Second Age of Wonders
Triumph Studios are working on a sequel to their award-winning role-playing strategy game "Age of Wonders"
Buried amongst the flurry of gorgeous 3D accelerated first person shooters and real-time strategy games released in the second half of 1999, one of my favourite games of the year was surprisingly "Age of Wonders", an addictive turn-based game featuring a mixture of role-playing and strategy gameplay which won it a string of rave reviews from many gaming websites and magazines. Although it drew heavily on the "Heroes of Might & Magic" series for inspiration, Age of Wonders stood on its own merits as one of the most addictive games of the year.
Now developers Triumph Studios have announced that they are hard at work on a sequel, imaginatively titled "Age of Wonders II : The Wizard's Throne". Although the sequel will stick to the 2D roots of the original, it will feature a brand new Direct3D enhanced engine supporting 32 bit colour and resolutions up to 1280x1024, with a new special effects system included to give spells some extra 3D oomph. As the Heroes franchise seems to have stagnated recently, with each new title using the same well worn engine, this might just be the fix that fantasy fans and turn-based gamers have been waiting for. Unfortunately you will have to wait a little longer, as the game is currently aiming for release early in 2002.