Options include standard and custom scenarios as well as the provided campaign. Races are generally evenly matched, and the player is rewarded for building bigger and better units.

There is disappointly little fanfare upon actually winning the scenarios, however, the game itself is very enjoyable and the different races and units available encourage you to play again and again.

I'm so glad my brother first showed me this excellent game.

"Impressive"
This game has to be one of the best games I have ever played. It's a good thing it came out after I graduated from college or else I would have missed even those few class sessions that I attented. Bottom line, if you haven't gotten it by now, DON'T WASTE ANOTHER MINUTE!

"Doesn't capture what made the original good"
I loved the original Age of Wonders. I stayed away from the second game in the series (Wizard's Throne) when the focus shifted from armies to characters (your "wizard"), and the need to stay within a certain distance from your home base to be able to use magic. This, the third game in the series, continued along that vein, but I gave it a shot, mainly for the random map generator, which was absent in the first two games. I should have stayed away from this one too. The graphics aren't even as good as the first game, the pace seems much slower, just dragging along, and the scenarios I played (and the quests I got within them) weren't really explained very well, so it wasn't clear how to go about beating them. Finally, the part of the manual giving descriptions of the races and all their units was not included, at least not in the manual. They were on the cd itself, but it was a long pdf file (just under 100 pages if I remember), and not too many people are going to want to print all that out.

"Didn't want it to end"
This game is a total blast. I loved it. I had never played any of the other SM games so I can't compare it to them, but I can say that it is definately better than some other RPGs I've played (not gonna name names, that's rude) Anyways this game allows you, in the main campaign, to choose on different routes, of course you need to get them all. The tutorial that it has is very helpful if you have never played the game before. With the stand alone scenarios you can completely modify your character. This game is very addictive, but of course once I beat the main Shadowlands Campaign personally it wasn't as fun anymore, I still love the game, but there is nothing to achieve anymore. If you haven't gotten into RPGs very much but want to I definately suggest this game. It will get you hooked.