There’s something almost embarrassing about how completely Age of Wonders 4 absorbed me, and I say that as someone who has occasionally made dinner while listening to a podcast about the economic systems of Baldur’s Gate. It’s the kind of game that makes you forget what time it is and what day it is. It offers the same thing every fantasy game promises: power, glory, conquest. But it also gives you something we rarely admit we want, control.
Because that’s really what’s on offer in Age of Wonders 4. Not just the ability to create your own empire but to sculpt it morally, magically, and aesthetically from the bones out. Do you want to lead a clan of celestial toads with feudal values and a dark affinity for necromancy? Go ahead. The game will not only let you, it will reward you. And then, you’ll spend 90 minutes adjusting your banner colours.
Customization
It’s tempting to see AoW4 as the ultimate sandbox, a glorious ode to self-expression. But let’s be honest. There’s a fine line between creativity and neurosis. I crossed it when I spent ten minutes deciding whether my mole-people overlords should be “Shadow Affinity” or “Order Affinity.” (They chose Order. They always choose Order.)
The truth is that total freedom can be profoundly overwhelming. We say we want to build our worlds, but we often really want the world to affirm the decisions we’ve already made about ourselves quietly. AoW4 knows this. It hands you infinite levers to pull, then softly nudges you into believing every lever matters. Even the ones that don’t.
AI Is Fine
Every strategy game has to grapple with the fundamental contradiction of its genre: the brighter the AI, the less fun you’re likely to have. Age of Wonders 4 skirts this by making its AI smart enough to feel threatening but not so clever as to dismantle your fantasy of superiority. Your magical badger-people will, mostly, win. And when they don’t, it’ll be because you chose to take a risk, not because the AI outplayed you.
This illusion works best when you don’t look directly at it. It is like dating someone who seems really into you but never asks how your day was. You could ruin it by asking questions. But why would you? You’re winning. You’re fine.
Fantasy as Therapy
There’s a more profound emotional current running under AoW4 that’s easy to miss: the fantasy of leadership without compromise. In real life, being in charge means emails, politics, and burnout. It means clicking a button and watching an entire species develop a shared belief system. Want to outlaw magic? Legalize goblins? Declare war on elves for being smug? You can do all of that. You can do anything, and it will feel good.
This is not unlike the recent wave of “self-partnered“ and “girlbossing alone“ content online. It’s power as escapism, not to dominate others, but to be free of them. In AoW4, no one questions your vision. Your goblin army does not unionize. Your frog-mage does not want to “circle back“ on last quarter’s arcane projections. It’s peace disguised as conquest.
And Yet, I Played for 40 Hours
What Age of Wonders 4 ultimately reveals, perhaps more than it means to, is how seductive the fantasy of neatness is of a world that responds to your input with satisfying, symmetrical feedback. The world you shape is one where actions have immediate consequences, and outcomes are always your own.
This is, of course, not how real life works. But it’s precisely how Age of Wonders 4 works. It’s not just a strategy game. It’s a balm. It’s therapy for the quietly frazzled. The mid-30s overachiever. The spreadsheet is romantic. The fantasy girlboss of the tactical underworld.
And honestly? It works. Maybe too well.
