Century: Age of Ashes by Playwing LTD

If the idea of riding a dragon to fight other dragon riders sounds appealing to you, Century: Age of Ashes is the game for you. I, for one, find the concept of dragon-on-dragon combat to be a novel idea. I mean, how many games tackle this concept? And what’s impressive about this game is that it’s actually a lot of fun.

Dragon Flight Meets Dogfight

The game plays like a fast-paced action flight game. It’s an exciting six-on-six multiplayer game with three game mode types. The standard team deathmatch and capture the flag are here.

It also features another mode called Spoils of War. In this mode it’s the same six-on-six team deathmatch action but with a twist: the winner is decided by how much gold they have by the end of the timer. In order to collect gold, each team has to kill and collect gold held by dragon NPCs flying around. This mode was by far my favorite.

The thing that makes the game fun is its easy-to-grasp controls. It’s very fluid and responsive to fly around and shoot down enemies. There is also a nice sense of speed here: turning is easy, and I never found became disoriented from slow turning or a low field of view. It makes for some thrilling battles within every match.

What also helps the game is that enemies leave an aura trail wherever they go, making it a lot easier to find them during close combat. I also really liked that all the power-ups scattered around the maps were brightly-colored, an example of great design because they don’t blend in with the environmental geometry. There are a lot of nice small design choices here that make the combat shine.

There are also three different classes to chose from. Each has its own defensive or offensive focuses, passive abilities, and powers. I really liked experimenting with each of them, since they feel different enough from one another without being so wildly different that they make the game unbalanced.

How Long Will This Age of Ashes Last?

There remains a possibility of Century: Age of Ashes being updated further. It is free-to-play, which means you can download and play it right now if you want to, but since the developers have released a 2022 road map of future content, more updates will hopefully come soon, including a new map, new game mode, and a new class.

It’s hard to say how much you’ll get from this game or how long it’ll hold your interest. It all depends on how much you like the gameplay itself and how much you like collecting in-game cosmetics, which are a big focus here, as they are in a lot of other free-to-play games. If collecting and customizing your dragon and dragon rider isn’t your thing, the fun gameplay will hopefully keep you engaged.

While there are monetization elements, purchasing skins for your dragon and different armor pieces for your rider don’t have an effect on the gameplay by adding stats or buffs. I prefer this, as it doesn’t give players who paid for DLC an advantage. Personally, I find that the cosmetics and customization are rewarding enough as motivation since there are cool-looking gear items and dragon skins to collect, but since I don’t care too much about cosmetics, I find the gameplay to be more compelling.

As Flashy as Dragon-Fire

Visually, Centuries: Age of Ashes impresses. Far draw distances with nicely detailed environments make for a visual showpiece. Concrete bricks that make up castles are nicely detailed up close; the same can be said about the dragon bones found in the desert canyon map. The visuals, coupled with the game’s smooth framerate, make it a treat to play. Every visual effect, from fire bursting out of dragons to the bright power-ups scattered around maps, give the game so much life. It’s hands down the best-looking free-to-play game that I’ve played in a while.

It’s also worth noting that the game sounds epic. Melodic violins garner the right amount of a fantasy feel, and in combat the music combines with powerful dragon wails and attack sounds to give the chaotic battles a more visceral feeling.

Century: Age of Ashes is a fun free-to-play game. I personally found it enjoyable to play in short bursts, given that there aren’t very many game modes to choose from, but it’s still a very fun game to play if you’re itching for some fast-paced dragon-on-dragon combat.

Century: Age of Ashes is available via Steam.

Check out the official trailer for Century: Age of Ashes below: