Dominions 3

by Shrapnel Games

Product Features

• Players can design and save gods for later play
• Map filters now allow players to easily locate scouts
• Over 1500 units to wage war with -- deep combat model encompasses everything from battlefield morale to the use of magic
• Nation specific spells and summons - More than 600 spells and 300 magic items, all with evocative descriptions
• Make and remake nations as you see fit, with more powerful modding capabilities

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000K0OSFS
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 17, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,791 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #2 in Software > Games > PC Games > Online

Product Description

Dominions 3: The Awakening gives you a chance to save your world from the coming chaos -- or take advantage of it to see your god ascend and rule. Awakening from a slumber beyond comprehension to mortals, the gods promise much to their followers -- and to their enemies they will deliver blood, fire, and death. The war for true ascension to godhood begins and a new chapter in the Akashic records is about to be written in the tattered flesh of the fallen... Turn any image into a map -- battle across Faer n or Middle Earth Choose whether you want you chosen god awake or dormant when the game begins Rebalanced rates for income, supply and resources to enable larger conventional armies Streamline play by checking for taxes & unrest automatically, through the Autotax function New music from Erik Ask Uppmark and Anna Rynefors, the duo behind Dominion 2's lilting musical score Features 300-page printed manual with a play-along tutorial, spells reference, nations info and so much more

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great depth, wonderful small-production game., December 19, 2006

By 

Andrew D. Duryea (Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dominions 3 (CD-ROM)

The Dominion series is a turn-based multi-player fantasy strategy "god" game. The technology is not new (it's a few steps-up from text only) but the sheer depth of this game has to be seen to be believed. If you are a fan of turn based strategy or fantasy, you owe it to yourself to check this game out by downloading the free (and very capable) demo at Sharpnel Games website. Illwinter is obviously most interested in putting out a product that gives players options . . . thousands of options . . . and a compelling reason to play a game again and again and again. Appropriate comparisons for this game include any of the old turn-based map strategies, Master of Magic and the Total War series.

The mechanics of game play are basic. The bulk of play is executed by issuing orders to "hero" units. These heros can be military commanders, mages, priests, scouts, assassins, or even your pretender-god. You can also build armies to assign to your units. After all orders are issued and build queues are filled, you process the turn results (this is when battles are fought) and repeat.

Sounds simple but there are dozens of different hero types, each with a couple score attributes, a few magic item slots, the possibility of magic and other unique abilities, and even different potential order options (assassination, preaching and casting spells are not available to just anyone!) Add to this hundreds of spells, magic items, unit abilities and units, and you begin to see the possibilities.

Combat is unique in this game because you script your starting tactics and battlefield positions beforehand and then let the computer duke it out between forces. The net effect is you can determine how you will start your battle . . . but after that the tide of war determines how it ends (frighteningly similar to actual war in the ancient world.)

Victory conditions can vary as with almost a dozen other game options so it is hard to say what your ultimate goal is. Crushing the other pretender gods can't hurt!

The game background draws heavily from history, mythology and fantasy. Units range from grecian hoplites to hindu-influenced monkies to lovecraftian deep ones to clasic undead to the physical forms of the Pretender Gods themselves (dragons, demi-gods, mages and . . . weirder) Notably absent are the "normal" fantasy races . . . if you are looking for tolkienesque elves you'd better keep looking.

Just to help you wade through this mire of options, Illwinter has included a 300 page game manual. Not only is this a normal manual but it includes tidbits like quick-lookup tables and even a smattering of "standard" play strategies (which are a great starting point when you have this wide of a set of choices.)

Quick list of pros and cons:

Cons:
Graphics and audio (sprite based grahics, surprisingly good music but not much of it, "Cute" sound effects)
some potentially objectionable themes (human sacrifice, demons, raising the dead, magic, claiming godhood)
overwhelming array of options (you'll probably spend more time designing your pretender-god than actually playing the first few games.)
Price (not cheap)
No downloadable game.

