Dominions 3: The Awakening

Dominions 3: The Awakening
82
Metacritic
79
Steam
61.328
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
10 September 2013
Steam reviews score
Total
79 (102 votes)

The Old God has left the world and the pretenders are awakening and coming out from hiding. You start the game by designing one of the pretender gods that will compete for true ascension to godhood. The type of god can range from a magically powerful arch mage to an ancient kraken or a mystic monolith that people pray to.

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Dominions 3: The Awakening system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
  • Processor: 1 GHz
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM
  • Graphics: OpenGL capable graphics card
  • Storage: 350 MB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
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Steam APP ID
248510
Platforms
Windows PC
Mac
Linux
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Vinnie Mack
Vinnie Mack

There are a lot of fantasy kingdom managing/strategy games. Too many. This one seems harder than most. During my 30 plus hours of play I never came close to winning. Play a god any way you want. Clunky controls and ancient graphics nearly killed the game for me. A decent tutorial would have helped, but I don't usually read tutorials. Playing god my way resurrected my interest in the game.

Jon Rando
Jon Rando

Don't let the graphics fool you, beneath its dull exterior lies a creamy center full of Strategic goodness.

Strategies center around the nation you choose and how you design your Pretender God. Battles are decided by how you form up your troops and the orders you issue to them before each fight.

If you like strategy games and a fantasy setting, you really should not pass this one up.

Woodthorn
Woodthorn

Great strategy game with lots of details. The amount of options for creating the Pretender God is just awesome, and the amount of possible combinations is very nice.

Highly recommended!

dethb0y
dethb0y

Dominions 3 stands as one of my favorite strategy games of all time. It's not really that similar to anything else; the combat is all automatic, and your main job (as a god) is to manage your empire, build armies, build forts, research and cast spells, and plan out where your armies will go.

The graphics are sufficient for the job they do, and there's a plethora of addtional mods and maps and what not available for it.

All told, i quite recommend it to any fans of strategy who are looking for something a little different.

Raccoon Ronin
Raccoon Ronin

Possibly the most indepth, unique strategy game i've played. People may be put of by the visuals, but if you enjoy playing a game that just gets deeper and deeper with completely and utterly unique factions then this game is for you. Each time i think i know it all i'll then find another method to use.

< NEW PLAYER >
< NEW PLAYER >

Very deep and immersive. EPIC experience. Graphics are nice too, well done. I love it! One of my favorites!

The music I don't think is mentioned enough in all these reviews and I just want to say from someone who normally turns the music off, this game has some of the best I have EVER heard in a game...very creative and thought provoking, just really sets the mood.

8.5/10

Below was copied from the "Dominions 3" rule book:

A NOTE ON THE MUSIC The music for Dominions 3 was performed Erik Ask-Upmark and Anna Rynefors. They have two projects, which are Falsobordone (medieval European music) and Dråm (Scandinavian folk music). You will find music from both of these projects in the game – intro music and early age music is Dråm, while middle and late age music is Falsobordone. Some of it is taken from their latest CD. You can learn more about their work, listen to more tracks, and even purchase the CD at www.draam.com. They also did the music for Dominions II, which was all performed as Falsobordone. They have two other CDs available of this excellent music, one of which – Cantigas de Santa Maria – features absolutely splendid vocal work from Rynefors. You can get more information on that by visiting www.falsobordone.com. If you are lucky enough to live on the US west coast, you may be able to catch them on tour when they visit the USA. If you live in Sweden, you can hear them more often. Enjoy!

Angelo Dante
Angelo Dante

I highly recommend this game to any strategy enthusiasts or fans of mythology out there. I'll go ahead and get the (tiny) amount of bad out of the way - the game has an unusual user interface, and selection of units can be especially tedious sometimes. With that detail out of the way, I only have good to say about Dominions 3. The writing in the game is top-notch, and very detailed. You often have to play multiple races to get a fuller picture of the history, but it's rich and satisfying once you put it together. The Tuatha and the Fomorian Giants are a good example. The game plays in a standard fashion with territories and movement, much like other turn-based games. However, to locate the useful goodies in a territory, you'll have to cultivate a few powerful mages, to find hidden sites that can provide mana gems, unique units for recruitment, or unique effects once unearthed. You'll need them (and magi once again) for the forging of magical items to equip your agents, priests, mages, generals, and your Pretender God. But the true meat of the game is in spreading your dominion (aka faith) across the map. It is the source of your power, and since it can flow into enemy territoy, it can also hamper their efforts to withstand your (inevitable) attack. Be sure to build lots of temples in your own honor! Put those puny mortal mages to work researching powerful magic that can affect the whole world. Turn day to perpetual night, bring on and endless winter, kill someone anywhere in the world, dispach the flying monkeys! Last Pretender God standing wins the prize - true Godhood. Sounds simple, right? Think again. It's a deep and complex game, and can be quite the challenge at times. So join in the fun, weave your own epic tale! Smash vampires with giants, bitch queens (yes, its a real pretender) with a midget masher, run from Cthulu! It's all in there, and waiting for you!

Lord of the Wizards
Lord of the Wizards

Games do not get better than this. There's a 300 page manual, so be prepared to learn the game for the first 120 hours of play.

Atermi
Atermi

This is an incredible game. An old school grand strategy game with a great selection of fully authentic races and over 1500 units. A real epic fantasy.

niky45
niky45

OH. MY. GOD.

just a few hours into the game (maybe 2?), and... I'm totally hooked. And, that's a lot knowing I'm not the greatest fan of strategic games....

sure, graphics are... oudtated to say the least. but, who cares? this is not about nice graphics, but about thinking. a lot.

