The style of each nation seems to draw broadly on a healthy selection of real mythology and popular fantasy.Īfter that, you are thrown into the god customization screen where you must first choose your physical form. The majority of nations are primarily land-based however there are also some sea-based nations. Each nation has its own selection of units, generals, mages, priests, and dominion preferences. There are 28 to choose from, and they are more than adequately diverse ranging from rather ordinary Rome-like human empires, to nations of angel-like winged bipeds, and even to the rather more bizarre race of ape kings. After racking up an embarrassingly large number of hours of play, I still feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of the viable strategic possibilities contained within. The level of customisation and options available before you even begin the game are verging on ridiculous and the sheer depth of strategic and tactical possibilities when playing is of astronomic proportions. I’m not sure even where to begin summarising Dominions 4 gameplay. The primary map-screen appears overwhelming at first

You take the role of one of the wannabe deities, leading a nation and looking to fill his shoes. Except that now, he’s gone and it’s happened again and no one knows why. Some time ago there were a bunch of wars in which a triumphant pretender was able to rise to the role of the one supreme god, and thus there was great peace. To put it politely, Dominions 4 is story-light. Good things come to those who persevere – particularly if by ‘good things’ you mean staying up till 5am every night bleeding your eyes out on this pixelated paragon. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s not a decent game just because the graphics look like they’ve been knocked together in MS paint by a time-travelling Choose Your Own Adventure illustrator facing sudden technology crisis. Being that they’re a tiny indie studio made up of just two guys, there’s a fair chance you’ve never heard of this title.

Dominions 4 is the latest in the decade-spanning series of medieval fantasy 4X strategy games from Illwinter Game Design.

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