Au moins aussi bon qu'il est moche, c'est dire à quel point il l'est ! Ne vous laissez pas rebuter par les graphismes très années 90 (et encore, on trouve des jeux bien plus beau à cette epoque), Dominions 4 est d'une profondeur insoupçonnée. Il ne se laissera cependant pas maitriser si facilement et il sera judicieux de passer par la lecture du manuel (400 pages en anglais) et d'apprendre les raccourcis claviers par coeur, ces derniers permettants d'effectuer des actions qu'aucun bouton in-game ne permet de faire...

Un jeu pour les poilus, ici pas de grands graphismes qui arrache la carte gaphique ,bon c'est pas laid non plus , c'est pour les Stratèges avec un S, on incarne un dieu on lui alloue des caracteristique, on enfait quelque chose d'unique, on recrute on fait des recherches sur les école de magie , on forge des objets , on envoit tout ca se battre (en est spectaeur les directive se donnent avant le combats apres c'est juste un replay de ce qui c'est passé) . la profondeur est immense il n' y a qu'a voir le nombre de caractéristique pour un type d'unité. Par exemple : vos géants des glaces ont une allonge de au desus de la moyenne ce qui le fait frapper en premiers, par contre il faudra eviter les faire comabbtre en terrain chaud sinon bah il sont moins fort. vous traversez cette province avec un riviere en Hiver, mais pensez au voyage retour si il lieu en été, la rivierre ne sera plus gelé, et bien sur les rivieres en terrain arride aurton du mal a connaitre l'hivers a moins que votre dominion le permettre ... (le dominion c'est l'influence de votre dieu dans les provinces)

Attention aux esprit faible, vos nuits vont etre engloutis. point faible pour les anglophobe.. uniquement en Anglais et pas de traduction possible a priori

Amateur de 4 X . Il faut passer outre le graphisme très éloignés des standards actuels tels que CIV V ou de la série Total War . Mais si vous parvenez à accepter la relative laideur des graphismes et la petitesse des détails de certaines unités, la profondeur et la richesse de l'univers vous submergera. Si vous êtes un joueur suffisament mégalomane et que le rôle de Dieu est la limite que vous souhaitez incarner, alors la richesse des style de jeu, des écoles de magie, des peuples vous enchantera. Les références et les luttes entre toutes les mythologies historiques: des sacrifices humains azteques aux démons japonais en passant par le panthéon de l'antiquité greco-romaine, ou les créatures égyptienne sans oublier des moins historiques comme les chevaliers arthuriens, l'inquisition espagnole ou les monstres sous-marens Chtulienne vous enchantera. Chaque combinaison Dieu - peuple - magie - économie a sa saveur et son style de jeu propre. Bref un jeu qui demande du temps pour le maitriser mais qui une fois les bases comprises (grâces aux vidéos sur you tube notament) vous donne un plaisir de jeu rarement atteint.

I was on the fence about whether to get this game for awhile, partly because of the price and partly because of quality concerns, since obviously a lot of time wasn't spent on making the game graphically pretty. I purchased the game on sale, but after having played it I would recommend it even for full price to anyone who's looking for a deep, complex strategy game.

Dominions 4 plays like a highly advanced fantasy version of Civilization or similar turn-based games. That's not to say that it's super difficult to play - the basic mechanics are pretty simple once you get the hang of the somewhat odd control scheme where LMB is used for most things where you'd normally expect to use RMB (RMB is always used to get more info on something, instead of giving orders). I was able to feel somewhat competent without any tutorials, having only watched some brief gameplay on YouTube. However the game reveals layer after layer of complexity once you really start getting into it, and it definitely follows the "easy to play, hard to master" philosophy. There will be a learning curve once you get beyond the basics - the manual is almost 400 pages long.

