Want to know why Age of Wonders 4 customization is so special? Then, read on! Following the success of Age of Wonders: Planetfall, it was just a matter of time before Paradox Interactive and Triumph Studios got back to it with an all-new franchise entry into the magical realms,  as the Powerful Wizard Kings have returned for an ever-growing saga. The thing about the new mainline AoW though, is that it's got a whole new schtick and is ridiculously exciting for turn-based fantasy fans. Indeed, today we're going to be discussing the customization in Age of Wonders 4 and why it's such a huge deal.

If you'd like to learn the basics of Age of Wonders 4, we recommend checking out our technical summary of the game. We also have plenty of more generalized coverage planned for the coming days! However, this specific article is laser-focused on a feature that will either make or break the game and will be most interesting to franchise veterans. Let's get to it!

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Age of Wonders 4 Customization - Why it's Such a Big Deal

Set and primed to launch very soon, on May 2nd, Age of Wonders 4 positions itself as the premier 4X game to play in 2023. Whereas 2019's Planetfall attempted to take the IP for a ride in a sci-fi environ, Triumph Studios is going back to the series' core pitch - the Age of Wonders signature blend of ever-evolving fantasy adventure in new magical realms and turn-based strategic combat. This is being driven home more than ever before because AoW 4 presents its players with a veritable wealth of features and functionality to build their empires in their own fantasy realm.

Whereas most other fantasy strategies allow you to choose a faction/race and then take them on a wild ride, Age of Wonders 4 instead lets you build your own people from scratch. More importantly, though, the game also allows you to grow and change your faction as you go. The goal, as it were, is to build a constantly changing and evolving sandbox that lets you, too, change alongside it.

Early previews tout "unlimited" variety already, even with an unfinished build of the game! In other words, it's a very promising system that could very well set a new precedent for the genre.

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Can You Really Create Any Type of Empire, Though?

Indeed, Age of Wonders 4 goes above and beyond regarding industry-standard strategy game customization. Odds are good that almost every player can create their own dream fantasy empire from scratch. Whether you'd like to set up a fantasy race of peace-loving ratkin healers or, perhaps, to recreate the vicious Drukhari, there are ways to do precisely just that! If variety is the spice of life, AoW 4 is basically Melange.

The way this turn-based tactical combat game works is that, at the start of each match, players get to deck out their race of creatures from top to bottom. It all starts with the choice of a basic creature archetype: human, toad, elf... the variety is substantial indeed. Once that's all sorted out, the next step is to imbue this new race with a cultural baseline: high fantasy, dark worshipping, etc. Again, there's a bunch to choose from, and these options inform the basics of your civilization's future development. All of this is followed by choosing two core racial traits that set your people up with a starting selection of spells.

Finally, there's visual customization. Again - expect a huge array of optional cosmetics for your creatures and units.

Variety, variety, and - you guessed it - variety

So, to summarize, Age of Wonders 4 is stacking its deck with the following customization options:

• Creature Archetype
• Culture
• Racial Traits
• Visual Aspects

And that's just the start! Throughout the game, your people will develop in unexpected directions, possibly even adopting paradigm-shifting goals and developments. All in all, a hugely promising new system that we cannot wait to see in action ourselves.

How Does Such Immense Customization Keep Things Balanced?

An obvious concern, then, is whether Triumph Studios will be able to balance all these bits at once. Historically, allowing players to do whatever they want has not always been a great idea. Gameplay-wise, this opens a Pandora's box of possibilities! Simply having all of these options available all at once is a monumental job in and of itself. Add diplomatic and combat options to the mix, spice things up with three disparate research trees (Standard, Culture, and Magic), and you've got a heck of a powder keg, alright.

This is, in truth, a fantasy-skinned Civilization-tier 4X experience. An immense sandbox that, thanks to its randomized level-gen and impressive customization, promises an array of unbalanced choices that may well be balanced. We don't really know yet how Triumph will handle all these disparate bits of content, but the previews have been almost unanimous in praising the experience.

As the game is due to launch in just a few days' time, we won't have to wait long until we can really get down to business and crunch its math. So, do stay tuned!

Excited Yet? Stay Tuned!

Overall, the predicament is quite simple indeed: Age of Wonders 4 aims to wow us all with more flexibility and customization than we've ever seen in a 4X title. I mean, we're talking about getting to implement your own design for a race creation with their own unique societal traits here! Most important, though, is that it will all be organically implemented into the core gameplay loop. For example, if your race of creatures invests heavily in ice spells, they may develop frostbite-like visual effects on top of their usual features.

Naturally, the 2Game editorial team will be all over these features as soon as the game comes out, on May 2nd. To that end, we invite you to join us as we provide a deeper, more comprehensive look at what's really going on in Triumph Studios' latest and greatest offering yet.

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