Age of Wonders 4

The pitch

Age of Wonders 4 is Triumph Studios' fantasy 4X strategy game: players build a custom empire from a race, a culture and a branching tree of magical "tomes," expand across a hand- or procedurally-generated world, and resolve conflicts through tactical, turn-based battles. It's the fifth mainline entry in a series that predates the modern 4X boom.

The part nobody argues about: faction creation

Across positive and negative reviews alike, the faction-building system is treated as the game's defining achievement. "Legitimately one of the best 4X games, period... the game just works, is well polished, and well designed," reads a 455-vote review, praising how race and appearance became purely cosmetic choices decoupled from mechanics. Even reviewers who go on to criticise other aspects of the game rarely touch this part: "I love the customisation of the factions, the tomes of magic that are the development tree, the graphics are great," opens one detailed negative review, before pivoting entirely to complaints about AI and difficulty balancing — a pattern that repeats throughout this corpus.

"Age of DLC": the dominant complaint

What drags this game's reputation down isn't the game itself — it's what Paradox has done with it since launch. Combined mentions of DLC appear in 41 of the 100 most-helpful negative reviews, by far the most common theme in this corpus. "I've always liked this franchise — the first three games were genuinely great. Unfortunately, this latest entry feels ruined by Paradox's typical predatory DLC politics. There's an absurd amount of content locked behind paywalls, constant DLC releases," reads an 822-vote review. Another, from a player who reports hundreds of hours in the game: "I didn't want to leave a bad review, but after sinking hundreds of hours into it, I feel it's time... At launch, it showed real potential to evolve into something great. Unfortunately, that potential feels increasingly buried under a relentless wave of paid content." A third simply titles their review "Age of DLC." This isn't reviewers rejecting the base game — it's longtime, invested fans specifically objecting to how Paradox has chosen to expand it.

Secondary complaints: AI weakness and update stability

Beyond monetisation, the most common gameplay criticism concerns AI difficulty. "The AI is so bad, and because it is so bad they have to stack the AI players with so many [resource bonuses]," reads a 337-vote review — a complaint echoed across 27 of the 100 most-helpful negative reviews, generally describing artificially propped-up difficulty rather than genuinely smart opponents. A separate, smaller cluster concerns stability after updates: "Any time an update hits for this game it is likely to cause your current run to become unstable... they just added 'shiny' units and now I need to restart my 3 week old campaign," reads one review, while another describes "bricked saves, crashes and desyncs" as recurring problems more than two years after launch — notable in a genre where individual campaigns can run for many real-world hours.

Set against a genre neighbour

This library has also reviewed Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, a spiritual cousin several Age of Wonders 4 reviewers cite by name when describing what this game blends together. Checked against that game's current numbers, Age of Wonders 4 sits close behind on lifetime sentiment, though both land solidly in "Very Positive" territory.

Where sentiment sits now

Recent English review sentiment — the 100 most recent reviews, spanning mid-July to August 2026 — runs 84% positive, slightly above the 81.9% lifetime score. Despite how loudly and consistently the DLC complaints are voiced, they haven't measurably eroded overall reception over more than two years; this reads as a real, ongoing point of friction for a vocal share of the audience rather than a decline threatening the game's standing. Achievement data underlines the game's depth: the median across 114 achievements is just 5.5%, with even the most-earned milestones capping around 70%, consistent with a strategy game whose full breadth — especially once the DLC catalogue is factored in — few players fully explore.

Value

At NZ$79.99 for the base game, this is a reasonably priced entry point for the core 4X experience; the value question is almost entirely about the 14 DLC packs layered on top, which multiple reviewers describe as necessary for the "complete" experience rather than optional extras. Buyers who stick to the base game report no monetisation complaints about the core purchase itself.

Verdict

Age of Wonders 4 earns its reputation as one of the stronger fantasy 4X games available, built around a faction-creation system that draws consistent, specific praise from a wide cross-section of its own critics. Its real, well-documented problem is Paradox's DLC cadence, which a substantial and vocal share of longtime players describe as undermining a game they otherwise love. Buy the base game with confidence; approach the expansion catalogue as a series of deliberate, budgeted decisions rather than an assumed package deal.