So, what can you do in this game that makes it worth the time instead of just playing a Civilization?
* Choose a faction and a pretender god as its leader from just about any mythology and creature you can think of. Dragons, wizards, lizard men, frost giants, weird fungus monsters, sea serpents, cthulu, you name it.
* Recruit a general for every one of your armies, with his own name (given by you), stats, equipment, and experience.
* Separate your armies into formations and give them orders to follow in battle (you still don't need to micromanage the battles themselves; they play out between turns)
* Sacrifice virgins to your blood god and use the power to summon demons or forge magical artifacts.
* Spread your icy dominion to freeze over rivers so your armies can cross it.
* Call forth an army of undead and march it into the sea to surprise your enemy or control undersea territory.
* Cast a spell to plunge the entire world into utter darkness.
* March huge armies over all the land, then suddenly lose the game because no one believes in your god anymore (yeah, that happened to me).

So if you can get past the graphics (yeah, I know, it takes a lot to get past the graphics), you'll be rewarded with a rich, cerebral, highly replayable game in Dominions 4.

Ce jeu est une pure merveille de fond, malheureusement desservi par une interface pourrie. Considerez le comme un Total War hardcore (ou le mod Fall from heaven de civ4 pour les vieux baroudeurs) mais les batailles se font en auto, on se contente de scripter ces escouades.

Tout d'abord, le monde est divisé en région et chaque civilisation commence avec sa capitale et une petite armée, le reste étant controlé par les neutres qu'il faudra chassé, sachant qu'il y en a des tonnes de differend, du simple bandit hobbit qu'on éclate au groupe d'amazone à moitié vampire qui m'envoyait des armées de squelettes et m'a bien fait galerer. Chaque région produit des unités differentes, et est sujette à de nombreux facteurs (froid/chaud, bonus/malus en or/ressources etc); elle peux cacher des sites magiques que vos mages devront trouver.

En début de partie, vous choisissez une civilisation parmis la bonne vingtaine (!) disponible, chacune ayant un background, une religion et un type de jeu differend. Ca va des lézards type azteques qui font des sacrifices pour étendre leur religion, aux japonais qui se sont alliés avec des démons, aux atlantides qui vivent uniquement dans l'eau, à ceux qui volent en passant par les bons vieux necromanciens-elfes-romain-grec-viking-etc... enfin vous avez le choix et c'est pas juste pour le skin! Ensuite vous choisissez et personnaliser votre Dieu, qui sera physiquement présent dans le monde. Un arbre incapable de bouger mais maitre en magie? Un mage de guerre ou un general? Une machine à forger? Là encore vous choisissez! Et enfin vous personnalisez votre religion, qui influence les régions ou elle se trouve. et encore une fois c'est personnalisable: plus de ressources, de population, ou alors plus de magie pour booster la recherche etc...

Voilà avec tout ça vous mettez autant de temps à créer votre civ que de faire un perso sur un RPG. Et autant on peut faire des builds pétés, autant l'IA aussi et franchement c'est la première fois qu'une IA m'inquiete tellement on sait jamais à quoi s'attendre avec eux.

Le vif du sujet, la magie. Il y'a 8 magies differentes, et de tête 8 écoles aussi pour un total de 150 sorts, voir plus, qui seront accessibles grace à la recherche. invocation/heal/buff/aoe/teleportation tout y est mais aussi des mega sorts genre eclipse, peste sur une région, maphack, faire pop des armées de nulle part... Le probleme c'est que c'est très mal foutu et c'est une galère de savoir quelle école de magie recherché actuellement débloquera CE sort. Tout ça marche avec des gemmes que des sites magiques fourniront. Ces derniers sont cachés et neccessite que des mages lance des sorts de recherche. Il y a aussi un systeme de crafting magique, chaque heros ou mage pouvant porter un arsenal complet allant de l'épée +1 au bateau magique permettant de faire voler toute une armée... Même constat, difficile de prévoir ce que l'on va pouvoir faire.

