Buy Dominions 3: The Awakening

Don't let the graphics fool you, beneath its dull exterior lies a creamy center full of Strategic goodness.

Strategies center around the nation you choose and how you design your Pretender God. Battles are decided by how you form up your troops and the orders you issue to them before each fight.

If you like strategy games and a fantasy setting, you really should not pass this one up.

Dominions 3 stands as one of my favorite strategy games of all time. It's not really that similar to anything else; the combat is all automatic, and your main job (as a god) is to manage your empire, build armies, build forts, research and cast spells, and plan out where your armies will go.

The graphics are sufficient for the job they do, and there's a plethora of addtional mods and maps and what not available for it.

All told, i quite recommend it to any fans of strategy who are looking for something a little different.

I highly recommend this game to any strategy enthusiasts or fans of mythology out there. I'll go ahead and get the (tiny) amount of bad out of the way - the game has an unusual user interface, and selection of units can be especially tedious sometimes. With that detail out of the way, I only have good to say about Dominions 3. The writing in the game is top-notch, and very detailed. You often have to play multiple races to get a fuller picture of the history, but it's rich and satisfying once you put it together. The Tuatha and the Fomorian Giants are a good example. The game plays in a standard fashion with territories and movement, much like other turn-based games. However, to locate the useful goodies in a territory, you'll have to cultivate a few powerful mages, to find hidden sites that can provide mana gems, unique units for recruitment, or unique effects once unearthed. You'll need them (and magi once again) for the forging of magical items to equip your agents, priests, mages, generals, and your Pretender God. But the true meat of the game is in spreading your dominion (aka faith) across the map. It is the source of your power, and since it can flow into enemy territoy, it can also hamper their efforts to withstand your (inevitable) attack. Be sure to build lots of temples in your own honor! Put those puny mortal mages to work researching powerful magic that can affect the whole world. Turn day to perpetual night, bring on and endless winter, kill someone anywhere in the world, dispach the flying monkeys! Last Pretender God standing wins the prize - true Godhood. Sounds simple, right? Think again. It's a deep and complex game, and can be quite the challenge at times. So join in the fun, weave your own epic tale! Smash vampires with giants, ♥♥♥♥♥ queens (yes, its a real pretender) with a midget masher, run from Cthulu! It's all in there, and waiting for you!

If you can get past the learning curve, slightly awkward controls and the graphics then you are in for a real treat, this game has so much depth and variety, literally every game you play is different because of the sheer amount of units, unique events and spells available. Very fun and reminds me of Civlization as this game will also give you 'one more turn syndrome'.

This game may look outdated, but in fact it is one of the best multiplayer games I've played. The incredible diversity and depth of this game made me sink quite a few hours into it and playing this in multiplayer is amazing. If you like playing complex turn-based diplomatic multplayer strategy games this one is definetly worth buying.

Games do not get better than this. There's a 300 page manual, so be prepared to learn the game for the first 120 hours of play.

I have purchased this game a while ago but only recently I had a chance to play it.
While HoMM, AoW, and Disciples series may have their own merits, this is the game that I was looking for. Namely, a Fantasy strategic WAR game.

In this game, logistics and grand planning matter.
This is a very rare game that handles grand warfare in a fantasy world very well.

* Learning the game might take some time. But tutorial is good. And play a small game with only one AI. Then move to medium map with 3 AI. After several games, you know what to do.

Dominions 3 is a really deep strategic game that will challenge you to create a pretender God, lead a nation, expand, and avoid being destroyed by the other pretender Gods. There are many stats on units you create and many game concepts to learn if you have never played a Dominions game before. The graphics are lacking when compared to newer games but graphics mean little when this game has the best strategy mechanics I have seen in a while. Overall if you are willing to excuse the graphics and learn the mechanics, you will be in for an amazing strategy gem.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best games ever made in this genra and one of my all time favorite games.

I urge all of you who enjoy games of this style to look beyond the modest graphics and give this game a good look. One of the first things you'll notice about Dominions and one of the things that really makes it shine is how rich the game world is. It really gives you the feeling that a prehistoric world filled with magic, beasts and warriors has its future decided on the battlefield by the individual warring nations (60 of them!) each with their own very vibrant back-story that gives them a very unique feel.

Each race is decidedly entirely different - A nation of frost giants, empowered by the coldest environments, a nation of demons who rise from the dead after being slain in combat etc etc.. Choose one and expand your armies AND ALSO your influence (dominion) across the land to bend the lands and their people in it to your nation's style.

Note: This review only reflects single player. Some of the concerns should be equally valid in multiplayer tho.

Pro:
- lots of nations and spells to play with

Contra:
- no upgrade path except for magic, you start and end the game with the exact same troops
- larger empires are micromanagement nightmares (commander limits, picking up scattered units, managing troop supplies for fronline armies etc on a 45 province map is already horrible)
- tedious mopping up of beaten opponents (hopefully you didnt pick low dominion while trying to assault a water fortress with Shamblers ...)
- hands off battles
- almost non existent province development

And just as a side note there isnt really a steep learning curve, its just that you have to memorize spells and units or you will be looking up those all the time. Games like Chess and Go can offer a deep strategic experience without overboarding rule complexity. Dominions while initially fun becomes tedious and boring very quickly.