One of the main criticisms of Age of Wonders: Planetfall has been that the oceans and lakes are severely lacking in life or activity and are thus not very engaging. Shoreside regions may be great to connect colonies to, but unless your enemies were on another island or continent, your armies would have no reason to get their feet wet. To remedy this situation, Triumph has brought in someone with a strong affinity to water.
The Return of the Lizardmen
The main protagonists (antagonists?) of Invasions are members of the new playable amphibious faction, the Shakarn. They are experts in subterfuge, being able to hide in the waters and infiltrate the ranks of their enemies. If that does not work, their units can pack a punch comparable to any other faction. Their party trick is their armies’ ability to heal, but only if they had been hurt on the opponent’s turn in battle.
The highlight of the Shakarn’s lineup of units is actually one of their most basic ones: the Infiltrator. It has no room for any mods, but makes up for it with the ability to temporarily copy the look and abilities of an enemy unit. This is a stroke of genius design, but it is very difficult to learn to use – you cannot copy just any ability, some will forever slip your grasp. The problem is, you do not know which abilities work with the Infiltrator and which do not until you try them out. While mostly intuitive, it does attribute to the learning curve of the faction.
Being amphibious, the Shakarn are able to traverse water with greater ease than other factions, not even requiring special naval units to be the scourge of the seas. Unfortunately, while this is a fun quality to have, it serves very little use other than the ability to make sudden surgical attacks. The seas remain the barren deserts of solitude between fields of fun and excitement that are land sectors.
It is nice to see that even with all the previous factions and Secret Techs, Triumph has managed to come up with an engaging motley crew that plays slightly differently from everyone else both tactically and strategically.
The new voice acting is very expressive and engaging. You would not expect the Shakarn to be able to speak clear English when you look at them, but somehow they sound plausible in the Planetfall Universe’s context. Hearing those little squeaks and screeches is slightly reminiscent of the Kir’Ko, but they are still unique enough to be clearly distinguishable.
In Space, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog
As with Revelations, Invasions also introduces a new NPC faction to befriend or anger. The Therians resemble Earth animals but have been mutated using human DNA to become more dangerous. As such, you have the pleasure of meeting bunnies with guns akimbo, wolves with shotguns, squirrels with poisonous nuts, and a few other curious creatures. Fighting them can prove to be difficult as the Therians hunt in packs – and can boost each other significantly when threatened. An advantage to amicable relationships is the ability to buy DNA injectors that turn your heroes into little furry creatures with special abilities.
The faction is very pleasing to the eyes and does add a bit of extra flavour to the world. The units are of sound design and the special abilities fresh and surprising. They are not the easiest to make work with units of other races, but once you find a good combination, they more than deliver.
Gameplay-wise the Therians are nice to have in this expansion, but keep in mind that with the NPC Factions count now up to seven, you will not encounter them in a large portion of your games. I doubt it will stop some people from writing fan-fiction about them. (editor’s note: ahem!)
Cosmic Happenings Make a Comeback
If you’ve played Age of Wonders III, you may remember the random map-wide events with effects ranging from lessened physical damage to mysterious strangers with massive armies suddenly roaming the world. If you missed them, and who wouldn’t, good news for you!
In Age of Wonders: Planetfall, they are now called World Events. And they are supercharged. Almost all of the effects feel significant and are often scary. While they tend to give you some sudden sneaky opportunities, it would be wise to remember the same holds true for all of your opponents.
If you were expecting this DLC to expand the plot and mythos of each world to the same extent that the previous DLC, Revelations, did with the Anomalous Sites, you will be disappointed. With the world of Planetfall being so much more varied and complex that its precursors, while the effects seem significant, in hindsight the World Events appear little more than gimmicks and there is rarely any real payoff from having them. They cause excitement when they occur for the first time, but the excitement is short-lived and the effects easily ignored.
There is nothing wrong with them, but they just end up feeling almost like an afterthought when compared to the love that has been given all of the other additions. As the player is likely to see World Events in more games than a specific playable or NPC faction, that is a shame.
Conclusion
There are plenty of technologies, units, mods, late-game scares and other little additions including a new random map setup that have not been discussed here. The DLC is positively full of things to discover on your own over many dozens, if not hundreds of hours.
It is no secret that I absolutely adore the new world of semi-coherent rules that Age of Wonders: Planetfall has created. Yet I find it difficult to decide whether to recommend adding Invasions to it or not. This is not because I find Invasions boring or lacklustre, quite the opposite. I commend Triumph for a well-made DLC. But I cannot help but be a little concerned.
Invasions breaks those semi-coherent rules. A cloning ability that could use a separate list of exceptional abilities it cannot clone. An NPC faction that sells hero-makeover kits. World Events that shower the world with items that used to be considered rarities. Mutually exclusive hero skill ability trees. The additions do not just add new rules, they change the old rules because that is the only way the new content would function.
The issue with changing or adding rules to something already complex is the barrier of entry. Die-hard fans will have no troubles navigating the changes, but people with a spark of interest in strategy games or people who play casually may find it infuriating to deal with game rules that keep changing or extending their list of exceptions.
The question that has to be asked is whether these changes add to Planetfall in a positive way or do they confound the existing systems too much for them to still thoroughly entertain. Is the “one more turn” feeling still there? I would absolutely say “yes”. And then go back to punching alien insects with my space-lizards-turned-mutant-wolves. Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a brilliant game and Invasions is a welcome addition.
TL;DR: Invasions is more than just extra art and text for an existing game, it is an evolution of Age of Wonders: Planetfall. The changes are subtle, so if you already like Planetfall, I suggest you give Invasions a go. If you are not a fan, Invasions will not change your mind. If you have not tried Planetfall before, I strongly recommend getting used to the base game first.
You Might Like This eXpansion If:
- You like the base game
- The idea of turning into furry creatures with oversized weaponry appeals to you
- You think it has been far too long since an Incarnate-like unit has graced Age of Wonders
- You like the concept of random Antaran attacks
You Might NOT Like This eXpansion If:
- You dislike the base game
- You fear the added chaos to an already complex game
- Dutch developers continue to be a thorn in your side
Our Review Policy
Kaur played for over 24 hours on his DELL Inspiron laptop with an i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050Ti, a 1TB hard drive, and a 4K screen. A product key was provided by Paradox.
One of our newest authors here at eXplorminate! Did we mention that we’re always looking for more people that can contribute around these parts? If you’re interested, be sure to email us at eXplorminate@gmail.com