Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 8 - Part 1

Finally starting to post more Age of Wonders videos; the start of an Elven fight against the Undead! Let's get back on track with all this stuff shall we?

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== PC Game Review -- Dungeon Siege - Action RPG - 7/10 ===

What Are We Reviewing?
This is a game dear to my heart as one of the older games I got myself into back in my younger years. This game is the original Dungeon Siege developed by Gas Powered Games back in 2002. So keep in mind that I'm reviewing a game from a while ago by how it holds up (in my opinion) by today's standards on today's technology.


Gameplay:
As an action RPG game, you start as a tiny character and build your way up through combat and experience gaining great power and equipment along the way. Dungeon Siege differentiates itself from games like Diablo by having a party system of up to 8 characters. Each character can level up in different skills including Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic, and Nature Magic. In this game, the way experience works is that experiences is gained each time an enemy is hit by the character, so in theory... a single character would have tons more experience than a party of 8 due to being the only character hitting all the targets would generate much more experience on one character. Unfortunately other than the spells which I believe have a max scaling to their skill level, melee and ranged attacks seem to be unaffected by the skill level.

It is certainly possible that one could beat the game as a single character without a party... though I'd think that would be quite the challenge even for the seasoned veteran of these types of games. I personally enjoy doing fun challenges in games, but even I think that would be an insane thing to try to do.

The game can be paused and unpaused at any time and commands can be issued in either state. Most of the commands required outside of having the right weapon or spell equipped is only to move the characters around to avoid damage rather than standing and fighting strong monsters or getting hit by projectiles. This starts off pretty nice, but I found it started to get rather tedious as the game went on with 8 characters in the party.


Graphics:
As you can see, the graphics are a little older and boxy. Seeing as the game came out in 2002, I would say the boxy 3D models with the ability to turn the camera 360° at any time... that's completely reasonable compared to the iconic Diablo II (2000).

I will however say that some of the enemies are difficult to see through all the vegetation and some of the effects can be difficult to catch as well with all that's going on. For the most part I'm quite happy with the look of the game all things considered.


Sound:
I have no complaints about the sound design of Dungeon Siege. There's good feedback on actions being taken and nothing seems very out of place. The only complaint I have is that sometimes that sound bugs out a bit with repeating of earlier played sounds when going back along the path you came for some... unknown reason.


Replayability:
Would I call this game replayable? Sure... if you wanted to try different compositions of groups, whether that be in numbers or types, then yes I would say this game is replayable to some degree. For most people however, this game is a play once and you're done sort of thing.


SUMMARY:
Dungeon Siege seems to run just fine on Windows 10 and is still a fun experience to play through as it was so many years ago. Compared to the newer games out there these days, it's getting a little bit older and is certainly showing its age, but other than that, it's still a pretty good experience and for the low price of only $7.79, it's really not a bad buy to keep a person entertained for many hours of gameplay.

My score for Dungeon Siege at this point of it's life will be 7/10 as it was a well-made game and is still good to this day.

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 7 - Part 6

Could it be, we've finally found the end of scenario 7 of the Keepers Campaign. Watch the epic finale and see us move onward into the next scenario.

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 7 - Part 5

A lovely recap of our current situation. So far so good, doesn't look like we're going to have to restart...?

(My apologies of all the sound of receiving messages while recording, pretty sure ignoring my wife would be a terrible idea.)

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 7 - Part 1

Hey everyone! It's been a little while since I was last actively posting videos on YouTube, but now that I'm back in action, we've got lots on the way for everyone to see. Let's start a new scenario that I honestly have no memory of playing like... ever. Wish me luck! :D

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 9

A quick livestream to finish off scenario 6 before moving on. I know I need to (want to) do more livestreaming and I promise it will be coming soon. I think the biggest problem keeping me from livestreaming more often right now is the anxiety of going through the process of advertising and making commitments and then WHAT IF I LET EVERYBODY DOWN??? That's definitely something I need to get over though. Honestly, I should probably just do more streams where I don't put myself through the torture of advertising beforehand, but rather I just turn on the stream and go.

