Century: Age of Ashes — A CBOG with Dragons!? Probably Not

Classic fantasy… but without sustenance.

On multiple occasions, I have taken the time to talk about CBOGs, which stands for “Character-Based Online Games” and is also a subject that not a lot of… um… no one talks about. Basically, a CBOG is an online game that features a plethora of unique characters to play as, as well as emphasises individuality by allowing players to play as a character with a clear identity rather than a customised character which is based on a template that all players share (essentially making every playable character the same). Unfortunately, there aren’t many of these games from this genre, probably because nobody has noticed it yet… except me. But since there aren’t a lot of CBOGs, I constantly search for more of them… and most of the time, I come up empty-handed. But yesterday, I was hopeful that I had found one… but I, unfortunately, didn’t.

The initial plan was to play For Honor to determine whether it was a CBOG. But for various reasons, the game won’t run on my old-ass computer. So, what did I do? I moved on by uninstalling the game and started browsing the plethora of digital stores for anything that might seem like a CBOG… and for a moment, I thought I had found one until I played the actual game itself. By the way, in case it is not evident by now, the game is called Century: Age of Ashes.

Century: Age of Ashes is an online multiplayer game where you ride dragons. I’m not sure about the genre itself since the game seems to blend various disconnected minigames, but what’s important to know is that this is not a CBOG. More so, the game isn’t too original with its gameplay, as it also tries to incorporate dragon-breeding mechanics. Still, the disappointment that the roster of dragons in this game offers is just a bunch of interchangeable oversized iguanas with wings, so there wasn’t much to keep me captivated. I mean, it would be really awesome if I could play a CBOG with dragons, as that idea can go miles with its creativity and potential, but I guess it won’t happen… because I haven’t found a CBOG with dragons… because Century: Age of Ashes isn’t one. Anyways, this is what the game was like…

You fly around… all the time!

So, I started up the game with some technical difficulties because I lacked a DLL file…or something along those lines (I can’t remember). Eventually, the game started, and it already seemed like a conventional menu of any online multiplayer game, nothing too special yet or anything out of the ordinary. There was still much room for a good impression. I entered a game of 3 vs 3 because the game forces you to play that mode before you can compete in a match of 6 vs 6. I finished the tutorial and moved on to the actual game. So far: all the technical issues I encountered were blatant red flags, and the game isn’t too confident with its presentation… however, I believe there’s still room for it to offer a positive impression.

So, I started a “normal” game and was subsequently prompted to select a character. Typically, this is the part where it would be a CBOG if not for the scarcity of characters and apparent lack of interest in expanding the roster. Ok, so it’s not a CBOG with the human riders… but what about the dragons? I’ll get to that later.

Anyways, the game starts, and you fly around on your dragon. Frankly, this is the enjoyable part: you fly around in any direction, altitude, or angle and basically fly around on your magic dragon. It is a magic dragon because they shoot homing fireballs (obviously). Speaking of which, you’re not just supposed to fly around aimlessly because every game is a different mode. The first mode I encountered required me to shoot golden dragons to turn them into gold and collect as much of it as possible while getting blasted out of the air by other competing players. I resurrected 15 seconds later and immediately searched for the bastard that shot me. I found them and burned them to a crisp with my dragon’s fiery breath, and for a moment, it felt satisfying until I realised that I would be doing this for the rest of the game, and I could already tell I wouldn’t be enjoying this for long. Anyways, I think my team won, not that I paid attention, as I just wanted to fly around.

But the most enormous red flag of all is when I completed a game, as the match was already finished, but for whatever reason, the game declared that I left a game early, and now I’m banned for 5 minutes. This is complete bull because I KNOW I finished the game legally, yet I’m banned. How the hell these things happen is anyone’s guess. Anyways, I played another game just for the kicks, and then I uninstalled the game. The dragon collection was a nice touch, but the game lacked overall sustenance.

In Conclusion…

While the initial assumption was that this game was a CBOG with dragons, I was somewhat intrigued to find out what it was. Unfortunately, Century: Age of Ashes doesn’t do too much to differentiate itself from any casual online game with so-so gameplay. Now, if it had multiple characters and a shit ton of dragons to discover, not just interchangeable ones, this game would have significantly more sustenance to it.

So, I will continue to search for a CBOG with dragons. But in the meantime, I don’t think I’ll find any.