Recent reviews by HoloKnight

TL;DR wait for the game to improve its systems and/or wait for fans to do that on the Steam Workshop. Also hold off if you hate AI art a lot ig, though that too will likely be fixed given enough time. I type all of these words not because I despise anything, rather because I find this game oddly fascinating.

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What I believe to be Age of History 3's shortcomings are better told if I bring up 2 example games. The series' previous installment (Age of History 2) and the Paradox game most likely inspiring AoH3 (Europa Universalis 4) are two different sides of the Grand Strategy coin. One of them focused on complexity and accuracy with so much to learn and so much to do, that being EU4; the other focused on simplicity and shorter experiences, that being AoH2. (They are not perfect examples, but are most relevant and will work well enough here.) Both are completely fair approaches to a grand strategy game, and there's a reason games like Hearts of Iron 4 and RISK are able to coexist together.

So where does Age of History 3 fit on this scale?

It's... somewhere awkwardly in the middle?

On one hand, there are many more systems within it. Armies have compositions, there are trade resources, religion and research, etc. A lot more to digest and get better at over time, a skill curve to be met with. You must learn how to properly manage the nation in order to do well, something akin to EU4.

On the other hand, systems often feel shallow and underdeveloped. Research is clicking one button and making a value go up. Religion is a duplicated culture conversion. Trade resources largely just define what economy building can be built there. You basically use one army composition and death stack it in singleplayer. In isolation, any of these would be fine, but almost all of the game's systems are simplified versions of things done far better elsewhere. In this way, it's much like AoH2.

Now, it's fine if mechanics are more simple, so long as it's fairly balanced. That's what AoH 2 leans on; it's a couple of systems total that you can fully understand and that aren't weirdly limited or (relatively) easy to cheese. The problem in AoH3 comes from how easy it is to max one resource and make it near null and void. Research is capped so quickly that you can build ten or less libraries ever and have max research the entire game, Legacy can become brainless to get with some legacy buildings getting spammed, Money becomes valueless after you have enough provinces to spam the money buildings, etc. It leaves you feeling like you've done everything there is to do for your nation a lot quicker than it realistically should, especially if you focus one or two resources early, and I blame the busted state of buildings (both in their bonuses and the amount you can put on any one province) for this. Toning them down would fix some of the snowballing issue and also the resource value issue, though you may see this all as a positive if you're more into simpler gameplay; just snowball in a similar way each time and almost any nation and starting position is enjoyable.

This review mentions nothing of the obvious and sometimes unnecessary usage of AI art that gives it no distinct identity of its own, which I personally don't like mostly due to paying money for it but it might not bother you. Nothing of the AI nations themselves not being the best, a general failing of grand strategies but especially in this series. And don't get me started on series-staple cheese tactics.

I want something strictly positive to say before the review is over, so let's talk custom stuff. What I think you gain most from Age of History 3 is insane customization that is nice and easy. Pretty much any tool you could ever want is available and within the game itself, making alternate history scenarios hundreds of times easier to create and also leaving room for custom... anything, really. I see so much potential in a game that hands you the building blocks with no effort at all and lets you create something magical with them. Comparing the creation of a custom scenario here to any Paradox game is night and day, and I hugely respect the AoH series for having this built-in.

Also, since first writing this review, I have seen the game improve and enjoyed my time with it coming back. It's great to see some changes made to balance, like how you used to be able to get nukes after a hundred years of research in the dark ages, and it's now capped to let you get a century or so ahead by modern day. Strides are being made, yet without the Workshop I still cannot find myself recommending this game at all. And even with the Workshop, a few core issues I already mentioned persist that make it hard for me to recommend, perhaps only if you're positively screaming for a different grand strategy game to play.

One final note: If you disagree with me, comment! I could be stupid and mad because new and bad or something and I'm open to calm discussion. I'll edit this review if I disagree with anything myself later.

Recommend for those wanting a short and sweet platformer. Many challenge modes are here, and it's fun to speedrun too

I've watched my friends get impaled, blown up, gunned down, dragged away, sunk into the earth, drown, devoured in multiple ways, and struck by lightning.

All of those have also happened to me, and more. It's only been 15 hours.

I would do it all again!

It's buggy (things clip out of the container very often, and things can launch out if things get too jittery) and unbalanced. (The drop pool includes all but the top 2 tiers, which is terrible both for points and for the game feel in general. Only going up to the 6th tier or so would make this much more playable.) If there's one sentence you need to read, it's that: "Buggy and unbalanced."

Doesn't mean it's ALL bad, though. It's free, so if it interests you go ahead and try it. If stuff clipping out of the jar is fixed, as well as the drops changed, I'd actually recommend it.

