It didn't take long for me to take a liking to Age of Wonders: Planetfall. From its six over-the-top sci-fi factions spewing lasers, acid bile, and personality all over the randomly generated planets to the way it manages to finely balance its pacing between a traditional 4X campaign and XCOM-style tactical battles, there is plenty to praise. A little more sense of tech progression and deeper base building wouldn't have hurt, though.

The far-future setting has layers of complexity without feeling overly complicated. Hundreds of years ago, the galaxy-spanning Star Union collapsed, and each of the interesting and distinct factions of Planetfall represents some splinter group of survivors that went their own way in the aftermath. The Vanguard are standard-issue humans who have been in cryosleep since before the collapse, and they offer a great starting point both for their familiar style of conventional warfare with guns and tanks, and the fact that they know about as much about the current state of things as you do on your first campaign. But if you want to get weird, there are plenty of intriguing alternatives, like the melee-focused insectoid Kir’ko, and the creepy-as-hell cybernetic Assembly.

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You can get to know each of the factions through a handful of well-written, quest-driven story scenarios set on pre-made maps that help flesh out their place in the galaxy. I found these to be the most entertaining part of Planetfall, challenging me to explore ancient ruins, get to know named and voiced characters, chase forbidden secrets, and navigate sometimes complex politics that often pit different ideologies within the same base faction against one another. The one downside is that once I looked beyond these hand-crafted scenarios (of which there are 13 in all and take anywhere between one and several hours to complete) the random maps that make up the meat of Planetfall felt lacking in comparison. There are a variety of victory conditions, from political unification to deploying a doomsday device, but without those meaningful storylines steering me toward them I just wasn’t as excited to get there.

Turning the Tide

On the bright side, getting to the end has a great flow whether you’re on story or random maps. Developer Triumph Studios has triumphed in striking a tricky pacing balance, with battles usually lasting around three to five turns. This is long enough to build some excitement and allow for fun and tactical decision-making, but quick enough that each turn doesn't get bogged down with several XCOM missions' worth of combat. Other hybrid 4X games could learn a lot from Planetfall in that department.

“ Battles are long enough to build some excitement and allow for fun and tactical decision-making, but quick enough that each turn doesn't get bogged down.

And the battles are a lot of fun, too – especially considering how different and interesting each of the factions are once the plasma starts to fly. The Vanguard feel like a pretty typical XCOM squad, relying on firing lines and overlapping fields of overwatch to gain ranged superiority. The Kir'Ko couldn't be further from that, dishing out high melee damage and hive-mind abilities that encourage you to attack in clusters. I loved how each army forced me to change my thinking and develop new doctrines.

While the unit variety available through the tech tree is strong (not even factoring in the wild and wonderful neutral units you can recruit on each map to change things up further), I felt I was missing a sense of meaningful progression at times. It’s true that almost every node of military research expands your toolbox, but it's mostly side-grades for what you already have. Units can be upgraded with up to three offense, defense, and support modules as well as gain experience over time, but a unit with three late-game mods doesn’t do a lot more damage than one with three early game mods, they just have more roles available. Later-game elite units can pick up this slack somewhat, but even they often felt more like specialists than straight upgrades. I never got that powerful feeling of upgrading my spearmen to swordsmen in Civilization, or kitting out an XCOM squad with plasma weapons for the first time. That takes some of the inherent excitement out of progressing down the tech tree.

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Mapping the Stars

The things I typically found myself doing on the campaign map weren't as interesting as the things I was doing in battle, either. Base building is fairly straightforward, with a few decisions to make about how to specialize different sectors that come under your control. I'm not against streamlining logistics management in a game with so much going on, but managing my colonies almost felt hands-off at times. It gives me the impression of something I need to do in the background to support my armies, rather than an interesting challenge in itself. And when you dive into the details, the fine tuning available with manual population management doesn't even feel that impactful. Even when playing on the Experienced difficulty, I never had enough issues with unrest to actually have to deal with riots – whether or not I was paying a lot of attention to my happiness.

While they may sometimes be dull to play on, Planetfall's randomized maps are never dull to look at. Each world type, from feral wilderness to ruined urban sprawl, creates a strong sense of place with clever use of color and environmental detail. Every faction pops with interplanetary pizzazz, treating us to some truly wild, wonderful, and at times delightfully disturbing machines and creatures. Planetfall even takes a concept as generic as a futuristic space rifleman and gives it enough flair to seem handcrafted and interesting. All the while, the musical score does a fine job setting the mood of danger, exploration, and striving onward in the face of decay.