(EDITED)
ok. more than a few hours later, and even more on dom4, I can only say a few things:

- this is one of the largest games in terms of quality content I have seen in my whole life.
- it is also one of my favorite games. EVER.
- dom4 is even better. get it instead or you'll want it as soon as it's on sale.
- be warned: the learning curve is not actually steep but VERY long. about 150 hr. later (between this and dom4), and I still have sooo much to learn.
- the AI may not be a challenge for pros, but I still have to think a lot to win even on normal. Haven't tried yet on hard (and won't try in a loong time... I'm not yet ready)
- the manual should be your bedside book from now on (note: and dom4's manual is even better. and longer. yay for EVERY unit stats on it. my life is so much happier now. ) You should consider printing it. or buying it printed. but keep in mind: you have no search function on a printed book.
- tell everyone you love that you'll disappear for a long while before purchasing this. seriously, it's THAT good.
- years will come, and you will keep playing this every now and then. It's not a campaign that you go through once or twice and that's all. I totally see myself playing this for years. (especially dom4. since... oh, well, the few changes are for the better. )
- why on earth are you still reading this instead of already playing it???

PS: seriously. buy dom4 as soon as it's on sale. and on the meantime, buy dom3 now that it's on sale. You won't regret it.

iskernel
iskernel

Superb in depth TBS game with a lot of lore and content. Don't let yourself fooled by the graphics, the gameplay of this game is actually amazing.

buchecker
buchecker

Note: This review only reflects single player. Some of the concerns should be equally valid in multiplayer tho.

Pro:
- lots of nations and spells to play with

Contra:
- no upgrade path except for magic, you start and end the game with the exact same troops
- larger empires are micromanagement nightmares (commander limits, picking up scattered units, managing troop supplies for fronline armies etc on a 45 province map is already horrible)
- tedious mopping up of beaten opponents (hopefully you didnt pick low dominion while trying to assault a water fortress with Shamblers ...)
- hands off battles
- almost non existent province development

And just as a side note there isnt really a steep learning curve, its just that you have to memorize spells and units or you will be looking up those all the time. Games like Chess and Go can offer a deep strategic experience without overboarding rule complexity. Dominions while initially fun becomes tedious and boring very quickly.

Der Liebe Frankie
Der Liebe Frankie

If you aren't sure - find the demo, which blocks technology progress at something like level 5. This game has a very long (but not too steep) learning curve. I'm just now beginning to read the manual that goes along with it.

So what do you want from a game?

If you want a way to spend your time which is compelling: maybe sitting in front of the computer looking at the game itself and going through some grand strategy plan, or it might be reading the book that will gently unfold "every byte in the game" for you. If this sounds like fun (and it is!) then trust me, you won't regret buying this game.

Every "square" on the board begins at the start of the game as neutral (except for starting cities). As armies conquer squares, they contribute to your economy, but they are also then easily conquered unless you station vast defending armies (which you're rather use for conquering new squares). So it eventually becomes a land-grab game that I still haven't quite gotten my head around. It's quite difficult.

The depth in the game is an insane amount of content. Every time I play I'll discover some new item I didn't know could be forged. I'm sure there are people who know all this stuff, but it's quite something discovering new items or spells and the possibility of new strategies as a result.

There are also placement and timing strategies to look at.

And afflictions. I LOVE that heroes in the game can have afflictions!

Religion plays a big role adding flavor to the game and I still haven't quite grasped the historical references other than resemblences to myth. It's almost alien almost familiar - I like how they did it.

Dominions 3 also seems to be designed to play multiplayer by e-mail, so all moves by all players are concurrent (rather than taking turns) - this is one of the few turn-based games I'm aware of which uses concurrent moves - which is why battles are auto-resolved (they have to be). Even though battles are auto-resolved, as already mentioned, there are troop placement and timing strategies which will make a huge difference in battle outcomes (guaranteeing that troops arive at the front line all at the same time becomes a consideration).

[EDIT]
Cons:
The game does have a downside, which is the lack of automating some very repetitive tasks, such as what actions you always want a specific unit to use. My impression is that the game designers are really good at designing gameplay and background, but horrible at designing "workflow", which are repetitive tasks that eventually wear down the player. In it's defense, the game seems to be designed for multiplayer via e-mail - where you might make a few moves a day and games could go on for a very long time - rather than single player versus AI where you're making several moves every few minutes.

Rave_Knight
Rave_Knight

I enjoy this game but for once I would like a diplomatic system added to future dominions and maybe a kingdom based on vampires and undead since you won't base on race but this game to me gets an 8 out of 10 mainly thanks to the gameplay and the fun you can have.

Inigo Montoya
Inigo Montoya

Many turn based games try to blend high strategy with RPG elements but they fall short when compared to Dominions. With such a dizzying array of nations, units, spells and commanders coupled with a massive number of player made maps and an engine that provides real strategic play, dominions contains an eternity of replay value for those who can grasp its juicy offerings.

netnazgul
netnazgul

Dwarf Fortress in global strategies genre. Thousands (literary) of units, hundreds of spells, tens of nations, infinite number of [winning] strategies. Really, the scope of what you can do in this game is astonishing.
The only real problem with this game is getting through a steep learning curve - manual for this game is 300 pages, it's highly recommended to read it (and you'd certainly refer to it time to time) and even manual doesn't cover all the things there are in the game.

