With less than a week until the release of Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations, developer Triumph Studios and publisher Paradox Interactive took to Twitch to showcase a handful of features from the upcoming DLC.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations looks to add a good few new things to the mix, including Choose Your Own Adventure-style missions through its anomalous sites, but also psychic cats, and vampiric alien constructs.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations Features
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations Anomalous Sites
Anomalous sites are one of the major features coming with Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations. Essentially archaeological expeditions but on steroids, they add a Choose Your Own Adventure-style element to exploring the map. You’ll find them as you move from place to place and, once triggered, completing them takes a number of turns.
Anomalous sites often present you with multiple choices, the presence of some being affected by a variety of factors like faction and secret technology. They range from straightforward answers, to ones that make you question your morals or even some that let you ask an ally to step in and vouch for your faction.
Although they do expand on the Age of Wonders: Planetfall lore, it’s not all hanging back and reading. Depending on the choices you make, you will also be pulled into battles that take place on new maps crafted with anomalous sites in mind.
One of the endgame fights showcased during the livestream pit players against an army that constantly puts pressure on them by resurrecting units with each passing turn. A previous choice faced players with the possibility of firing an EMP bomb, doing so significantly reducing the number of units that the enemy could resurrect.
If a fight proves too difficult, you can always retreat without losing progress with the anomalous site. That being said, while you’re licking your wounds, nothing stops another player from swooping in and stealing the riches right from under you.
Successfully completing the anomalous sites can not only go as far as unlocking entire technologies but also grant control of a strong structure on the map.
Anomalous sites in Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations come in three levels, determining their length and, likely, difficulty.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations Units
Before dabbling into the new Heritor secret technology, two new wildlife units were showcased. While the Megasow made its appearance back when Revelations was announced, the live stream revealed the Misfortune, which is a psychic teleporting cat.
Not only can it fire psychic projectiles that damage and, after a turn, make enemies panic, but it also has a debuffing aura surrounding it.
The other major addition coming with Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations is the Heritor secret technology which brings the total up to seven. In the lore, the Heritors were a theocraftic group that was really fond of brains.
Their efforts to preserve knowledge, however, saw their computers creating an artificial consciousness that brought about their downfall. With the fall of the Star Union, they’re now back in action, looking to regain lost glory. Here’s a look at the units showcased:
- The Drained - The weakest Heritor unit made up of penitents in need of proving worth. When fully leveled up, they get the Mind Posession ability that lets them transfer their consciousness into any Tier 1 and Tier 2 units (or even Tier 3 with a research mod) once per battle, essentially turning the unit over to your side permanently, if succesful.
- Siphoner - drains essence from enemy units and transfers it to friendlies.
- Quintessence Ark - support unit that links itself to a friendly unit, empowering it.
- High Lord – most powerful Heritor unit, capable of temporarily bringing the corpses of enemies back to life.
The Heritor use the Essence Drain mechanic a lot, imbuing it even in certain mods that can be equipped on any unit. The mechanic sees your units draining energy from opponents and either storing it or releasing it for various bonuses.
Should you pick the Heritor secret technology, you’ll find mods that allow your units to drain essence from the enemy in a number of scenarios like when dealing or receiving damage. Other mods have effects like translating stored energy into extra shields.
Alongside the Heritor, Revelations will also introduce the Forgotten NPC faction. Essentially former members of the Heritor society who were given lower quality tombs, they’ve returned with a good dose of insanity to boot.
Like the Heritor, they too use the new Entropy damage type. Keeping in with their theme, their Arks tie themselves to an enemy unit, siphoning its health.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Revelations is due out on November 19 on PC, Xbox One and PS4.