Pros:
Options, options, options make for great replayability (which offsets some of the bite in the price)
Spectacular "atmosphere" on top of some very inventive background.
Simple enough to play right away even with the variety of options.
Simple system requirements.
Broad range of OS's.
Dedicated and global multi-player base.
Wonderful demo to try . . . and get hooked on.

So give it a go, you have nothing to lose and a whole lot of exploring ahead of you!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars basic info, December 2, 2008

By 

Gandalf Parker (Vacaville, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dominions 3 (CD-ROM)

As of version 3.21 (Nov 5, 2008)
Windows, Mac, and Linux versions come on the same CD. The Linux version is VERY webserver friendly. Its TBS and supports solo, hotseat, direct tcp/ip, and PbEM multiplayer play. The graphics and sound is ok but not great. However this makes it very laptop friendly and shares the computer well with other games (its easy to shell out to check mail and such then jump back in)

The maps can be as large as 1,500 provinces. There is a random map generator built in, and 2 downloadable player-created generators.

There are 72 unique nations. And a total of 95 nation slots allowing for play with player modded nations.

There are 2088 different units in the game. Over 1000 pieces of equipment that can be given to them with various abilities, 709 magic sites to be searched for which can grant gold, magic gems, the ability to recruit or summon other units, and some which have bad effects.

There is 9 areas of magic. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Astral, Death, Nature, Blood, and Holy. Spells are in the categories of Conjuration, Alteration,Evocation, Construction (creating magic equipment to give your commanders), Enchantment, Thaumaturgy, Blood Magic. And Holy altho Holy doesnt need to be researched. Some spells are cast in magic labs you build in a province, some are battlefield, and some are global. There are 755 major spells.

Each nation can be played by a human and will support online playing against other people, and hotseat playing for two people on one computer. They can also be set to play as AIs with settings of easy, normal, difficult, mighty, and impossible. The AI has not been proven to do any cheating but mostly just gets more creation points to spend setting itself up at the beginning. (Impossible is of course NOT impossible but it is far beyond the little toy AIs in other games which serve only as tutorials). Since each nation is so unique you will find that those AI settings mean different things in play. Some nations mighty AI will be another nations easy AI but the difference is how well you play against that type of nation so that comparison would be different than another persons going up against the same nations.

Even after years there is no "killer strategy" found like in other games. People are still coming up with new tactics and discussing them on the forum. It takes a LONG time to play it all solo and settle into your favorite nation and the build choices of that nation. At that point you can shift to multiplayer online games which come in many styles. Or start checking out the mods created for adding new nations, improving the AI, or just throwing surprises into the game. This game has extensive replayability.

WARNING: as much as I love this game, it is NOT for everyone. Altho the demo is way out of date with the many patches and upgrades, it still does give a good impression of what the game play is like. I HIGHLY recommend downloading the demo before deciding to buy the game.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the deepest, most replayable strategy game on our planet, March 11, 2008

By 

Sprout - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dominions 3 (CD-ROM)

Dominions 3 is an an amazingly deep game, there is nothing like it at all on the shelves of your local software store. If you at all enjoy strategy games, you are doing yourself a disservice by not owning this game. Personally, I place it alongside such legendary titles as: the Total War titles, the Civilization series, and Alpha Centauri. It's that good.

In an era of sleek overproduced software titles, software companies have largely failed to deliver a title which rewards patience and a thirst for depth in a fantasy game setting. This is an exception. It's certainly a throwback, and possesses what I feel is a great retro and authentic game feel. With playable nations based on real-world myth and legend, this game can teach as well as an entertain. With around 20 nations per age, and 3 ages, there are somewhere on the order of 60 different nations to play. A staggering number, considering that the differences actually *do* make a very big difference in game play, I'm not talking about most games having 'different' units which simply dittle the graphics but basically fulfil the same role. You get actual replayability here, moreso than any game I've ever played before.

Fair warning: the sound and graphics of this game are clunky when considered against modern standards, and the AI is a bit predictable (of course) but it more than makes up for it in almost every single other aspect of game design and game play. This is a game that after you play it, you want to quit your job and become a game designer.