SHORT REVIEW : Age of Wonders III is a cool alternative to Heroes of Might and Magic, a 4X turn-based strategy game, high fantasy, with good graphics and a lot of details in the gameplay. AoWIII offers many hours of fun and even if it copies a lot from HoMM, it still has a personality and it's a good quality strategy game

> Gameplay ( 8.2 / 10 ) : conquer cities and develop them, build different armies led by heroes and fight your enemies in cities or battlefields, gathering gold and resources at the beginning of your turn and obtaining special places on the map. Each turn you have some movement points you can spend to explore the map or find enemies. The gameplay is quite detailed as there are many different units, different damage types, dozens of spells cast by heroes, and variations in terrain and maps that change the way you can play.
Campaigns are very interesting and really challenging, while skirmishes are also interesting but not as much as in other strategy games.
There are also a few problems with balancing (some units and spells are much stronger than others) and sometimes the game feels too repetitive and lacks originality.

> Story ( 6.3 / 10 ) : even if the game has a quite rich story, the plot is the classic fight between good and evil in a fantasy setting, with a lot of magic, weird names and a lot of boring facts that the game keeps telling you before every game.

> Aesthetics ( 8.5 / 10 ) : luckily, the graphics in this game is really good. The environment looks bright and detailed, the units are so varied from each other with well-made models and animations, special effects of abilities and spells look so cool. Generally, the game is very pleasing to watch, both with max and min zoom, even if sometimes terrains and maps can lack variety.

> Audio ( 8.0 / 10 ) : good work also on the sound design. The music is really nice (but maybe too few tracks and repetitive for a long playing game) and the sound effects are pleasant and interesting too. For a strategy game is more than good work.

> Difficulty ( 7.5 / 10 ) : the game offers a good challenge from the first mission to the last. Campaigns can be quite difficult, although that is mainly due to fighting different enemies at the same time and starting a game with very few units and resources. AI is generally not so strong if you're an experienced player; free skirmishes are too easy and can be boring if you're a good player.

> Overall Rating ( 7.7 / 10 ) <

HoMM + Civ = this

The Vanilla and DLCs are good, but the tons of mods make it great - playable over and over again