Retro Revival, Part #13 - Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (2010, Impulse/)

All the recent Bioware/Black Isle RPG additions over at Good Old Games have been good news indeed, but it’s important not to forget the other major re-release of the last month; Triumph Studios’ awesome Age of Wonders series. In particular, Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard’s Throne and the stand-alone sequel/expansion hybrid Shadow Magic featured in this video are among the best strategy games of all time, and given that these titles are not at all easy to find in stores it was really about time that they appeared in affordable digital download versions. Although the obvious reference point for genre nerds is Microprose’s classic Master of Magic (1994), Age of Wonders is perhaps most easily described to a general audience as a mix of the city-building and empire-expanding gameplay of Civilization on the one hand and the RPG elements and tactical combat of Heroes of Might Magic on the other. Aside from being characterized by the same extremely addictive quality which those series are known