Grand strategy games, (usually quite discreet in this title but immersion breaking enough to be aggravating when it happen)
Imagine this: You are some form of commander for the vanguard of the Human race in the far future, you have been send to expand the territory and/or protect the border of an almost Star Trek like Human civilisation in the stars, you were successful at it and won your campaign and now you and your men are coming back home to be celebrated but travelling in space is a slow process, when you arrive home the apocalypse happened, in fact almost all of the apocalypses roughly happened at the same time: Skynet, Starship Trooper, the Tyranids, the Necrons, The Daleks, Irobot, Sillage, The virtual Endless, The Incal AND the Meta Barons, Shodan AND the Many, VIRUS, etc...
What now? well you could give up or you could try to navigate this new landscape, rebuild what can be rebuild, assimilate, mutate, modify, ally, back-stab, etc... have fun!
This is one of the many different scenario that this game have to offer, there's many factions/race in this game, from the I-cannot-believe-this-is-not-dark-eldars space slavers to the T-rex-riding-giant-amazonian-of-chocolate-complexion without forgetting the usual space wizards that have pondered the abyss long enough to become part of it.
The setting is bleak but haven't lost its sense of humour, it's dry and on the gallows side but it's not too cynical.
This game had a lot of potential and was cut short before reaching its prime, it somehow fit the setting of post-apocalyptic SciFi rather well which is a delicate enough irony for me to ignore, it can be janky and preachy at times, if you convince your friends to play this game it will be worth your time.
I also strongly suggest you to install those mods, they only elevate the experience:
- Expanded Arsenal
- Playable factions
- More hero skills
- More hero points
- Research rescaled

This game may not be to everyone's taste due to its exotic mix of fantasy and sci-fi.
The scenarios are varied, as are the units and hero developments, though some elements feel a bit unbalanced.
The story is rather meager, but the empire development is all the more exciting and motivating. The ability to make new developments and build up your empire gives the game significant replay value.
The learning curve is relatively high at first, but you quickly grasp the essentials (thanks also to the wiki). The difficulty level is moderate for turn-based games, though creating your own AIs, for instance, can make it very challenging.
If you are looking for a turn-based game with construction and research along with separate combat mechanics, this game will serve you well.

After 100 hours of both games I can say I much prefer Planetfall than Age of Wonders 4. There are so much way to customize each separated unit in your army and it's quite fast and painless to do so. The only downside of this game is the outdated UI and UX.