Cliffertopia22
Cliffertopia22

Dominions 3: The Awakening is a simple-looking strategy game with poor graphics. It does certainly have poor graphics, however it is not simple, as you get intot he game things cam become very complex (especially on larger maps), but the game is straightfoward. Sometimes confusing, but that is because there are a wide range of spells and abilities that can do very complex and damaging things. All in all I heartily reccomend this game; 9/10 (as there are some annoying problems in the game, and very rarely is a gmae perfect, i\I cannot give it a 10/10).

Kefka989
Kefka989

A rather interesting game where you attempt to rule over the land with your new diety and wipe out all opposing gods. Simplistic in its design, it still has some veriety with loads of magical items, lots of magic spells, and insane amounts of troop types.

Saitama
Saitama

I've vastly enjoyed this game.
I'll expand this reveiw at some point, but the short version is:
Tons of Units
Lots of Customizability

Jules Hiræther
Jules Hiræther

Dominions III > Civ V.
Brilliant. If "Fall From Heaven" (Civ IV mod) met grand strategy simulation.
Glorious & wicked: if the graphics were realistic the game would be illegal.
Imaginationless megalomaniacs need not apply.

noble1235
noble1235

BLUF: This game's pretty awesome, if you can get past the ancient graphics and focus on the creative/imaginative aspects.

I loved the game. Yes, it is complex, but I think the complexities are actually exagerated. It's basically raise armies, research spells, invade provinces, collect gold, etc. But somehow I find it 20x more engrossing than any other "4x" game (which I don't think it quite is). There are little quirks, like that it is turn-based, but then all the movement happens at once for everyone, seasons affect gold income, but they also affect how many mushrooms grow in the forest for your witches to collect, and it's all these quirks and the plethora of races to play that make the game world feel alive. I love how you are slowly introduced to the lore; it never feels like a chore to read it to get into the game, you just pick up some of it as your priests randomly summon some ultra-powerful seraphim that then randomly gets itself killed by wandering around the map.

Sure, there's certain techniques that are pretty powerful, and certain races in certain ages are far stronger than others, but it's a game you can learn, and like life not everything has to be balanced. It's fun to learn, fun to play, and fun to experiment with. Enjoy, especially if it's on sale (though I get all my games on sale :)). Also, check out Conquest of Elysium. Same developers, also very interesting game, and generally much cheaper.

Parasite
Parasite

I actually had no fun in this game what-so-ever. I thought it was an RTS, but its not, its a dated turn-based let the pc do everything strategy game. You "view" the battles, so you can't actually real time control the fights. You can build the troops, manage states, and conquer the map, but without any real fighting it feels more like a fancy chessgame that you could really invest alot of time, unfortunately I don't love grinding and if you are one of those 90's Risk-esk gaming type go ahead and give it a go, but for me, this game just didn't catch my eye. I normally don't give negative reviews but even if its discounted this game really didn't have much to offer in terms of fun.

Zebramcwisky
Zebramcwisky

A good game for the amateurs of strategy/religion. However, the AI is pretty dumb, so it's better (and I believe intended) to play with friends.

BabyPizza
BabyPizza

I'd only recommend this game to a certain kind of gamer. There's quite a learning curve..I still don't really know what I'm doing. Virtually no tutorial, and a 150+ page instruction book. Having said that, this game is very fun once you get a modest understanding of it. Definitely not a game for everyone, but if you're into hardcore tabletop strategy, this game is for you.

CostlyMotto
CostlyMotto

This game is not for everyone, but those who enjoy it will really love it. Your Mileage May Vary! If you're not sure, try the demo and read the tutorial section in the manual first.

Do you feel that fancy graphics are an important part of games? If so, Dominions is probably NOT for you. The graphics in the Dominions series are adequate to convey necessary information to the player. I find they have a certain charm, but many disagree.

Do you enjoy reading hundreds of pages of manual and forum discussions, and spending dozens of hours experimenting, to try to understand deeply complex systems? If so, you might enjoy the Dominions series. The basics (building units, moving them around the world, setting up formations, giving initial battle orders, casting a few spells, crafting enchanted equipment) aren't too hard to learn, though you will need to read the manual. Designing thugs and super-combatants (units specially outfitted and/or buffed to be able to single-handedly wipe out armies and kill gods) takes a bit longer. After a hundred hours, I'm barely sarting to get a handle on how to really use magic effectively.

If you like your strategy games deep and complicated, and you've got some spare time, try the Dominions series.

Dangerbunny
Dangerbunny

Nothing in the way of a tutorial leaves this very complex looking game impossible to learn. hard to give it a thumbs up if i cant even play it.

Baron Von Rattheimer
Baron Von Rattheimer

This is one of my favorite strategy games. I absolutely love it. But look out.
The game isn't easy to learn.

Beard
Beard

This game has it all...many different races, lots of units and spells.
Huge amount of research and some building mixed with turn based action..i love it.
I allready bought next one, but im still learning new thing from this game everyday.

Shameness
Shameness

I had fun while I learning mechanics of the game.After I get how to use magic properly I stopped playing :) -which cost 70hrs on steam and more on my old machine. Totally worth it as a strategy addicted gamer.
A very percious advise from me ; Easy Ai is not easy , only parameter they are in disadvantage is resources and gold, their gameplay are all same: Perilious , rat , cruel :(

Bash
Bash

Amazing turn based strat with tons of units and different races. Very Deep and can be a lot to take in but it's very do able as long as you enjoy a challenge. Casual Strat gamers need not apply!

