Developed by PlaySide and published by Team17 comes a tale of valor and darkness. Select your faction, choose your hero, and prepare to face the nightmares that arise. With the dark fantasy of Grim Dawn and the spirit of Age of Empires, brace yourself. For when the sun goes down, the darkness shall come knocking at your door.
Eyes up, Champion. This is Age of Darkness: Final Stand.
Stand against the Darkness
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is at its heart a RTS, involving base building, resource management, and real time combat. Let’s break it down a bit and see what we can see. As of the writing of this article, there are four champions that you can choose from. Each of the heroes have their own special abilities that grow as they level through play. At the moment, there are three Factions, each more catered to a style of play.
Upfront: as of right now, there is no campaign that is reachable. It is stated on the game’s roadmap that a campaign is planned, but it’s further down the road. You can, however, still play Survival Mode, or make up your own difficulty challenge.
From what we know, the world is ravaged by shadows and darkness. Creatures called the Nightmare prowl the night, and it’s up to the heroes to wipe them out and protect their people.
It’s always Darkest…
In terms of mechanics, Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a fairly standard real time strategy game. Buildings require resources to make. You acquire resources from work sites placed near the relevant source. Lumber yards near trees, quarries near stone, stuff like that. You will need population units to operate buildings and work sites. You get these through houses and other lodgings. An interesting factor with this mechanic is that the more relevant resource zones that are near the building, the more resources will be generated.
Combat is what you would expect. You can select the units, tell them where to go and who to attack. If sent into a group or near enough to other enemies, the group will continue to fight until death or victory. The Heroes in this moment are able to use powerful abilities to help aid in battle. They gain more as they level up, allowing them to influence the battlefield in various ways.
Another interesting thing to note is the day/night cycle. Time passes as you play, and when the sun goes down, the enemies and nightmares become stronger. Units also can gain more experience by defeating enemies at night but run risk of dying faster. It should also be noted that every three days, a deadly surge of enemies will appear. Shoring your defenses in the early game is very important to prevent being wiped out. Should your base take damage, you will be able to repair it when the dawn comes.
…Before the Dawn
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a fun and challenging game with a wondrous art style and epic music. Its gimmicks are interesting, working both for and against the game overall. Once the game is updated to include a campaign, it may affect the overall rating. For now, give it a shot if you like RTS type games.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is available in Early Access on PC through Steam. Review key was provided by Team17.
FINAL VERDICT
GOOD
GOOD
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a fun and challenging game with a wondrous art style and epic music. It’s gimmicks are interesting, working both for and against the game overall. Once the game is updated to include a campaign, it may affect the overall rating. For now, give it a shot if you like RTS type games.
