Funny (or not funny), but I actually bought AOW3 twice, once on GOG then again on Steam with all the DLC. And I couldn’t get into it. I tried, I really did. It just wouldn’t grab me for some unfathomable reason. So yay for offering it for free!
I love the Civ and early HoMM games. I’m hoping Planetfall will be different and I may still give AOW3 a try again. By all accounts, AOW3 should have been right up my alley.
I am in the same boat, @Equisilus. I should love AOW3, as it has a lot of elements I really enjoy, but it’s never hooked me. I’ve started five or six games and the campaign, but I’m still at 29 hours total played. Maybe that’s not enough time to get hooked?
I still plan to buy the new Planetfall game next month, though.
I’m one of the folks that bounced straight off the campaign for this one. If I hadn’t circled back and tried a random map campaign I would of dropped this really fine game never knowing what I’d missed.
Here’s a suggestion if it’s not worked for you up to this point. Fire up a random campaign, load it with 5 AI’s, then set it to teams and make it so you and one AI are on a team faced off against 2 other AI teams. The rest of the parameters about map size and what not you can set to personal tastes (I wouldn’t however turn on the underground on this play thru as that effectively doubles the map size and bogs things down a bit from a gameplay perspective). Then have at it.
Play the majority of the tactical battles yourself, that’s a large part of what makes this one fun. Of course If the tactical battles don’t float your boat, this may never end being your cup o tea.
I tired the campaign a few times and I could never make it through. Its just too contrived with certain planned events. You also do not get to spend much time with each hero archetype.
I’m thinking if no alliances/no teams is enforceable via a game setting during game creation, that would be the way to go, unless the majority wants to play a 2v2v2 or 3v3 game.