ONLY for the hardcore imo.
ORIGINALITY in the way this turn based strat game is presented
OUTRAGEOUS amount of content

Get Dom4 instead = 9/10
dom 3 = 8/10

munchwolf
munchwolf

The interface is kludgy. There are lots of choices for units, but no easy way to compare or manage them. The lack of combat control makes the extra effort into the variety of units moot anyway.

MightyManGamer
MightyManGamer

I am the type of gamer who loves complexity and choice over graphics. With that in mind, this is one of the best civilization type games I have ever played. Its similar to the old 'Master of Magic' but WAY beefed up. Random world generation, different elemental magics, different races, hundreds... thousands? of different units. Each with their own stats page, armors, weapons, etc. Cast global enchantments, combat spells, or ritual spells. immensly complex magic item forging system, massive spell books, great hero and levelling systems. Endless opportunities with the right Pretender God, using the right spells. Like I said, the graphics are... basic, but it's the content I am focused on. If you like civilization, Master of Magic, and Dwarf Fortress, sign up.

Noob Van Noob
Noob Van Noob

don't be fooled by the graphics, this is an epic, epic game that you should definetly get if you enjoy fantasy and/or strategy games. tons of units and interesting factions

Cymric
Cymric

Cons:
- The worst flaw of this game is that most of the cryptic game mechanics cannot be accessed in game and you have to rely on google search to find out. For example, while researching the "construction" school of magic, you are given no clue on what you can craft from it. Even after researching the spell, you have no idea what you can craft because many of the craftable items are not visible because the mage you select do not have the required paths in magic.
When summoning a monster, you have no idea what stat and abilities that monster will have and will need to trial and error to find out. To make an informed decision in a strategy game like this you really need detail info that the game does not provide. Is a summoning a giant turtle better or a sea serpent? Who knows? Just toss a coin to decide!

- Really dated graphics

- No control over the actual battle itself. You really need good understanding of the games' mechanics (which are cryptic and inaccessible) to script your troops to do combos and perform desirably.

Pros
- Huge variety of customizations.
You can design your avatar, a pretender god in multiple ways that will drastically affect your game. Your god might be good at combat, single handedly defeating whole armies, support your faction by providing various faction wide bonus or give your troops powerful buffs in battle. The possibilities are endless.
Not only can you customize your avatar, you can customize your heroes by giving them various crafted artifacts while a variety of effects. The kind of artifacts that you can create are limited by your god's and your mages' power in the different schools of magic, so careful planning is needed.

- The game mechanics is excellent once you grasps the basics. The the variety of tactics and combos that can be pulled off are almost limitless.

- Many factions to choose from that play very differently from one another. The lore of the game is refreshingly different from standard fantasies.

Sansy The Sans Man Sans-ers
Sansy The Sans…

Although Dominions 4 kinda makes Dom3 obsolete, for a cheaper price you can get essentially the same intricately complex game. It's not pretty and it's UI is at best painful, but it's still easily the best "4X" game ever developed for die-hard fans of the genre. It takes a long time to get used to but it's intensely rewarding, I mean when else do you get to be a god commanding an army of lizardmen?

--Destroyed Aphrodite with a Cthulu 10/10--

TylerLad
TylerLad

Flying to the rescue along with 7 bodyguards on his magic carpet, my immortalized lich god attempted to break a siege of boulder-chucking giants today. He failed, but being immortal his bones were reassimilated back at the capital without a scratch. The 50 soldiers left in the castle were ground to a pulp, however.

I have spent nearly 95 hours in this game. The gui and simple aesthetics are off-puting at first. But I've played Dwarf Fortress. Nothing looks bad or is too difficult to learn after Dwarf Fortress. For those who haven't, I think you'll quickly forget how simple it looks after your imagination helps to fill in the gaps of its graphical limitations.

If you are willing to invest a few hours learning how to play, and are able to overlook the graphics and the poor sounds quality (I suggest this mod: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37761 to replace some of the most ear-piercing sounds of the game) you will likely have hundreds of hours of entertainment.

Even after all this time, I am still too much of a scrub to survive some of the most difficult races. I have also never won a game on a large map. I like the challenge and depth, it is what makes Dominions 3 and 4 special.

JoranAtPlay
JoranAtPlay

Grand strategies matters, and minute details win the battles.
Armies fight and run.
Pretenders spread their domain.
Super-combatants rout whole armies.
Give permanent curses.
Wish for a hero.
Make everyone age rapidly.

Explode
Explode

Huge learning curve and in my opinion not worth the time to get good at it. I played offline so that's why I don't have much playtime. Civilization is much better if you want an in depth strategy game with a much nicer learning curve, and there are free strategy games that are better than this.

Curlytron
Curlytron

This game is a bit too tedious for my tastes. Too much luck involved in the game as a whole for it too be worth having any true strategy shine through. Some classes are grossly overpowered and having my survival or success hinge on class choice is fairly biased. Province defenses don't make any sense in the sense that I shouldn't have an army of 50 units be wiped out by a single weak unit ever. Forts, labs, and temples are interesting concepts, but the concepts aren't introduced well enough from the outset to maximize usage of the mechanics. If I have to read a 20+ page manual to play a game its not worth the effort, especially when a tutorial is lacking.

(5/10) I'm glad I got this on sale, because it wasn't worth the full price. Try Conquest of Elysium 3 if you are looking for something more manageable and less tedious.

