I recently stumbled on that gem and... Has anyone played or tried or heard of the 4X game series Dominions ? Well, if yes, feel free to discuss
, and if not, I'll try anyway to present it because I think it is genuinely worthy of praises, even if it has its flaws or at least, conscious game design choices that will certainly not please everyone.
So, first of all, let me tell you that it's definitely not a mass audience game : it actually is the exact opposite, a niche game, for a niche audience. It doesn't have appealing graphics (it's plain old 2D), the UI could be better on some points (but is okay though), and its fucking obscure. Like, very obscure to get into, coupled with game mechanisms that are rather hard to fully grasp. It gives it a scary learning curve that makes Eve cake easy in comparison.
SettingThat being said, now, it's a game that could be described as a 4X game with a few RPG elements which involve characters/heroes development. The setting is clearly fantasy oriented, but it makes the choice to get as far as possible from your usual vapid elves/trolls/dwarves fantasy generally not worthy of our lord Tolkien. It gets its inspiration directly from RL lore that spanned over History, from Greek/Roman lore to tribes of Amazons, celtic druids and arthurian legends, or Norse mythology to cite a few (there is even a faction that is kindof Cthulhuh inspired). You won't see elves and dwarves, but you will certainly see Zoroastrian winged humans, valkyries, blood monkey nations or aztec priests involved in some bloody sacrifice (blood magic is one of the various magic paths of the game).
The setting involves a God and his religion that ruled the world for eons (called the Pantokrator, from ancient greek "master of all" "almighty above all"). The God has disappeared and now all lesser divinities have taken the challenge to become the new Pantokrator. You play as one of those Gods, and rule over a faction of your choice, that will be your tool to help you get to your ends. Eventually, there will only be one God left, and all other either swept before your Dominion, or forgotten by their disciples.
My opinion on the matter : it's extremely refreshing, and even more, it's a masterpiece of storytelling imo. Every item, every spell, every character or unit has its lore description attached to it. Every event is deeply seated in the lore, and it's clear that the author made an incredible amount of work and documenting all those various ancient earth pieces of lore that flesh out so well together in that universe. GameplayYou start by selecting a world map (either tileable, aka round or flat with borders), and those maps are divided into regions that bring you resources and gold as well as other effects. Then you will have to select the Age you want to play in (Early Age, Middle Age, Late Age, the difference being mostly about the lore and ratio between magic and equipment material and advancement, but don't expect to play in futuristic settings, it remains ancient) and then your faction (there is over 25 factions, most of them coming in different flavours depending on the Age). And then, the crucial part of the game : creating your God. You have a certain amount of design points to choose between various 'chassis', aka bodies (A giant warrior ? A mystic statue/idol ? A monolith ? A powerful mortal mage ? there are plenty with different attributes), and then distribute the rest of the points in the magic skills of your God (that can offer 'blessings', aka bonuses to your sacred units), and also on the various 'scales', aka effects (Order/Chaos, Growth/Death, Cold/Heat, etc) of your Dominions over the lands. Selecting negative traits will give you points, selecting beneficial ones will withdraw some, as in many RPGs.
This is critical part of the game because it has to come with a strategy taking into account the strengths of your chosen faction that you want to focus on. It is for example possible to play as Caelum, a faction based on Zoroastrian myths, a faction of winged humans that like cold lands and fly (obviously...), use magic ice weapons, and use powerful mages and weak troops, which means that you will have to take that into your strategy when designing your God. Or it is possible to play as Mitlcan, a faction based on Aztec legends where blood sacrifice of slaves is everything for your magic research and spells and overbuffed blessed troops will be your strategy.
Note : there is also underwater nations ! Like the Cthulhuh one...
Once ingame you will have various possibilities each turn, like making one of your commanders your prophet, recruiting units and commanders with gold and resources, searching for magic sites that generate gems (for magic, mages, and your god), sneaking in enemy territory, attacking a province with an army, researching magic, casting a world spell, etc. Your commanders are your heroes, and your God is one of them (the most important one, mind you). Those commanders can command troops (some better than others), and have various abilities (mages, scouts, generals, jack of all trades or powerful almost divine units that do everything well but cost an arm). The goal is of course to expand quickly, and then eradicate your enemies, or take possession of a certain number of thrones of ascension (that are a possible victory condition and are spilled over the map depending on the settings your chose). Then well, it's a 4X game, even if rather different and unique in that regard.
