When I first read about Avalon Lords in a Press Release, I simply loved the idea. Avalon fills in the huge void left by Age of Empires game in my life. The Gameplay is very similar to Age of Empires with the combat taking inspiration from Total War.
It is Currently in Early Access and it shows, there are some bugs and optimization issues but the overall experience is pretty smooth. Developers are putting in the work and listening to community to make this the best RTS experience you will ever have. Since the time I have the game, it has already received 2 or 3 updates.
The city building is pretty well done and certainly feels a bit like AOE, which is the way to in my opinion. The map is very beautiful and has good terrain but the terrain sure does lack variety.
There’s a nice level up system for your profile, which lets you upgrade stats like the endurance of your units, percent increase in resource yield and decrease build times.
The units are pleasing to look at and come in nicely packaged squads, with their icons floating over them which makes it easier to select them. With that said sometimes units are unresponsive and it gets frustrating to say the least. There needs to be more emphasis on formations. It’s very difficult to set up lines of units or to organize your army which often causes battle to turn into a death pit of random units.
There are in game tech tree that doesn’t really explain what the tech does or how much it costs. Also, more commands for available units will help.
AI can also improve as in its current state it is not challenging enough. Difficult AI in a 1 on 1 match would be epic.
Overall, Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises is a brilliant game in its current state and I am hoping it only gets better with updates which has been the case till now.