SociableStream
SociableStream

>Download warhammer nation pack
>For Skaven Blight!
>Start a game on a 1500x1500 map with 1000 provinces and max nations (Game crashes several times just rendering)
>Early game micro, min maxing armies to steal land from independents.
>Encounter first oposition, some purple guys with fancy armour
>Push army groups into land rush along newly developing border
>Ratmen sneak sneak into enemy territory for deep strike attacks
>Launch premetive stike against stupid man things
>Stupid man things suffocated under waves of clan rats
>Begin sending armies to their stolen provinces
>Assassins hound commanders every step of the way
>First real battles of the war kick off with my armies of clan rats scattering to the wind in face of their Heavy Infantry
>Hurl more ratmen, delay enemy, lose more battles, push them back, more enemies appear, rinse and repeat
>This continues on for hours, about 68 of them
>Finally drown their capital under the bodies of tens of thousands of ratmen.
>Decisive Victory.jpeg
>Only 1/20th of the map is under my control
>Scoregraph put me at 7th place among the 19 remaining nations.

10/10 Would never finish a single game again.

Uiae
Uiae

The learning curve is similar to dwarf fortress, and like dwarf fortress once you've passed the barrier for entry it's entirely worth the trouble.

onur
onur

One of the worst experiences of my life. What fuck is going on, what kind of a game is that? Why so much positive?

Notes from the future : Simplex sigillum veri. With that being said i must inform you i am an enthusiast of old school hardcore keyboard operated ascii roguelikes. I don't care about the game's complexity or hardness. I am only mad about the makers' negligence about the "gamer" at the other end and that user-hostile attitude almost asking the gamer "guess what have i got here in my pocket?" which seems like arrogance and a lack of the skill of presenting eager people with easy to use game mechanics. You must give me at least that trait with that much crappy graphics and no-interface.

Coldboots
Coldboots

If you don't have dominions 4 and don't plan on waiting for that to go on sale, this is still a solid entry to the strategy genre. There are quite a few ui improvements absent from 3 as opposed to 4, and the win conditions are more simplistic, but you still won't find a better strategy pick if you're willing to overlook the old-looking graphics.

Also, as I understand it, the multiplayer scene has moved on from 3 to 4, so it may be better for playing alone.

Gespenst Gaming
Gespenst Gaming

This is a very enjoyable fantasy strategy-sim. It's plays very similar to a Total War series game, but with a more hands off approach to the battles (you don't directly control units, but you can give them pre battle formations and priorities, like telling your cavalry to wait a turn before going to attack the enemies archer units).

There is kind of a big lack of explaination for a lot of things in the game itself, so you'll have to refer to the manual or the wiki, but I figured out 95% of it on my own. One example is the game lets you give magic gems (that are a resource for casting global spells and making magic items) to your commanders, but it doesn't explain anywhere ingame the benefits of doing that. Turns out it improves their magic casting abilities of the associated gem/magic type by 1 level for having the gem equiped. But some characters also generate magic gems for you and they get put in their inventory until you retrieve them.

It took me about 4-5 games to explore how the various mechanics work, like how faith spreads, how you research magic, how building good armies and giving them the right orders to increase their effectivness. Experiment and read the ingame hints about the things that are described and it's easy enough to catch on.

Magilla Guerrilla
Magilla Guerrilla

There is a pretty cool strategy game hidden in here somewhere but I couldn't find it underneath the hideous graphics and god-awful user interface.

Praylak
Praylak

This is a strategic fantasy war game with RPG elements where players assume the role of a pretender god. It has great depth, fantastic lore and immense replay given the huge diversity of factions, pretenders, and units. Random maps, many different commander types, spells, rituals, it's full of good stuff to explore and it keeps me coming back.

The game is really unique in many ways, so it's hard to compare it with others. The pretenders, factions, and units are mostly based on ancient historical myths, not Tolkien or traditional fantasy stereo types. I found this extremely interesting and fun to learn about. These old forgotten legends come to life in this game. An age of when Titans walked the earth, Krakens rose from the seas, and the giant great wolf howled in the north.

Games can be setup with many different options, including eras which change many aspects of the game. The main objective in all though is to spread you're faith all over the world. This mechanic has several methods but ultimately when you're pretender has full world faith, he/she becomes the god.

Spreading faith will require a military with soldiers, priests, mages and monsters. Or for the more diabolical pretenders, demons and the undead. Magic may be a tool that you can source, and with nine levels in each of the eight schools, you could write a book on the different tactics you can use.

The artwork, music and overall style generates a pleasant themed atmosphere. The game can suffer from heavy micromanaging late game as you allocate armies with many commanders and soldiers. But its turn based, and there are tools to aid in managing things, and notifications.

Yeah so this is an old game now and there is a version 4, and 5. So what. Doesn't change anything that i listed here. It's still worth you're massively devalued currency. One more turn, at its finest.

wany1981
wany1981

A game of master strategy... Played for about 10 hours straight and I barely scatched the surface of this game.

On first glance, This game have sloopy graphics and looped music. They can be quickly overlooked once you get past the learning curve of the very basis of the game.

Everything you heard about or seen in other fantasy based strategy games are featured in this game. Magic, Ranged combat, autocast spells by unit, wound, exp leveling, leadership(command army size), summoning creatures, under sea combat, worship war and many more features are involved hidden behind this mask of basic interface for you to discover.

Many races of people to choose from with unique feature for each race. This well hidden strategy gem and I am sure I will discover a lot more interesting things in the days to come. Each games are not short at all once you setup on a balanced map with some AI or even human players.

9/10 for a wonderful strategy game and it only lost score on graphics, interface and music.

