I have really enjoyed playing Age of Wonder IV so far this year. I highly recommend checking out the review for readers unfamiliar with the game. When I realized that the first content pack, Age of Wonder IV: Dragon Dawn, was about to release, I couldn’t wait to jump back into the game and take on the role of playing a Dragon Ruler using a press build this past weekend. The new Dragon Ruler type added by Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Triumph Studios feels like a natural extension of the base game. But at a stand-alone price of $9.99, parts of the new features feel a bit light on some elements.
First, I want to recognize that the developers did a great job with how the Dragons look in Age of Wonders IV: Dragon Dawn. Players can customize everything from the snout to the tail length. The skin decorations and scale types look great, even if limited with some sliders/color palettes. If I wanted my Dragon Ruler could be a short stubby bruiser tank or a majestic proud master of the arcane, I could achieve that quite easily. The options for the different poses are great, if also somewhat limited. It's also fun to see how more particle effects were added to the Dragon model as I leveled and picked my signature skills. If I messed up my Dragon’s appearance, no problem, I could adjust it at any time during a playthrough by inspecting the character and clicking on the “Adjust Appearance” button.
Some players may find different customizations sliders/color palettes limited, such as skin color. But there are enough options to make a Dragon Ruler all your own. It was also interesting to see how the developers handled dragons not wearing most magical items. Instead, as new items are acquired, they become part of an ever-growing personal hoard. The more a dragon has in a hoard, the more gold per turn is generated.
I like the compromise made by the developer to account for dragons using fewer items. But it would have also been nice to see more cosmetic unlocks appear in the Pantheon progression for the Dragon Rulers. Hopefully, it’s something they can expand on in the future or that I have not seen yet with my own progress. I also enjoyed the new dragon attack skills as I leveled up. For example, I could tailor my breath weapon into a cone or line. Plus, who doesn’t want to pick up the tail attack and try to stun multiple enemies at once in battle while pushing them back?
The content pack also adds a line of new spell tomes, starting with the Tome of Evolution. These new spell books are a mix of Chaos and Nature magic affinity. It’s nice to see the spell system expanded, and I can see how the new spells make sense in relation to the Dragon Rulers. But I didn’t find them overly engaging from the point of view of playing a dragon. The theme of summoned units that evolve with battle experience works well, and the extra regeneration per turn buffs are great, but couldn't any caster be based around that theme? It would have been nice to see a second set of spell tomes that combined two other affinities for players to explore.
During my first playthrough with a Dragon Ruler, I focused on Shadow magic affinity, then had to change up into chaos and nature if I wanted to use the new spell tomes. It didn’t completely disrupt the game, but it felt like I was pigeonholed into one playstyle when using new spells with the new ruler type.
The Lizardfolk as a new race also makes thematic sense, but they didn’t draw me in or make me feel excited to select them with my Dragon Ruler. Their default traits are Poisonous and Cold Blooded. It was fun to work towards turning them into draconic subjects using the major race transformation. But again, it would have been nice to see an extra cosmetic/trait option or two to round out the race. Perhaps a new trait for a thematically appropriate mount.
While the content pack does include the new realm map of Dragonfire Cradle, The Ashen War. Unfortunately, there are no new story realms. I started my first Dragon Ruler playthrough with the default settings for Dragonfire Cradle. I was tossed into the conflict between the six elder dragons very quickly. For me, this map was challenging, and I lost my first attempt on turn 60 as the alliance of three rulers steamrolled me into the ground. I may need to go back and tailor the individual enemy AI difficulty to something more manageable till I get up to speed with playing a dragon.
Though it may not be isolated to this content pack, I do want to bring specific attention to the improved enemy AI. It was interesting to see the elder dragons move their main armies around the map in full stacks of two or more, the same way I would as a player to help protect my ruler. Playing against the hard AI feels better when compared to my initial review experience, and I am happy the developers have continued to make improvements.
In terms of bugs, I have experienced a few crashes to the desktop while playing on the new realm map and the during the story realms gameplay, but they have rare. The narrative events also seem to hang for a few seconds if I take my time selecting a response. I am playing on a press build. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed on live.
The Age of Wonders IV: Dragon Dawn content patch feels like a natural addition to the game. The developers at Triumph Studios have done a great job implementing it. It adds an extra ruler type for players to explore and a dragon thematic line of spell tomes. If included in the base game, it would have easily bumped my original review score by 0.5 or even a 1.0. As a stand-alone content pack for $9.99, a few more minor additions to the new features would have gone a long way in fleshing it out. It's a good value, but not a great one.
For any fans of dragons who are enjoying Age of Wonder IV, I could see this being a worthwhile content pack to pick up. But the Expansion Pass may be a better value if you are willing to take the chance on the two future expansions.
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Check out our full launch review!
Full Disclosure: A copy of the content pack was provided by PR for the purpose of review.