Enfin les 2 GROS points noirs: Diplomatie et interface.
La diplomatie est inexistante. Le joueur d'Europa que je suis en pleure des larmes de sang. Vous êtes en paix tant que l'un n'attaque pas l'autre. Une fois les hostilités commencées c'est jusqu'à la mort. point. POINT! Y'a même pas d'écran qui fait un topo des autres civ, à part des graphiques (que l'on voit grâce à un sort, sympa). La seule façon de les connaitre c'est de les combattre.
L'interface. C'est pas qu'elle est mal foutue, mais elle est 75% clavier. J'ai joué 30h avant de voir un "tips": appuyer sur "n" pour selectionner le prochain perso inactif. Sans cette touche j'aurai stoppé le jeu, vu qu'il y a aucun écran de type liste des heros/provinces. Y'a plein de chose que l'on peut faire facilement, mais faut savoir que c'est du "shift+J en laissant le curseur de la souris dessus" ou autre delire.

En résumé, super jeu que je recommande chaudement. Comptez une vingtaine d'heures de jeu pour comprendre la bête, plus quelques unes pour le manuel de 300 pages (anglais, tout comme le jeu) et ensuite regardez votre civilisation au caractère unique marcher sur le monde, massacrant tous c... Ola c'est quoi cette race? C'est quoi ce sort? ah jme fais defoncer! Mais c'est qui eux encore?!

I'm no Dominions veteran. I learned about Dom3 just a week before Dom4 came out but what I learned about it in that time was enough to buy this game for 30 euros on bloody Desura. And that was 1st time in years when I bought a game outside of Steam.

Are you getting bored by your 10th Crusader Kings' world conquest?
Have you conquered whole Europe as Palatinate in EU4 ironmode?
You wish Rome 2 was less graphic and actually some content?

Then Dominions 4 is clearly a game for you.

You can tell it's 10 years of constant development. With 70 different factions, thousands creatures and spells ou guys are in for a treat!

Single player and AI leave much to be desired but they are just a training ground for great multiplayer experience. There are few more gratifying things than fighting seasoned veterans of this title. Especially since community is very helpful and welcoming allowing you to survive learning curve with just a few broken limbs.

Dominions 4 multiplayer is like a chess. If chess had 3.000 diferent units instead of 7 and could be played with few dozens people.
And was cool.
And had dragons.
And ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of spells.

If you are into all that just buy it. It has best $/content ratio you can find.

I love strategy games. LOVE THEM. My favourites from the last twenty years include (in order) Age of Wonders III, Zeus: Master of Olympus, Crusader Kings II, Seven Kingdoms II, and Warlords III. Strategy fans will know that that's a fairly ecclectic mix of strategy sub-genres. Well, three days after purchasing Dominions 4 I can safely say that it has a place somewhere near the top of my list. I can't stop playing this game.

I'd heard whispers about the Dominions series down through the years. Legend had it that it was the most hardcore of the hardcore. In all honesty its reputation was rather intimidating. The ancient sages were right: I was baffled for my first three games. However, don't think that it's a project to merely get into Dominions 4. It really isn't. The appropriate phrase is, "easy to learn, difficult to master." That's Dominions 4.

The supreme god who brought order to the universe has disappeared, leaving it to a bunch of pretender gods to fight it out for His former position. You are one of those pretenders. Your first decisions will include what faction you want to control, which age of time you wish to play in, what physical form you'll take in the world, and how your influence will impact the lands under your dominion. The depth behind these choices alone is awesome.

Once you've chosen one of the many pre-made maps (or generated a random one) and have customised the scenario settings to your liking, it's time to conquer the world one province at a time until you've claimed the required number of Thrones of Ascension. Though even the victory condition is customisable.

In the process of doing this you'll command mighty armies, raise glorious heroes, spread the truth of your holy word, cast powerful spells, quell uprisings, contend with the fickle hand of fate in the form of random events, forge magic items, manage the economics of your realm, and a whole load more. This truly is one of those games that makes it impossible for you to keep track of time while you're playing. You may think that the graphics are simplistic (and they are), but trust me, after five minutes I don't see pixels anymore. All I see are my Atlanteans (or "Atlantians" as these developers have it) emerging from the ocean to crush all before them. I can't remember the last game I played that was so immersive. Your expectations would be better adjusted by considering Dominions 4 a board game with animated battles.

