Age of Darkness: Final Stand Review

Almost every mention of RTS games brings to mind fond memories of a genre that has definitely been on a downturn. Failed revivals and false expectations throughout the last decade have meant that many fans of the genre were left more or less clinging to old favorites. Despite this, gems have shone through, with a good few entries exceeding expectations.

And many more stood as good games despite very glaring limitations. Age of Darkness: Final Stand places itself on that list as being a good game, but it has some downsides. It is a survival RTS where you fight off hordes of enemies, reminiscent of They Are Billions. Developed and published by Playside, this very grimdark game lets you command a small force, set up your base, and stand up against hordes of enemies.

Again, if you like Grimdark games, you will definitely like Age of Darkness: Final Stand. The fantasy set piece works well with the horde survival stick. Much like similar games like Diplomacy is Not an Option, you have to survive against waves of enemies while exploring the area around you. The game presents itself in a survival mode with tiered difficulty scales and a fun campaign. It also offers a multiplayer co-op with the final release.

The basic gameplay premise is the same across the board and relatively simple. You have to survive. Now, different modes have different win conditions, but overall, at least in the skirmish-like survival mode, you pass through a day-night cycle and effectively just survive for as long as you can.

During the day, you should focus on building, repairing, and expanding. You only start off with your keep, so you have to build a lumber yard, a few dwellings, and a food hut. Resources in Age of Darkness: Final Stand are collected based on how much resources are in the area around them. Another small quirk is that resources don’t really extinguish, so once you place something, you really don’t need to move it. Resources are also collected in waves instead of constantly increasing. 

Once night hits, enemy monsters will start roaming around, and some will inevitably stray towards you. You can be proactive and clean them up earlier or use defenses and fight them with your army.

The monsters you fight are nightmares that come in varying forms; they also become significantly stronger at night. Only having defenses will not do you much good, however, as you will need to use your hero in the early game. 

That’s right, in Age of Darkness: Final Stand, you start with one of six heroes who are strong units that regenerate and, well, fight. Each hero has their own quirk; some heal, others summon units, and others still use nightmares themselves. As they clear through waves, these heroes level up and gain in skill. These skills are specific to the hero, and some are active abilities.

Don’t worry about losing them, though, as the heroes that are knocked out will be summoned again after some time. Be careful, however, as, during this period, you need to rely on much less durable units.

These will also form the core of your army, and they are trained by villagers. Villagers aren’t really controllable, but you can manage their assignments. However, they need food and dwellings, so you’ll constantly need to expand to sustain your ever-increasing army.

Each faction has its range of units and playstyles, with a wide variety of selections. They are trained from different buildings and can be upgraded with skill trees. The skill tree is a universal tech tree split into three groups: melee, ranged, and siege—naturally, these cost resources and time. You can also set up defenses in walls and towers and, eventually, other larger buildings. You can often overlook how easy it is for nightmares to take down structures as they do it very quickly.

This makes it so you can’t just hide behind walls with mass archers and instead need to keep a balance. This issue gets exacerbated when you get into your first Death Nights. You will find many crystals around the map, and these dark crystals will basically give a random debuff called Malice and send out a large wave. You need to clear the wave to pass the death night.

Living through one grants you a boon, which is the opposite of malice in the sense that they are very good buffs. Both malices and boons essentially shape the course of your game, as no plan stays the same after random malice. You will also suddenly find new strategies that are viable due to received boons.

As you kill more enemies, your troops will become emboldened, which strengthens them and gives them immunity to horror. Horror, in turn, is a mechanic that demoralizes your troops and scares them. You can keep your troops from being affected by horror with light-based beacons and fire scones.

Nearing the late game, you will find yourself having things like large flamethrowers and other artillery at your disposal, something you will really need. You will also be able to upgrade your keep and unlock better structures and upgrades to keep surviving.

Going over the campaign is of proper length and contains a variety of mission sets that see you going over a fairly well-made story. It can get a bit heavy-handed at times and make things very cliche and awkward; however, for the most part, it really keeps you enticed. It also helps that the first few parts of the campaign are really well done in terms of story work and make you feel like you are part of the bad guys overall.

The game, however, has a number of glaring issues. The mainstay of this is that the pathfinding and overall AI for the units are horrible. A lot of the time, they get stuck to each other or just stand there while being shot by archers. They will also occasionally just not follow orders. 

You also need to constantly use the formation button to make them assume a proper formation, which is annoying because, with a lot of units, that will be hard to keep track of. You also can’t leave your hero and his retinue to auto-explore as they will keep engaging things that come close to them, even if they are put on hold ground.

While, again, the campaign is fun, it also more or less boils down to the same playstyle, even though the objectives change. Some of the missions, especially the earlier ones, feel more well-put-together than the rest. The game also lets you choose the path to take, but then it doesn’t actually mean anything, as it won’t really matter what you pick, with the overall game remaining the same.

That being said, the survival mode is definitely the mainstay of the game, which is frustrating because it gets old very quickly. There is not too much replay value in the survival mode other than just up-tiered difficulty. The only other change to survival is the boons you get and the malice, making the actual game you go through different, but with no end goal or reward, it just seems not very worth it.

Among other issues like very bad pathing from enemies, leading to situations where they just beeline for your archers or artillery, you will find a litany of bugs to deal with. You will also have issues with. The multiplayer co-op also gets a bit annoying at times, and there’s no point in it if you don’t have a friend with you, as there isn’t a lobby system around.

The game's music doesn’t really stand out and is very generic for what it is; however, the sound effects are pretty well done. Most of the voice acting in the game, and especially in the campaign, is also pretty well done. However, when it comes to art style, it can be a hit or a miss. It is definitely pretty and fits the grimdark vibe. However, it looks very desaturated and sometimes even like an over-designed mobile game.

The heroes themselves remained unchanged from early access, which is a shame. The game puts a lot of emphasis on them, and it would’ve been cool to see skill trees for them instead of just 4 stock abilities that they unlock sequentially. Having hero skill trees might also make the survival mode more worth it, as it adds more incentive to play by trying out newer builds.

Some variety in maps could have been fun, including variety in enemy types. Overall, the enemies are more or less the same each time you face a dozen or so enemy types. Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a very tough game, though, with not too many ways to fend for yourself. It is still a decent game that is fun to play and gets you hooked easily. Despite that, it could use a lot more content and no small amount of polishing. Until then, it remains feeling somewhat incomplete.