The last faction I looked at, and perhaps my favorite, is the Kir’ko. Because, c’mon – given the chance, who wouldn’t? They also have powerful archer units, giving them a good mix of melee and ranged options. In addition to genetically enhancing their own bodies, the Amazons have brought back the dinosaurs to serve as mounts and shock troops.

I wasn’t told why they’re all female, but that there is a lore reason for it we’ll have to discover ourselves. Where are my dang dinosaurs? Those would be wards of the Amazon faction, an all-female society that is the successor to all of the knowledge of biology and genetic engineering before the collapse. Using a combination of infantry, vehicles, and robotic drones, they rely heavily on taking cover and using overwatch to protect their entrenched positions.īut I know what you’re thinking. And if you’ve played other turn-based strategy games, their way of fighting will feel familiar as well. Like the player, they’re encountering all of this crazy stuff for the first time. This gives them a Captain America-esque, “Man out of time” sort of outlook and a special drive to discover just what the heck the galaxy has become. A militaristic band of good ol’ fashioned humans, they were soldiers of the old regime that have been in cryosleep for a couple centuries and are just now waking up to find that the institutions they served have long since crumbled. If you don’t want to get too weird, the Vanguard will probably be right up your alley. I got to check out three of the six factions hands-on ahead of its August 6 release, and they all have a strong personality and distinct fighting style. This interplanetary archaeology angle gives a welcome new dimension to the familiar process of clearing fog of war and revealing the map. The developers said they took inspiration from games like Fallout for this latter sort of scenario, and in the course of my session, I found myself sending units into forgotten facilities and using dialogue prompts to make decisions about what to do with the abandoned secrets within. Each time you load up a new map, you’ll be aiming to help one such group either settle on a new frontier or, even more interestingly, reclaim a fallen world that was once a jewel of the old order. All of Planetfall’s factions represent some segment of the old galactic society that has gone off and developed new strategies for surviving in a much rougher, much less certain starscape.

Age of wonders planetfall review ign