One thing that made me hesitate to buy the game were the number of reviews (positive ones) that cast a negative light on the single-player. This concerned me since I never have any interest in multiplayer whatsoever and only buy games for solo play. I'm very glad I decided to take a risk because the AI is a worthy opponent even on "Normal" difficulty. Looking through the updates I can see that a lot of work has been done on the AI since the time of release which probably accounts for the earliest reviews complaining about it and my experience towards the end of 2015 being totally different.

By this point in my review you'll probably already know whether or not this is the game for you, but let me share some of the cool elements in Dominions 4. You can rename not only your pretender god, but also any of your commanders. The factions in the game (there's loads of them) are all totally unique and change depending on the age you choose to play in. Those factions are all based on mythology from around our world, meaning you can live out your Arthurian or Atlantean fantasies (you have them too, right?) Your heroes can get wounded, which may involve losing one or more limbs. Characters will age and can weaken as they get older before finally dying, however some species live longer than others. The combat is detailed to the point that each unit not only has specified methods of attack, but does particular types of damage too. You can fight on the ocean floor, and some factions are aquatic. The music is wonderful.

In conclusion, Dominions 4 is one of those games that you come away from with a thousand hilarious and tragic tales to tell. It's perfect for emergent storytelling. In terms of being a strategy game, yes it's highly complicated and very deep, but it doesn't put a brick wall in front of you. With each game you play you'll utilise the latest thing you've learned until at last you understand the dynamics in play. This discovery process doesn't make you groan at the prospect of facing it; it excites you and makes you want to learn more. You'll be thinking about potential strategies as you lie in bed at night. The fact that the entire Dominions series is created by just two guys (under the company name "Illwinter Game Design") makes all the great aspects of the game even more amazing.

On a final note: I've ordered the physical manual available from the game's website. Doing such a thing is unheard of for me, but Dominions 4 is so good it's worth it.

This is, no kidding, the deepest strategy game you may ever buy on Steam. The manual - and yes, you will absolutely need to read the manual old school style - is 295 pages, with the tutorial being about 24 pages of text and images. It's a complex, fiddly game, with a very dedicated community of players. If you can get a good group together, multiplayer is fantastic.

I will warn you that the game's UI is obtuse as Hell and the graphics will really put your dedication to "gameplay over graphics" to the test. If you've never played a Dominions game, then be prepared to go down the rabbit hole of strategy.

If i had to describe Dominions 4 to someone who has never played before, i would for sure use dangerous words as Risk, Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic. Among the turn-based heroic fantasy strategy games (sorry), Dominions is the ugly guy that no one is talking to. If you dare to speak to him he'll give you access to an amazing world. But not before 3 quests:

- Overcome ugliness: Dominions 4 is ugly, the screenshots dont lie! Units are 2D sprites, poorly animated and there's a good reason for that: content. I dont wanna go into numbers but with so many units, spells, magic items.. you can't expect a shadered 3D model reflecting the sun through tree leafs. Try to imagine the map as a a real map someone just scrolled in front of you asking: how are we going to make those guys believe in you? About the battles: it's somehow poorly animated (but everything is visible i.e units/spells/damage) but i can't find the words to express how i felt in front of my first 300vs300 battle, spells going on from both side, oh man that was awesome.

- Provide a proof of imagination. What is going on in Dominions 4 is the rise&fall of your God in a world where Gods are in competition with each other. This is your story and it's even more funny if you can put yourself into it. There is a large background (descriptions for each races, heroes, units...) to help you with this.

- Get ready for complexity. This game is deep, really deep. The learning curve is slow & long but not frustrating. You'll be amazed how detailed things are. Last game my god got killed cause one of my sorcerer casted an armor spells which explode on death, guess who took the blast? Not mentioning my 1 armed/1eyed Heroic centurion commanding the largest part of the empire's army. The interface is strange, but i can't say it's bad cause i got used to it after a couple of hours, and you can play with the mouse only. There's also a huge 400 page manual (27 pages for tutorial) to explain everything.

Heavily recommended

Très bon jeu de gestion/stratégie. Enormement de contenu, ne vous laissez pas refroidir par les graphismes.