It's a very gross overview of course. The game is so deep and dense (and obscure...) that you might be scared like I was to learn that there is over 850 spells available (+ faction unique ones), and that each faction has its own units (declined in different versions or completely new versions in every age) all with their own stats and abilities. It's A LOT. I'm not even speaking about independent units that populate neutral lands before you take them.... What makes it even more difficult to learn is that unlike many classic 4X games, or even more complex Grand Strategy games like Paradox games (EU, CK, HOI, etc), everything is OBSCURE. It's not obvious what to do to begin with. You don't really know what you are doing the first games, unless you have already spent a certain amount of time reading about the games, strategies, etc on the internet and read the (huge) game manual.Battle will be fought automatically. You are an armchair general and not your troops, but you can give them precise orders and doctrines of what to do. It's possible (and advised) to script your armies by telling them to attack closer enemies, or archers, or whatever suits you, and giving even more precise orders to your commanders as to which spells casting first and in what order, and even better, you will also have to make an overlay of your armies cohorts, placing your frontline units where you want to, your commanders where you want to, etc, on the battlefield. They will replicated all this once in battle, and the AI will do the rest.
Obviously there a certain amount of micromanagement involved in that game, which is a thing I usually dislike, but it compensates here for the usual micromanagement coming with most 4X or civ-like the more your progress in the game. Magic is your technology. You research it through different magic paths (summoning, evocation, alteration, thaumaturgy, construction, blood) each composed of 9 levels, everyone of them more and more costly. Your commanders (often the ones with magic and/or crafting abilities) that research magic bring you research points that you can pour into those magic paths, and you can choose precisely how many of them you delegate in every path. The more high the level of magic, the more skilled the mages will have to be to actually cast it. Knowing that at best your usual faction mage commanders will be level 2 or 3 at recruiting, only your God (if you upped his magic skills at creation) will be able to cast more advanced ones. Which also mean that you will have to craft items empowering your mages with better skill levels and summon more powerful mythic invocations/units that have higher skills in magic. It's similar to an upgrade system brought by research and craft together that will eventually bring new and more powerful toys.
Well, you will obviously have to experiment for that considering the mindboggling number of summons, units, items to craft and spells there is... A lot of the game is about discovering and testing things out... I like it, but to a certain point. It's not fun to just have to jump blindly into it and get curb-stomped because lol, you are a newb. Well, one learns of one's own mistakes and all, okay. Better to learn a bit about the game before though, or it can be just repelling because too OBSCURE... Maybe it will remind you another game in that regard. 
Craft is also a very present part of the game, especially if you play non magic but very equipment dependent factions like Ulm (Conan the barbarian). Most commanders can be equipped with powerful toys, and you will have to research and craft them. And your crafters, like your mages for magic, will have to be competent enough to do it. Like some spells, it costs Gems, and gems are amassed like a third resource through your provinces, and you will have to search for sites to find them (or blood hunting for slaves for blood magic/crafting).
Either construction or spells, the last levels are meant to be game changers to break a possible stillness between opponents.
GraphicsWell, it's basic, for sure. Don't expect a fancy AAA game (after all, the guys behind it are only two, one of them not even working in the game industry, and want to remain that much, and do not want to make it any other way...). But some maps are actually pretty (often player made maps that are included in the game). Some are nasty ugly. For units, well, it's 2D pixel art, mostly, but it has its charm, especially when mixed with the lore. Some examples are better than thousand words :[spoiler]
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Sound/musicI
t's rather nice, there is a refreshing celtic vibe from it, but it's also damn repeatitive past 15 min lol. You can cut it and play with any music you want...UIIt works, it's clear and most of the time you just have to right click on something to learn what it actually does. It doesn't, however, give you the complicated math formulas behind as well, so if you really want them, look up the manual.
Of course, it has its flaws here and there, little things we would like to have above all that, but I won't bother you with small details and annoyances that will not speak to you until you have played the game...ModsNot very knowledgeable on that here, I have not really looked into it, but it is said that the game is highly moddable...MutliplayerApparently there is a full multiplayer support, and you can even play by team with one pretender god and his disciple gods. Sounds interesting since the diplomacy is limited to "NAP until I get rid of my current enemy and rip your throat next"...PriceAround 20 ? Affordable I guess..._____________
So, all in all, tl;dr ? Well, it's a game that really enchants me. It's a very solid game, extremely deep yes, but very rewarding and bizarrely immersive, backed by a very powerful lore. Not for everyone mind you, but I would definitely recommend it for 4X lovers and people looking for different and interesting things. It's hard, but worth it.
I really wanted to share that game, sorry for the wall of text =)
