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Stardock's strategy RPG Elemental: War of Magic has been as community-driven as ever, having been in beta for what felt like ages now, and the team as receptive as can be to feedback. Finally, I got some extensive time with the release version, a culmination of three years of hard work with a new engine and what could turn out to be a franchise. If you haven't yet, give my beta journals a read, as they're important to understand how the game has evolved since, and also the "controversy" surrounding the release.
You may have heard word the release version of Elemental is unpolished, unstable, and just generally not "ready." The big story anyway (from PC Gamer) was based on the version prior to the massive day 0 patch -- impressions following that cited instability as still an issue.
For me, Elemental played just fine even prior to the patch -- a crash or two here and there, and suboptimal framerates, but neither were actually big issues. And now the former has been addressed, while the latter is in progress -- the team has already assured a 20-25fps boost has been had through an internal fix.
Granted, hardware configurations vary widely, but it seems the publication in question expected the game to be 100% stable on their exact configuration on day one or else it's a disaster. Anyway, it's now up to their standards, so even the naysayers should be satisfied.
For the record, everything to follow is based on version 1.06 -- one version after the day 0 patch and packing mostly bugfixes and balance changes. Now that all that's out of the way...
First thing's first: Elemental is accessible, so if you're reading this, vaguely curious about the prospect of a PC strategy RPG but not sure it's quite for you -- it probably is. I know 'accessible' is a dirty word to some, particularly the PC community, but Stardock has handled it smartly, going with the "easy to learn, difficult to master" approach. Let's just say the learning curve feels just lovely, with tons and tons of depth and nuances and strategies to be discovered and expanded on over time.
The game currently sports a light tutorial integrated into the Campaign and sandbox modes, which do a nice job of teaching you the basics, and leaving the rest for you to figure out -- the manual and in-game enyclopedia help, too. Stardock has said they're going to be developing a full-on tutorial in the future (probably sooner than later), so the mechanics will be easier to grasp again.
Let me be honest: I didn't have too much of an idea of what I was doing in the beta -- it was definitely a struggle. Having come from that, though, the release version and beyond felt infinitely easier to learn and have fun with.
As Stardock will tell you, Elemental is comprised really of three major components at this stage. Firstly, there's the Campaign, which functions as a more RPG-style semi-linear experience. Here you'll be treated to an eloquently told story, though one not as engaging as it could be due to the lack of voice-overs and cinematics (as of now there are two, one at the start and end of the campaign). At the same time, it feels like a nice homage to classic titles which couldn't afford such luxuries.
You play a fixed character -- Relias -- who journeys throughout Elemental, helping leaders of foreign townships and the like, building resources and an army as you go. I really enjoy the campaign, although even besides the lack of VO and cinematics, it does feel somewhat like putting a round peg in a square hole in being designed with the toolset -- the focus (as has been stated) is definitely on the sandbox mode, and this is where it feels most at home. Don't let this throw you off, however: if you enjoy traditional story-based experiences, you should have tons of fun, just not as much as you could if the experience was tuned more toward this approach.
Currently the campaign consists of Book I, which you can beat in about two days of regular play. It's definitely short, but there will be further (free) books to come not long from now.
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You covered everything that I was thinking about the game and then some.
I bought the Limited Edition. I've been buying games from Stardock for several years. Their customer support is excellent and they haven't let me down yet.
Thanks again.
Glad you liked the review, and welcome to Neoseeker.
Given the state of the game, I find it highly unlikely you didn't encounter the same duplicate-able bugs, crashes and massive AI holes that every other buyer has experienced with the game. Also I find it interesting that you took the time to appropriately play the game with the 1.06 patch but managed to write a review within two days. But giving you the benefit of the doubt, let's continue.
Because there's still no way to justify giving a game 9 out of 10 as unintuitive as the Elemental UI is, never mind the drab art style or the disaster that they call a campaign/tutorial. Also, you fail to mention the lack of multi-player, the very basic nature of the tool set and the outright broken AI. Never mind the lingering known bugs, the lack of map seeds and the crashes to desktop when using ALT-TAB. How do all of these issues seemingly escape your review or don't impact the score whatsoever? There's really only two conclusions. