Age of Wonders Planetfall takes on a new coat of paint for the franchise and does it well. The six factions are unique, the tactical combat is amazing and there are loads of choices to make. The perfect game to put hundreds of hours in.

I promise you I have tried very hard to find something deeper, beneath the surface of Age of Wonders: Planetfall, that shows its true brilliance. I really have. It screams 'hidden gem', on the face of it: a generous glob of SyFy channel space-cheese, spread over a rich and hearty mix of genres. Civilization by way of XCOM, in the ideal setting. By any conventional wisdom you'd think, if you scratch away long enough, that the schlock on top would give way to some buried treasure.

That there'd be some B-movie, Starship Troopers gold lying in wait, reserved only for those patient and diligent enough to keep digging. Age of Wonders: Planetfall review. Thimbleweed park review.

Developer:Triumph Studios. Publisher: Paradox Interactive. Platform: Reviewed on PC. Availability: Out now on PS4, Xbox One and PCIf only. Keep digging at Age of Wonders: Planetfall and you will find some impressive depth, for sure, from tech trees to unit modifications to character customisation - only it's depth, unfortunately, in the sense that a twelve-page restaurant menu has depth. It's depth that inspires a sense of dread and regret, maybe some resignation, and a sigh: there is an awful lot here, I will spend a very long time working my way through it, and there's a fair chance none of it will be as good as it could have been were it left to stand alone. There's a lovely retro-strategy vibe to AoW: Planetfall's mini map, bottom right.A lot of that feeling is made worse than it really ought to be, too, because Age of Wonders: Planetfall simply does not explain itself well.

In fact it seems confused about what, exactly, it needs to explain at all. The premise of Age of Wonders: Planetfall is that it's a mix of two brilliant but also seriously complex genres.

You manage unstacked cities on a hexagonal-tiled world map, acquiring resources, advancing through tech trees, moving armies and conquering your way to more territory as you go - all very Civilization (in fact all very Civilization 5, much like 2014's Age of Wonders 3 was too). When you engage in combat, meanwhile, it's down to the turn-based-tactics level. You control an army of up to six units and move them around their own tile-based map through full cover and half cover, expending action points and improving percentage-chance-to-hits - hence, Civ crossed with XCOM.The problem is, despite bone-grindingly long explanations of things like what 'a unit' means in the game's tutorial mission, the wider principles - of both 4X and turn-based-tactics - are left completely unexplained. An example: I knew to look into the multiple win conditions, and where to look for them within one of the game's menus - but I play a lot of Civ. Would a newcomer know to go looking for that? Or where to look for it?

Would they know you need to go into a city's sub-menu to find its citizens (called 'colonists' in this case) and rearrange them into the most efficient, resource-pumping order? Would they know to fine-tune their economy for a single end-goal?

Diplomacy, left, is basic but perfectly functional. You can also customise faction leaders and their traits for non-campaign scenarios, which is a nice touch.Any number of these are forgivable, or even necessary, or expected, in any game with the faintest whiff of 'future' about it, but if you're not going to really engage with anything from the vast cache of interesting themes sci-fi has on offer, then the window dressing at least has to be delivered with a bit of something. A bit of humour, or self-awareness, or panache of any kind - but it's just not there. Instead the potentially rich and complex sci-fi flavour is just a drop of blue dye the tap water. If Age of Wonders: Planetfall wants to borrow without giving back - if it wants to be part of a genre that lives and dies by the little things - it has to do the work. What about the flavour text, the sound design, the little animations that can set your leaders or units apart?

What about the wonderful, sinister, cynical tone of a good 4X game's world that sets you off, cackling megalomaniac of the future, to exploit and explore? Or above all that overwhelming, ineffable atmosphere - that somehow seems caused by the literal lack of it - that you pick up from anything truly great set in space?I'm more frustrated with Age of Wonders: Planetfall than I ought to be.

It's an honest work and a perfectly serviceable, functioning strategy game. The turn-based tactical battles are imprecise compared to some, but they're still enjoyable and stimulating enough, with plenty to dig into if you're really up for the challenge.

The grand strategy's still compelling enough for one more turn - and the goofy genre trappings are almost endearing. It's just such a waste, to see a game freely mine its own brilliant influences and extract nothing of much use.