Age of Wonders: Planetfall has been one of my favorite 4X games of 2020. I’ve often come back to it during the short-lived dearths of new games and re-ignite my love for it each time that I do. It doesn’t hurt that Triumph Studios has done an outstanding job of supporting the game, both with paid content and with comprehensive patches that have fundamentally made the game better each time.
So, after two other hefty expansions in a promised Season Pass of content, Age of Wonders: Planetfall receives its final bit of scheduled content in the form of Star Kings, an expansion that not only adds a brand new faction, the Oathbound, but also new map features called “Grail Configurations”, and a few new wildlife enemy types.
How well does Star Kings improve Age of Wonders: Planetfall and how fun is the new Oathbound faction? Is Star Kings worth it if you don’t already have the Season Pass?
Bound by Oath
Without question, the Oathbound are the highlight of the Star Kings expansion. They’re what you’d get if chivalry was reborn in the far future and instead of mounting horses, they mounted mechs. Their armies are comprised of mechs, mechs, and heroes with mechs and are pretty powerful. Perhaps a bit overpowered, honestly, after more playtime with these honor-bound lugs.
They’re melee-focused, so they must close the distance on their enemies and despite being heavily armored and shielded, the Oathbound must close the distance, putting themselves at risk. However, they have enough ranged firepower to overcome that issue, so the Oathbound start to feel a bit powerful as you grow used to the playstyle.
Previously, I have noted that the Oathbound’s desire to stay close to one another, in order to use their shielding ability, leaves them open to Arc attacks, but frankly, they’re still capable of overcoming that pretty well, too.
They’re also unquestionably powerful and subjectively cool looking if Gundam-like mechs are your thing.
I just wish that Triumph Studios had introduced another alien race. As it stands, there are far too many humans in the Planetfall universe and I like my science fiction with a healthy dose of strange and wonderful aliens to play as (read: eXterminate).
This might actually be my biggest bugbear with Age of Wonders: Planetfall in general. Through three expansions, we only got one additional alien race, which admittedly was pretty cool looking, but unfortunately felt a bit too safe in their implementation. Here, again, Triumph played it ultra-safe and we’re left with another rather generic take on a human faction.
Sure, mechs are cool, but the trope is a bit overdone. I really wish that they had done something a bit more extraordinary, especially if Star Kings is the last bit of content that Planetfall receives.
Knights of the Holy Grails
Another additional feature introduced by this expansion is the Grails. Grails are very rare landmarks that can be found after extensive searching. Once they’re located, it’s all hands on deck in a frenetic rush to grab them, as their bonuses are game-changing. You want a huge bonus to food and production in your empire? Yeah, you’ll want to do everything you can to grab these grails, then.
That they’re so rare and game-altering adds yet another layer of replayability to Planetfall. They’re not extraordinarily unique or exciting in the grand scheme of the genre, but they’re great fun and a welcome addition to Planetfall.
Sentient Cyborg Mushrooms
The expansion also adds three new wildlife groups to do battle with. My favorite of which is the Mycelians, cyborg fungi that are absurd and yet utterly brilliant. They’re joined by the Psionica, sentient stones that feed off others’ psychic energy, and Apostates, former Oathbound that have basically fallen from grace, joining the dark side of sorts.
They’re also welcome additions that make the worlds of Planetfall richer and deeper. The real kicker here, to me, is that there seems to have been much more thought given to these wildlife groups, easily making them the most unique species in the Planetfall universe, which is frustrating considering my voiced frustrations above.
Why didn’t Triumph put as much thought into its (possibly final) playable race here? Imagine how cool it’d be to actually play as mutant cyborg mushrooms? Or even as a sentient stone race that plays a vampiric role in this universe.
That the most interesting ideas come in the form of Planetfall’s wildlife feels like a missed opportunity for Planetfall to go out in a weird, artistic, and unique way.
I think you get my point.
Galactic Conquest
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the huge free update coming in the form of the “Triceratops Patch”, which, among many other fixes, balance changes, and updates, also introduces the “Galactic Empire” mode.
This new mode could have easily been part of this new expansion and no one would’ve complained. However, Triumph Studios made it free, allowing all Planetfall players the opportunity to play their own dynamic campaign.
Each planet you set your sights on will provide a variety of bonuses to your empire as you progress from game to game. Thus, your empire adds more and more tools to its repertoire as you keep setting off to conquer new and varied planets.
It provides a lot of incentive to keep replaying Planetfall, as the more you play, the more you unlock in a meta progression system that unlocks more and more cool stuff for you budding galactic empire.
That it’s released for free is fantastic, but I wonder if Triumph Studios realized that it would basically make their final expansion feel a bit empty by comparison?
That being said, it’s an amazing addition to Planetfall and a gameplay mode that I hope more studios take inspiration from. That it’s a free addition is amazing and it, honestly, increases my impressions of the Star Kings expansion, even if it’s not necessarily included in the expansion itself.
Rob founded eXplorminate in 2014 as his passion for 4X needed an outlet. You can find Rob in just about every 4X game beta and 4X game forum, too. He’s equally obsessed with the strategy and tactics genres and constantly combs the internet for new and exciting titles in those genres. He’s proud to be a member of Amplitude Studios’ VIP program and the concept creator of Endless Space 2’s Unfallen.