IGNORE the PLAYERS score 7.6 doesn't do this game JUSTICE. IT's even better than the professional reviewers score it.
If you are a lover of indepth strategy and reasonable micromanagement per turn this is the game for you. It puts all others to shame. It makes Age of Wonders and Hereos of Might and Magic look like a kids game. Master of Magic is still one of my favorites, but, this one is right beside it.
The vanilla version allows you to play with up to 21 computer ai opponents and they are good opponents you won't be steamrolling them right off the bat and if you find there is a day you can there are higher difficulty levels that will challenge you till your graves end. BUT, if you can and do eventually defeat the higher difficulty ai there is always the human aspect of online mper play and that is where the men are separated from the BOYS. lol Online multiplayer can be ruthless and just when you think you have something in the bag a human player can shock you with an overland spell or an army you never expected that was laying in wait in ambush for you. DOMINIONS MPer online has a HUGE community of players, more than AOW that's for sure and HOMM as well combined. This is where ALL (99.9%) the fantasy turn based players have moved to. No wonder you don't see many playing AOW or HOMM online at Gamespy anymore. I was amazed at the community size and MPer community size of this game.
There is also a mod that allows you to play against over 60+ players and/or AI opponents. This is a MONSTER game of HUGE proportions in gameplay and play value and longevity. This version has a RANDOM MAP GENERATOR and you can create PRETENDERS (your god) to your hearts content for each race. There is just no limit to what someone with a creative MIND can do in this game. In fact the game rewards CREATIVY people when they build their pertender gods.
I HIGHLY recommend this game and definitely say don't even go by what those player scores say. Those have to be disgruntled AOW and HOMM fans who lost all their opponents to this game because it is so good. LOL People do that you know, vote down a great game cause it took something away from them. I see it on Gamerankings all the time as well. This is definitely one of those games where the scores don't match how great of a game it really is.
It will suck your life away and has that "just one more turn" aspect in spades. It's really hard to put it down to goto sleep, the bathroom or school or even to work. ;) It's one of those games like Civilization or Master Of Magic that will absorb time faster than anything you've done before. Go out and buy it now I believe Amazon.com has it and if not you can always goto the main website of Shrapnelgames.com