Century: Age of Ashes Review

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Century: Age of Ashes is a free-to-play online multiplayer PC game available over on Steam. Developed by French indie gaming house Playwing you get to battle in the skies, riding your dragon in team-based games.

Century: Age of Ashes – Unlock Your Inner Khaleesi!

Well, I must say I don’t think I have ever piloted a Dragon before so I am quite looking forward to setting fire to my foes! Let’s see what this one is about!

Gameplay

With a guided tutorial right from the beginning, you are introduced to the basics of how to fly your Dragon and, of course, cause death and destruction. With boosting, hard cornering and taking advantage of specific points to soar high into the air mastered you are led to the weapon/abilities section of the tutorial.

Here you discover what your particular class of Dragon can do. There are currently 3 classes to choose from and each have their own unique traits. Will you be the Windguard who features a shield and disorientate ability? or does the Marauder tickle your fancy with their guided flame missiles? If not then there is the Phantom who can turn invisible at certain times. There is certainly a dragon for everyone’s playing style.

With dragon breath, flight and abilities mastered it is onto actual online multiplayer games. Here you compete as a team in intense arena battles. There is Carnage (Team Death Match), Spoils of War (6v6 gold collecting mode) and Raid (Capture the Flag).

I must say I quite enjoyed the Spoils of War mode however it is so easy to have your gold stolen from you before you reach the safety of your banking point!

The actual gameplay is pretty good for a free game. The camera tracks in 3rd person behind you as you swoop through caverns and alongside jagged-edged mountain ranges as you attempt to destroy your opponent or throw them off your tail. The game can get quite intense when you are in the centre of the action and death is almost certain at times.

Each round is only a couple of minutes long but that is enough to get a feel of how to play better next time. Learning from your mistakes is something you will do a lot of as you discover how the various dragon classes work.

After each match there is a summary and you gain both XP and gold for your efforts. While the XP goes towards levelling up and unlocking new rewards, the gold is spent on customisations. At certain ranks you will receive a dragon egg that you can hatch. Your new baby fire starter will grow as you obtain XP until they become large enough to ride.

Being a free game there are, as always, in-game purchases to tempt your IRL wallet. Here you can purchase further baby dragon eggs and unique customizations to show off to other gamers.

Graphics & Audio

The graphics look amazing in Century: Age of Ashes. Everything looks so polished both when battling it out in the arena and snooping through your inventory in the menus. With water and wind effects when diving and boosting alongside all the chaos of fire and explosions you will not be disappointed.

The only thing that I would have liked to of seen was for the dragon and camera to rotate a bit more. There are no barrel rolls or swooping on your side around obstacles with the camera in the same tilt. Perhaps this is to stop players feeling motion sick, who knows?

When it comes to audio, the soundtrack is epic with a roaring medieval anthem that works side by side with the action to immerse you into the world of fire-breathing dragons. With all the carnage happening around you there are constant roars of flames, debris falling around you and the distinct clink of gold to notify you when you have successfully collected in mid-air the hovering coins.

Everything about this game just seems to work so well.

Longevity

Century: Age of Ashes features short rounds that allow you to play relatively quick matches overall therefore you can play according to how long you have really. The main drive is of course the baby dragons. Everyone wants to collect them and gaining XP is how they grow. This could be a game that you find yourself sucked right into for a long time.

Final Thoughts

For a free-to-play game, Century: Age of Ashes is actually really fun and quite innovative really. It could be likened perhaps to Star Wars: Squadrons in its dogfight style however this is fire-breathing dragons battling it out across a variety of beautifully drawn arenas!

Give it a go, you have nothing to lose.

Century: Age of Ashes receives the Thumb Culture Gold award.