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 8

We're so close now I can taste it. Maybe we'll finally finish all the hours we've planted into this scenario and be able to move onto the next one without having to restart once again! :D

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 7

We're getting so close now, I can feel it. Aren't you excited? Soon we'll be moving on to another scenario and before we know it, we'll be at the end of The Keepers Campaign. Then we play through the other campaign and finally we can retire the Age of Wonders campaign series.

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 6

Looks like we're starting to get overwhelmed by this silly teleportation point right next to our starting town. We might have to give this location up and move somewhere else. Another short part for you this time.

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 5

I haven't uploaded a video for quite a while so finally I've managed to find some time to do so. I can tell I actually recorded this quite a while ago, but NO MATTER! New videos will be coming out right away as we get going on all content production now that we have a proper schedule going. This part is a little bit shorter than usual.

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== Age of Wonders -- MolzyMoz - Fire Rebalanced -- Mod Review - 5/5 ===

Okay so here's something a little bit different today. Normally I review games or food or movies... but today I'm reviewing a MOD for a game. I'm also going to take this opportunity to start using a 1-5 rating system because I think it's a much more straightforward system for just how good I think something is which I'm reviewing.

So FROM HERE ON OUT I will be rating everything on a scale of 1-5.

MolzyMod - Fire Rebalanced (Download)

Rating: 5

Even though I am a long-time Age of Wonders player, using mods is something I'm not super experienced with, so this managed to be my first mod to EVER use for this game. I have to say I'm very pleased; I honestly think this may be what I start using in my own games from now on.

There are quite a few changes to units, some of which are in their stats and many of which are in their abilities as they increase in skill; especially for making level 4 units more powerful and unstoppable just by having empty fortified cities. I haven't been able to experience much of this as I just started using the mod and have only read about the majority of the changes so far.

One of my favourite changes includes the change to the Goblin Bomber at silver level gaining a Call Flames ability (which would only be attainable using an arena or the Warmonger spell).

Speaking of SPELLS... Many of the lower level combat spells have been lowered in casting cost which makes spell-based leader and hero builds possible to use throughout the game. Many of the spells such as flame arrow only have a cost of 1 now which means your hero can be useful even with Spell Casting I and low stats.

So all in all, this mod is pretty sweet. It's super easy to put into the game and doesn't make a huge number of overwhelming changes; if you have any thoughts about using any other mods in the game but are unsure after reading all of the HUGE number of changes... this is truly a great place to start when getting into trying out different mods.

As a result, I'm giving this mod for Age of Wonders a 5/5 rating as I really do think it has been done very well and has broken down the door for me to try other new things with an already great game.

~ DaemonVirus


To Age of Wonders Directory

Age of Wonders - Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 4

Our adventure continues further into this massive map where we hope to goodness that we don't have to start again from the beginning. I hate to reload when dying but... unless we're in a SUPER awful position where there's no hope, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and continue on with the game rather than restarting over and over again.

Maybe if each level of  this game wasn't so long that wouldn't be an issue...

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 2

Our adventure continues with part 2 of scenario 6. This is a large map and we're not in a great position right now, will be be able to pull through without restarting?

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 6 - Part 1

Finally uploaded another Age of Wonders part. Sorry for such a long delay, I've been quite busy for the past little while and haven't had a good chance until now to do so.

Now we start a new scenario which seems like a pretty big map, so it definitely won't be quite as short as the previous scenario. Wish me luck everybody! Hopefully we won't have to try this scenario over and over again like that other one... :P

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

Age of Wonders -- Keepers Scenario 5 - Part 1

Now that we're FINALLY done with scenario 4, we can move on to scenario 5. I wonder if we'll manage to complete this one on the first try this time? Or will something catastrophic happen once again? There's only one way to find out!

Previous

Next

This campaign and more can be found on my Age of Wonders page.

