Conceptionally, Century: Age of Ashes is great, but it lacks the crucial ‘hook’
- Developer: Playwing
- Publisher: Playwing
- Genre: Competitive multiplayer, Flying, F2P
- Release Date: 2nd December 2021
- Platforms: PC
- Reviewed on: PC
- Game Supplied by: Playwing
Century: Age of Ashes Review
Century: Age of Ashes was a surprise interest to me. A game where I could nurture and battle my own dragon, living out my wildest “How to Train Your Dragon” dreams… or so I thought. On the surface, Century: Age of Ashes is exceptionally appealing, with great looking graphics, an interesting premise and of course dragons… Who doesn’t like dragons? The game is genuinely fun, and I had a great time tearing through the skies aboard my scaled fire-breathing friend, but it never hooked me in.
The combat and premise are great. There are a variety of game modes including team deathmatch and a sort of capture the flag checkpoint race and a point-collecting game mode that really does shine, but the Spoils of War game mode was the real highlight for me. It sees you focus on taking down gold-carrier dragons to steal and accumulate points and then rush to deliver it back to your base or drop off point.
The modes throw in some neat curve balls along the way, such as high-value targets, and power-ups such as a bomb that you can deliver to the enemy base and blow it up for a chance to steal their gold, all while you are battling it out with the opposing team. This mode is just pure fun. It can involve some strategic play from you and your dragon commanding brethren using skills such as the Phantom’s invisibility and its proximity mines. For example, you could have some sneaky mines carefully placed while you sit invisible waiting for the perfect moment to pounce, taking down an enemy and taking their gold for yourself, that both ups your core and denies an increase for theirs.
The second available mode is Gates of Fire, which sees you and your teammates trying to grab a flag and be the first to run it through several flaming gates in a row, however, progress is reset when the flag carrier dies and drops the flag. This mode was quite entertaining but does require a decent amount of flying proficiency. Maintaining your speed, performing evasive manoeuvres and having good communication is essential for a win in Gates of Fire.
The last of the three modes was a straightforward team deathmatch, presented as a 3v3 fight to the death, where you kill enemy players to score points. It’s a very simple and common concept but it’s virtually a requirement in any PvP game and it is a great mode to test out different classes, abilities and generally find your feet in the game.
The gameplay itself is fun and fairly unique, and the control scheme is quite easy to get on with even when using a controller (which is fully supported). The whole dragon dogfight concept translated really well into the gameplay; swooping down to collect extra speed or pulling the dragon’s wings in to become more aerodynamic made for really interesting mechanics to master. Mixing them in with some braking for hard turns makes flying around feel super satisfying when done well and it looks cool when you see a dragon chasing another.
Balance didn’t seem to be an issue and the game seems to be very well catered in terms of difficulty, even when looking forward to a possible console release. Frequently in PvP games that start their life on PC and port over or include controller support, you find that the controls and mechanics don’t quite fit the controller playstyle but Century seems to have been made with that in mind, especially when it comes to aiming, as most of the attacks don’t require pinpoint aim.
Graphically, Century: Age of Ashes is quite pretty. Even on my less than great GPU, the game looked stunning. Dragons are exceptionally well detailed, the worlds are well textured and designed, and the animations are smooth and well-executed. Fire, which is notoriously hard to get right in games, looks very good in Century, especially when you are blasting through the air spitting a wall of flames at an enemy.
Outside of general gameplay, Century does have some other interesting features, like the dragon hatching system and extensive customisation that extends to both your dragon and chosen character. Dragons have different breeds (skins, really) with their own lore and stunning markings as well as armour sets. You can equip your dragon with saddles, chest armour, leg armour, head armour and tail armour, making them look even more devastating on the battlefield. Your character receives a similar treatment with gear sets that you can equip, though I personally would focus on the dragon gear as this is what really stands out during gameplay.
The breeds I mentioned above are where hatching comes in. You receive eggs from packs, the battle pass or from purchasing them in the store. These eggs will then need to be placed in your nest and grown. There is no lengthy wait time, rather a set of tasks you need to complete, be that killing X amount of enemies or winning a certain number of games. One challenge I saw during one of my hatchings was to play a certain amount of games as a specific class; This is a great idea as it encourages players to try the other classes and potentially improve and diversify their gameplay.
Completing these tasks will trigger your dragon to grow, at each stage animating a little more and in the final stages emerging as its stunning fully grown form. This is one area I feel that Century could have expanded on, though. The lore for the dragons and the way it is presented to encourage collecting them is wicked, but I feel they could have added more to the hatching process and given us more activities to do with our baby dragons. We have had them for such a short time, and they are such adorable little things, but if there was more interaction and you spent more time with them I feel this would promote attachment to them and possibly be a compelling reason to come back and level up those dragons. Imagine having a sort of Tamagochi Virtual pet experience with those dragons. Of course, that is not the main point of Century: Age of Ashes, but either way, I think it could have been cool since we are hatching and nurturing them in some way anyway.
In terms of sound design, Century has no struggles. I found the sound to be great and very well balanced for the type of game it is. I definitely felt there was an emphasis on audio queues, similar to how in an FPS people adjust their EQ to better hear footsteps and gunfire. The audio perfectly served to immerse you into Century and bring the world to life, be that by means of a Dragon roar or the sound of a bomb going off, even the sound of a dragon breathing fire was well detailed.
The downside of Century: Age of Ashes is that I did not feel the need to come back. Usually, any PvP competitive title will hold my attention for at least a little while as it’s predominantly my prefered type of game, be it guns, fighting, flying, racing, whatever. If it is competitive and against other people online, I’m in – Sprinkle in some cosmetics and I’m usually sold.
Century just didn’t grab me, though, and with such a great concept I was disappointed. The gameplay itself is great but it felt quite difficult to enjoy. I can easily imagine that once you do get engrossed it becomes extremely gratifying but before I got there I just quit. Century is missing that special something to keep me coming back, something that embeds it in my mind and fills it with reruns of glory moments from the night before.
I also feel that Century never gave me a sense of purpose. Of course the purpose is to play and have fun, but most solely MP games give you a goal and some kind of progression to strive towards, usually in the form of a ranked mode or events, but I didn’t find that in Century. I could leave the game for a month and not feel I’d missed anything when I came back.
Summary
Overall, Century: Age of Ashes is an amazing concept that is well executed; it just needs a call to action. The gameplay, the graphics, the lore – it all flows so well and has the potential to be something truly unique and enjoyable. It just needs tweaking. I have no doubt that with time and attention it will be a great game and possibly even a catalyst to a rise in aerial PvP.