COOM BRIAN
COOM BRIAN

Dominions 3, the predecessor to dominions 4, also has many good goods.
However, I am not sure if there even is a large spider.
0 / a few

kamilkulczyk
kamilkulczyk

I own Dominions 3 and 4. Started playing Dominions 3, few monts later Dom 4 came out - moved to it.
Now I'm playing Dominions 3 and enormousely enjoying it. Less spells, less magical items than in Dom 4 - somehow even more fun.

Why I like Dominions:

1. Very interesting fantasy setting (not just elfes and other copies of Tolkien imagination) with Valkiries, armoured gorillas, ghouls, giants, chariots, eagle-men, bat-men, spider riders, raptor riders, fiery salamanders, armoured or undead elephants, giant ants, tiny dragonflies, barechested warriors, tritons with amber armour, hydras, halfblind cyclopes, nagas, twoheaded giants, liches, krakens, dragons, mechanical dragons, trolls, tengu, ghosts, lamias, jaguars, werejaguars, powerfull but insane gods, mages of various kinds,assasins, shark knights, Vikings with glamour, Aztects with flying ability and many, many more...
2. Ingenious balancing of nations. Other games do balancing + variety this way: one side gets a sword and shield the other axe and a shield. Dominions does it like this: one side gets a sword and a shield the other gets a catapult and a sharpened stick :-) and it works!
3. No researching of buildings, basically there are only 3 buildings you can build in a province: castle, magical reaserch lab and a temple. Less hasle with buildings and a refreshing change from the industry standard.
4. Spells, spells, spells :-) starting from minor ones like fire flies (weak and available with no reaserch) to fire storm (burns everything on the battlefield that does not have full fire protection, requires a lot of reaserch and a powerfull fire mage).
5. IT'S DIFFRENT.
6. Challenging single player even after hundreds of hours of play.
7. Great and athmosferic music.
8. The battle set up: give orders to commanders, mages and units before battle; later during the battle you just watch how your orders interplay with orders given by your oponent: surprises guaranteed, especially in multiplayer battles. Many a time I was watching biting the nails, seeing how my main force was pummeling the enemy but my oponents flanking party was going for my commander - battle of Gaugamela all over again.
9. Great community - higher IQ average than the many other games out there :-)
10. Small developer firm with dedicated staff. Basically like Creative Assembly before they were bought with Total War series by Sega. Upgrades are free and regular, game works like a clock on day one, patches fix some mechanics you never even new existed, developers behave on forums like your friends: nice, profesional, informative and surprisingly patient towards the odd troll or idiot :-)
11. Depth. 3 eras with circa 20 nations in each one, every nation has different soldiers (is hydra a soldier?) and commanders, some very usfull, some meh and some ridiculosly usless until that day when you find a use for them :-) Hundreds of spells that can be divided in 3 categories: battlefield spells that have effect on a particular battle (relevant mage has to be present), rituals used on strategical map (for example ritual that summons wywern or mechanical men that you can use in later battles) and global rituals that have a major effect on the strategical map and the battles (for example global ritual that calls darkness and gives penalty to all units in battle that don't have the special ability darkvision). Hundreds of magical items (dwarven hammer is so much better in Dom 3 than in Dom 4).
12. The distinction between strategical map and tactical map and how both are working.
13. The ideas inherent to the game and seen nowhere else e.g.:
A. units get tired on battlefield and that makes possible for an army of pitchfork fielding peasants to overwhelm a small group of knights (even though initially the knights cut them in heaps) IF (very big if) there is enough of the peasants.
B. bless effect that changes sacred units into even stronger ones and you can choose the bless effect at the start of the game.
C. Dominion which is like the population strenght of faith in you, the Pretender God. Has effect on how many sacred units you can buy, how strong some global rituals are and on morale of your troops. Also as you are pretending to be a God (one of many) in the game, the added benefit is that no fundamentalist muslim can play the game :-)
D. the way afflictions affect the units - especially extremal cases when you see a unit that is blind, cripled, weakened, with a chest wound and battle fright but still on the battle rooster.

Could go on and on but 13 is my lucky number so...

Here http://www.illwinter.com/dom3/ you can find link to a manual - try to read a few pages at least.

Here http://www.moddb.com/games/dominions-3-the-awakening/forum/thread/domin… you can find link to OLD DEMO OF DOMINIONS 3 - not sure if still works but it was great back in the days to get a taste of the game. Word of warning: do not play Kaliasa as nation unless you looking to get frustrated ALL the time, Arcosceptale is much better (chariots, massed chariots until you meet some giants)

Dominions 5 is going to be available from November so try Dominions 3 and if you like it, buy Dominions 5 in November and see you in multiplayer - watch out for my chariots :-)

One of the best games ever!!!!

Wraith_Magus
Wraith_Magus

As I said in the Conquest of Elysium 3 review, in spite of being a strategy and open-world game fan, I've just never been able to enjoy the 4X genre. All of the promise of customizing your civilization to suit your own fantasy gives way to cold calculations and optimization strategies, and all the exploration is just for finding more resources to exploit. Worse, by the end game, 4X games are just bogged down in micromanagement to maintain your war machine. It's just as the armies of my enemies are broken and victory is assured that I find myself entirely bored of the game and unwilling to bother completing it.

Dominions manages to be something of a split between a 4X and... well, the best I can come up with is a deck-building style of game. Compared to a game like Civilization, where all cultures are basically the same except for a couple unique units and one bonus or two, Dominions pits a stand-in for ancient Greece, led by Zeus or Athena or Aphrodite or some other Greek god with hoplites and such up against a stand-in for ancient Egypt filled with lizard-people and led by a dracolich against R'Lyeh, an entirely subaqueous civilization of D&D aboleths and Lovecraftian horrors.

