Dominions 3 is one of only two games that I have played this year that comes with a comprehensive manual (Civ 4 being the other one, also an excellent game). It's a good thing too because with 50 plus nations, almost a thousand spells, a thousand or so units, and hundreds of unique craftable artifacts that you can equip on your leaders, this game is mammoth. The manual is 300 pages and I have probably read it at least 5 times now just in playing about half the nations. The manual comes with a circular binder which is also a nice touch because if it was bound (like the Civ4 manual) it would have disintegrated by now. Other than being rich in mythology and options, there are a few design decisions that make this game very different than what is currently on the market. First of all the game is saved every turn but the previous game's save is *unsaved* at the same time. The game is essentially played in "Ironman" mode at all times. All player and AI moves are also done simultaneously. So if you screw up or an opponent does something unexpected you have to live with the results. This makes the game much more challenging of course. Also, units that survive combat in one battle don't always escape unscathed. Units that see a lot of fighting not only gain experience, they also have a good chance of gaining permanent injuries if they are wounded in battle. Some races have ways of healing these but most do not. Since this is a major part of the game many of the spells, attacks, and artifacts in the game have increased ablitities to inflict permanent wounds of various sorts instead of just killing or damaging an opponent. The one definite downside to the game is that while you can have 500+ units in a battle, the graphics are pretty poor by today's standards. The upside to that is you can run the game on a slower computer. The developer is very talented but doesn't seem to have a huge budget. Hopefully that will change for Dominions 4 after the success of Dominions 3. I'll give you some examples of things you can do in this game you can't do anywhere else. Want a Lovecraftian Aboleth covered in tentacles and eyeballs that destroys enemies with a thought? Check. Want it to leave the water? Just forge an amulet of air-breathing for it. Want your pretender god to be a gorgon wearing hydra armor, a life stealing sword, an axe that cuts off everyone's legs, and has a bottle that releases a huge water elemental to fight for it in every battle? Check. Did I mention that the snakes on her head get 5 poisonous attacks per round and that enemies often turn to stone if they try to attack her? Pretender god (that's you in the game) choices range from 5 or 6 kinds of Dragons, undead of various sorts, demons, wizards, druids, forgemasters, titans, fountains, monoliths, bipedal dogs, and giant Kali-like ladies with lots of arms. Easily more than 100 choices. Every new game is so customizable that the replay value is unparalleled. The games sounds are very limited but the music score is quite nice so I'm giving it a 5 there.
Other Helpful Reviews for Dominions 3: The Awakening
THE GOOD: -Deep, addictive strategy -More content than the developers (2 people!) even remember -Large, strong community THE BAD: -Non-scalar, 2d graphics -Small musical score I first ran across the Dominions ... Read Full Review
This game by far is the best fantasy based turn based role playing strategy game I've ever played in my 25+ years of computer gaming. Yes, it has an extreme learning curve, but, that's part of the fun learning a new game... Read Full Review