Check out more of my stuff!
- On YouTube
- On Twitch
- On Twitter

~ DaemonVirus

=== Age of Wonders - Game Review, Turn-based Strategy - 10/10 ===

What Are We Reviewing?
If you like turn-based strategy, whether it's in a table top game or a video game, Age of Wonders is at the top of the list.

Released: October 31, 1999
Price: $6.49 CAD
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

     Age of Wonders was released back in 1999, so we're getting pretty close to the grand 20-year mark in age. For such an old game, you might think it would look pretty aged and unable to hold up to present-day gaming. In my opinion, this game is a classic that is still plenty of fun to play and has a great art-style that still looks great even to this day. If you go back to the original pictures of this game before it was released, the art is so simple and would easily have gotten old pretty quick. Thankfully they decided to go in a bit of a different direction which I think looks like someone painted it by hand; this sort of painted-looking art-style is definitely my favourite. Of course the visuals are important when deciding whether or not to play a game, but there's so much more to talk about.

     The gameplay is turn-based; if you're really into board games, this will feel just like playing a board game where everybody takes a turn one at a time to plan out their strategy and execute their plan of action to the best of their ability. There are some options such as having the map already explored, whether or not to have your leader as a playable character in the game, and whether the turns are taken simultaneously or one at a time. Personally, I prefer to have to explore everything on my own, have a leader, and have turns played one at a time; though every once in a while I change it up for fun.

     Games can be a little as 2-players all the way up to 12 with each player playing a different race; each of which have different advantages and disadvantages. Each game revolves around capturing cities and other landmarks, then using the income from those sources to create the right mixture of units to eliminate your opponents. If you've ever played a turn-based combat game, you may already understand how each attack has a chance to hit or miss. If you really enjoy the strategy of combat, you can choose to control each battle yourself, or have the game automatically generate an outcome for you. Obviously this speeds up the game to have it decide on an outcome for you, but the system has a certain way of doing its calculations which can sometimes give you a completely different outcome from controlling the battle on your own. One example is if you're trying to protect a unit that is low on health, you can choose to have that unit run away on your own, but the computer-generated outcome will run that unit headlong into battle even on 1 health point.

     Throughout the game you also have to choose what spells to research to help tip the scales in your favour. Your leader and additional heroes which join you during the course of the game may or may not have the ability to cast spells. These leaders and heroes have an amount of spell points which get refreshed at the beginning of each new turn and from this they can cast spells which each cost a number of spell points. Choices of spells can change the state of the overworld map, enchant units to make them stronger, or can be used in battle to turn the tides in an otherwise unwinnable situation.

     If you can't tell, I absolutely love this game and could go on and on about all the great qualities forever, but unfortunately at some point I have to acknowledge the grit of the game. There are some points which can be a little bit painful either due to the age of the game or due to design. Depending on how much time you have, you may enjoy watching all the animations. Some days I like having a relaxing time watching the animations go on, but they can be a little bit slow sometimes which makes an already long game take even longer to play. You can be playing just one map for an entire month without proceeding to the next scenario. This is why I tend to play while running a program which speeds up the game. My only other real gripe about Age of Wonders is that it has a habit of crashing while playing in any kind of windowed mode. This usually isn't a bad thing as I prefer to play on true fullscreen anyways, but there is another problem where if you tab out of the game and tab back in, it likes to either crash or not open back up... which can make it difficult if you have other things going on while you want to play some Age of Wonders. This makes you have to plan sessions to play rather than just opening it up whenever for a bit while doing other things.

     Overall, even with the negatives of this game, I have to give Age of Wonders 10 / 10 because it's just so amazing for me. I highly recommend getting this game and playing through it if you're into strategy. The Age of Wonders games are my favourite turn-based strategy series so far (though I haven't managed to start playing the new Age of wonders III yet).

     If you're interested in seeing some gameplay, you can head over to my Age of Wonders Gameplay page or you can watch my videos directly on my YouTube channel TheDaemonVirus.

~ Kyle Welykholowa