Although the game definitely pushes you to optimize your god, the game's god-creation system is also probably its best and most interesting feature. You can be anything from an obvious stand-in for mythic deities like Thor or Kali or Quetzcoatl to some of the monsters of myth, like Tiamat or a gorgon or a straight-up demon from Hell, to a stone statue or fountain that pours the blood of virgins and demands blood sacrifice through taking possession of mortals, to just some jerk human Caeser of Rome claiming he's God-Emperor of Mankind, and out to make that claim real. Deities can craft and wear magical items based upon their magical powers, and in deity creation, you can set their magical talents (I.E. standard fire/water/air/earth, but also "death" (necromancy), "astral" ('pure' magic stuff like counterspells and magic resistance), "nature" ("druid" magic like growing plants or barkskin or regeneration or summoning fairies), and "blood" (murder slaves for magical power - based upon Aztec blood sacrifice). Beyond this, there is dominion power (higher means your religion evangelizes more successfully) and "scales", which are an alignment with different factors that affect your lands. ("Order" gives income bonuses and reduces random events, while "Turmoil" gives penalties and increased randomness. You gain more points to spend on other things taking Turmoil scales, so "Order" is always better.)

In spite of the fact that you can play as a fountain of blood that demands blood sacrifices so that you can twist the souls of your followers into horrible abominations to throw at your enemies or a straight-up angel with a flaming sword set up to bless her followers with peace and prosperity, there isn't any real acknowledgement of morality in this game (beyond "might makes right"), and there is no real sense of whether any particular cultures or peoples you conquer have any particular opinions of your religion, outside of a randomized chance of revolt (which seems to have more to do with your "misfortune" scale than anything to do with how you reign, other than pillaging the land to take slaves for blood sacrifices.)

Gameplay is basically "stack mashing", where you pile up a giant glob of units and lob it at the enemy and hope for the best. This doesn't mean it lacks strategy, however. Unlike many games like this, it actually simulates the battle. This is outside your direct control, although you can set a very basic script of actions for your units, like "attack archers" or "attack rearmost", or script up to 5 specific spells for casters, so that you can tell a gish to cast stoneskin and quicken before rushing the enemy in melee. Combat is fairly deep, with some units having light or heavy armor, weapons having bonuses against shields (which boost dodge chance rather than armor), morale and terror attacks being common, elemental attacks, and effects on the battlefield from dominion scales all taking place, there is a lot of strategy in battle.

Combat is somewhere between an RPG and a traditional RTS. Units gain experience and leaders can gain special abilities, but they can also gain permanent injuries. Leaders can also be given magical items you forge to greatly improve their combat performance, and can gain permanent (as long as they live) improvements to their magic-casting capabilities. On the other hand, death is super-cheap in this game, and you basically just churn out units as fast as your castles can muster them to throw into the meatgrinder. Common infantry units, in particular, tend to die by the dozens even in victory (and there's tons of friendly fire in this game, since friendly archers tend to aim at enemies in melee, and have poor aim).

Empire management is massively streamlined to the point of practically nonexistent compared to most 4X games. The only thing you build are castles (which dramatically increase how many units you can build), temples (which spread your religion - "Dominion" is the area where your religion is dominant), and laboratories (which let you transfer magic items). None of these need to be unlocked through research, so what you see at the start is what you get (although high-level magic can let you magically create castles where you otherwise couldn't, such as underwater if you are a land-based civ).

Those who love empire management in Civilization or even Total War may be disappointed in being "dumbed down to just combat", but there's something to reccomend it in the fact that, once you're up to "steamrolling" power levels, you can just stop caring and steamroll away instead of having an ever-more-complex empire to manage as you attain more lands. In this sense, this balance between a 4X and RTS actually appeals to me more than either those those genres do on their own.

That said, I do have to warn prospective players that there ARE things that need a form of micromanagement: Leaders (like wizards and army generals) default to "defend province/castle", but that's basically the order of last resort because it's never useful. If you have wizards you want researching magic any time you're not making magic items, then you have to remember to babysit the wizard's tower to make sure anyone who just finished a magic item goes back to research. Remember where the priest searching for holy sites is, and give new search or move orders every turn. As with a 4X, this starts to become somewhat tedious the larger your empire, and the more laboratories with wizards to manage you have to keep track of, although it's thankfully not as terrible as constantly managing a build queue since you tend to have relatively few major centers to check.

Like with "defend" as a default, I also get annoyed with how the game has a lot of bad default options, forcing a lot of constantly needing to click the same commands. Army management suffers from this frequently. The UI could be brushed up in just plain telling me how many soldiers I have total in a province, rather than making me add it up per leader. (Sure, there's consumed supply, but some troops don't eat, giants eat more than humans, and units that provide supply subtract from supply consumed rather than add to total supply, making that a false image for many circumstances. I might have 500 troops but only see 200 supply consumed.) This leads to it being rather difficult to tell just HOW strong a very large army actually is.

In all, it's far from the best strategy game I've played, but it's a very interesting one, and on sale, it's definitely worth picking up just to see what it does differently from other strategy games. (Especially since its sequels are more expensive, but better-polished games, buying this on sale makes for a good way to test the series out on the cheap.)

Vultracider Jadison
Vultracider Jadison

Absolutely excellent game with much content and complexity.
The internal game engine rules are perfect and absolutely logic.
This game was made as abstract as possible but is still very complex. No micro management and time wasters.
You have an enormous amount of units and spells as well as an easy to use random map generator.
Replayability until eternity. Have only played the demo (using the PDF Tutorial; very good) and then my own random maps.

