Century: Age of Ashes, developed by Playwing studio is a simple, yet thrilling competitive PvP game that pits players high above the skies, on the backs of dragons as they ferociously fight for aerial dominance.
Info:
Developer: Playwing
Publisher: Playwing
Release Date: September 26th, 2022
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Setting the Skies Ablaze in Century: Age of Ashes
Century: Age of Ashes is a class based, competitive dog fighting game where players take the skies on the backs of their trusted dragons and battle for aerial domination. These classes consist of the Marauder, Windgaurd, Phantom and recently released Stormraiser. My favorite class is the Windguard, which lends itself on the battlefield to a more supportive role. It has the ability to bolt across the map and shield allies in need.
When playing games in Century, there are two permanent game modes. In these modes, players are grouped up into teams of 6 where they’ll face off with another team. The first is Carnage, which is your basic Team Deathmatch mode with a bounty system twist. Players vy to rack up as many points as they can, with each kill adding onto their bounty. Dying with a larger bounty gives the other team more points. Going Berserk will also maximize your bounty as well.
In Spoils of War, two teams race to collect more gold than the other team. To do this, players must attack the dragons that fly through the maps carrying gold, dropping it as damage is dealt. When a player collects the gold off the ground, they must safely get it back to their base and store it in the vault. Of course, enemy players can kill you and take your gold and there’s even a vault buster players can grab to crack open the opposite team’s vault, spewing the team’s gold back into the map.
There are three other modes that work on a rotational basis offered in the game’s “Arena” category. These modes are Skirmish (3v3 Carnage), Gates of Fire (6v6 CTF) and Survival (4v4v4). The game also has the occasional special events, such as its recent “Last Team Standing” event. During these events, players can compete for spots on the leaderboard in an effort to score cool rewards. There’s no single player campaign or story modes but players can unlock more lore about the world and current season’s story by completing objectives in the game.
My favorite aspect of Century’s reward system is raising new baby dragons you unlock through the store. In order to do this, you complete a specific set of missions. They’re not usually difficult missions, that simply require players to do things like, evade fireballs, win a match, etc. Once you’ve completed its missions, the baby dragon can be hatched, grown and eventually, used for a specific class.
While the game does have a store, there isn’t anything I’ve seen that makes it “Pay to Win” if the mentioning of a storefront makes you hesitant. While the game does have an experience system and the store sells boosters, players only unlock cosmetics. You can buy and unlock cosmetic pieces of gear for your classes and dragons. Some items require real money transactions but others can be bought using silver earned throughout your time in the game. Nothing in the game makes you tougher than your opponent, just cooler looking. The only downside is that Legendary dragons cannot wear armor.
See the dragons, hear them roar:
Playwing has crafted some really cool maps that elevate the dog fighting aspects of the game. There isn’t too much empty space where players find themselves out in the open. There’s castles, caves, rocky formations, etc that make maneuvering more thrilling. There isn’t another game on the market where you can dive toward the ground and race through a small cave system in an attempt to avoid pursuers or vice versa.
However, while I do like the map design, the environments themselves look a little too samey. There are a lot of browns, blues and yellows that all blur together as you soar through the maps. That doesn’t mean they don’t have small details you can’t appreciate, it’s just much harder to do so. This brings me to my next issue as well.
My biggest complaint about the UI is that there’s too much happening on screen at the same time. You’ve got power ups that glow, notifications popping up, arrows frantically spinning around indicating the positions of other players, etc. When you’re deep in the middle of a match of carnage it can be quite chaotic trying to figure out who is where.
As far as sound design goes, I feel like it just gets by unnoticed and sits in the middle ground. The dragons sound cool, along with the sound effects of their attacks which is probably the best part about it. Otherwise, I could have personally gone without the loud clashing sounds of notifications and such.
Fun for the whole roost:
Century: Age of Ashes is an incredibly fun game for people who love aerial combat. While I do personally feel the six versus six format in most of the game modes is too much, I won’t deny how fun and exhilarating the game can be. It’s just little cosmetic details, like blurry, bland looking environments that hurt it the most.
The game is free to play so even if you have a casual interest in the game, I suggest dipping your toes into the water. I played the game on the PS5 and the game’s simple controls make it easy to pick up and play. Finding matches never took too long either, as I don’t believe I waited more than 45 seconds. If you’re a fan of dragons, intense action and vikings, then go download it right now.
Review Disclosure Statement: Century: Age of Ashes was provided to us by Playwing & Heaven Media for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
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Century: Age of Ashes PS5 Review
It’s fast paced, ferocious dog fighting action on the backs of dragons. Aside from the color palette which blends together in the heat of battle and cluttered UI, Century: Age of Ashes is a free to play competitive PvP game that is worth checking out.
Pros
- Thrilling combat.
- Fun game modes.
- No Pay to Win mechanics.
Cons
- Cluttered UI.
- Color Palette tends to blend together.
Overall
3.5