There's some forbidden knowledge that has since been patched, but I want to archive it anyway: It's possible to change the height you drop stuff by using the lowest possible camera angle, putting your mouse at the top of the screen, then using A + D to rotate around and watch it follow what I presume is a wave function? And since the thing in your "hand" has collision, you can push stuff on top around or crush it and make stuff under it move. Combining these two will almost always make something launch with insane speed, but the fact it's even possible to do that is funny. Oh, and if you do this while looking down the... Hallway? It's possible to place something under the table and instantly lose. So if you want your high score to literally be zero, it's possible.

Its platforming is akin to Mega Man, but it's more evolved. (Dashing, grappling hook, Belmont dive kick, etc. adds so much schmovement.) The level design is amazing but also really difficult, especially for someone new. Expect to get rolled while taking down your first Circuit even if you pick Easy. Don't worry though, it's not too punishing. Feel free to keep trying anything you're stuck on until you're past it.

Its combat, however, is not the classic Mega Man experience in the best way possible. Grabbing and throwing enemies is such a fun mechanic, some movement tools have uses, some abilities are AWESOME, it's just... Chef's kiss. All weaves together super well. There's ranged options and upgrades to your hook available in case punching things up close isn't your style, but it's riskier than shooting lemons and requires more thought and care.

Honestly? It's just peak. Get it. Buy it before I spoil any more of the fun. It's worth every doubloon.

Age of History 2 (formerly: Age of Civilizations 2) is a great game to get into the genre. This game is a strategic in-between to the extremes of Paradox games like HoI4 and the board game RISK. It's also a game with many customization options that are easily accessible. For example, if you have an issue with a formable nation requiring too much land, there's a way to change it. You can also make your own start dates, your own countries, your own leaders, etc. As a single player experience, it is absolutely incredible that one individual made this game by himself. While, yes, this is a mobile game port, it's a REALLY GOOD mobile game. It deserved being put on PC just as much as Polytopia.

Unfortunately, multiplayer is heavily lacking. The only way to play with multiple people is with a "Pass and Play" system, which works on mobile fine I guess, but for PC it's terrible. While there is a Steam workshop, trust me when I say it's not anywhere CLOSE to the mods this game has. Because of that, playing many will require a lot of troubleshooting. That applies to making maps for the game as well. It's possible, but requires an external program, a lot of trial and error, and knowing what files need to be edited. The game would benefit heavily from having a map creator built-in, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The biggest issue, though, is how buggy this game is. It certainly takes some getting used to, but while most can be avoided when you get the hang of things, some will pop up every time you play the game. Recently, the dev seems to be taking interest in doing some bug fixes, but they're slow to come out and sometimes it just doesn't fix anything. If relations with other nations reset to 0 after turn 1000, or the names go completely bonkers, or the screen starts randomly flashing, or you can't even get every achievement, you're simply just gonna have to deal with it for now. If you don't buy it because it's buggy, I can't blame you.

HOWEVER, if you are thinking about buying this game, I think you absolutely should. It isn't a perfect game, but if you only care about single player, this game is worth more than its price point would even indicate. Those flaws are very outweighed by the game's positives. You buy this game to create scenarios with little effort compared to many other games. You buy this game to create an empire without having to learn thousands of in-game systems. You buy this game to do WHATEVER you want to do. This game will fall out of many's favor as they begin to prefer other more complicated, less buggy games, but personally I think this is a grand first step into playing strategy map games.

UPDATE: I have reviewed AoH3 in my own review, so no real mention here. Everything above still applies, and I still think this will be a good first step strategy game after RISK.

Also, the original Age of Civilizations is mobile only. Since it doesn't exist on Steam, here's a bonus review within this review: Don't play it. Don't bother playing it using something like BlueStacks or somehow finding an older phone to play it on. It's just a worse AoH2. If you want a similar experience but better in AoH2, turn on Age of Civilizations mode on the map ported from the original game. (world map but less provinces) Now you won't have terrible UI and be forced to use touchscreen controls with a mouse! Joy!

Very fun game, it's free, and Marketplace.tf lets you buy all the weapons you need for like 3 bucks, so it's not too much money to start with everything you NEED for most TF2 shenanigans. There's only a small trickle of updates and it's 10 years old, but it still feels fair and is wonderful to play even still. If you got the storage, this is a must-experience game, but it may not keep someone in longer than a month because of the lackluster dev support. Game's not dead, just losing relevancy to the public.

Bloons has been fun since the first one, but I think it's almost peaked here. Please, do buy if it's on sale, this is one of those games you can revisit whenever and it'll be just as fun.