Every single unit you buy and use for your army has it's own life and fate in the big army and has age (living units die of increasing afflictions, if too old), action points, experience and many other things. Although they work in a group, every unit acts independently like a RPG character in a turn based game.
Commanders are mostly only slightly better than regulars but have an inventory. Watch them as they bravely and crazily fight amogst their brave grunts. (Always according to your battle orders.)

The interface and graphics are absolutely enough to bring the complexity to enjoying visual life.
Only stupid little kiddies won't like this.
Preparing small and big army battles is much fun and you see the results in the fights. As you maybe would not expect, only watching your battles is very very satisfying and you can gather much tactical info from them. The joy when your plan worked out as expected is fantastic.

Smallest battle can be 1 on 1 when an assasin tries to kill the hostile commander on enemy terrain. Same battle engine used. Very good.

There is much much more, but see for yourself.

Thanks for this very nice game.
Graphics beyond functionality is mostly unimportant. Internal game engine and logics are more important for a real good game. Chess with Unreal Engine will still be Chess, idiots :D Go get yourself complex games.
Everyone who likes HoMM3, XCom Apocalypse and Dark Omen come get this now. Excellent stuff.

Aezar
Aezar

Excellent little game well worth the money. By now, they have just released Dominions 5, I found this series with Dominons 2, and have enjoyed all of them through 4. I have yet to pick up 5, but so far it looks promising. I just need more hours in my life.

morriscrow36
morriscrow36

to be honest i wish i has my money back
if you havent played the other dominion games dont buy it
its ridiculously expensive, and the game fails to be unique in anything.
it needs a campaign, the tutorial is bullshit, and if you do figure it out it is strangley addiciting at first but it quickly fades...
tumbs down for me :(

Ⓚⓝⓐⓨⓣ
Ⓚⓝⓐⓨⓣ

Steam may claim that I've only played a few hours of this, but that's because I originally bought it from Shrapnel games back in the day, to sink hundreds of hours into local multiplayer. In all that time it never got stale - the gameplay was consistently engaging, but that was just a tiny part of it. The far larger part is that it's a fantasy game written by two Ph.D. professors of mythology, and it shows. There's no Tolkien elves, there's no generic fantasy Europe (lots of nations which are much more specific fantasy in part of Europe, but nothing vague), the tropes of the genre aren't there. Instead you get mythology through a fantasy lens, from cultures all over the world, expressed in detail. There's even tiny little mechanical details that almost don't matter, but serve as neat little easter eggs for the lore.

Plus, the core format is just so fun. Make a god (with a system both unique and incredibly capable of diverse options), take over a nation, then pound the rest of the gods into the dirt until you get to be the new overgod. It just never gets old.

LandonH3x
LandonH3x

I tried to like this game but keep coming to a overwhelming feeling i wasted the 80% off of 19.99 to 4.99$ on sell price since i don`t even want it in my tittles list... Screw pay 20$ for it. It may be unique in its way of game content (not game play) but constantly you will find yourself learning by mistakes with lost games, which i was fine with till winning with no real feeling of reward. When its all said and done, this games easily forgetable.. Seriously guys, i recommend a real Grand Strategy or RTS worth the price of 20$. You might as well go for 4-5 cheap games like Darkest Hour on sell or get something at the 30$ range like Crusader Kings II but anything but this my friends.

Joe
Joe

Set up your dream apocalyptic battle-to-the-death between a skyscraper-sized leviathan and a little old lady. Put your money on granny. No joke.

Herr Rapp
Herr Rapp

Despite it's minimalistic approach to design, this game is one of the best fantasy TBS out there full of little details and soul. Not to mention the great amount of playable races and creatures available.

Imperior
Imperior

It's a fun mix of Risk and Heroes of Might and Magic with just a touch of Medieval Total War. Way too much micro management late game in really large maps. And definitely a time sink. But, a pleasing one at that, with a fairy original concept closest in style to Masters of Magic. Might not be a 10/10 but glad to buy it on a sale any day and spend hours on it in a lazy Saturday.

PS: really really easy to mod. Great thumbs up for their support for easy mods, and generally great documentation!

Magrim
Magrim

multiplayer doesn't work read the hilarious guide. Seems accurate after doing following another guide intended to help. Opened ports, turned off firewall, was not able to connect to friends game. THIS GAME IS PROBABLY NOT MULTIPLAYER. I also should mention that after trying to get it set up in multiplayer, the game bugged so when I opened it the only button was to close it, WOW. TERRIBLE!

samicx_sigma
samicx_sigma

I really struggle to understand everything that is going on here and tutorials are not as helpful as I would like. This is the kind of game that I would typically enjoy, but I am at a loss on what good strategy is for this game. Sometimes, it looks like I'm doing well, but something outlandish happens and I instantly lose with no real explanation. Maybe if someone sat me down and walked me through every aspect, I could get better, but that shouldn't be the threshold for simply being able to play the game! The lack of decent graphics and sound doesn't do the game any favors either. You'll need to invest lots of time to learn the game, and by then, you may find out that you don't enjoy it very much.

Overall: 2/5

WYR3
WYR3

The game plays extremely well on modern systems and is a joy to play. Turn based wargaming

_X_
_X_

Clearly outdated compared to Dominions 4 & 5, but still good.

Fezder
Fezder

Bit older and has crude graphics, but those aside, good strategy game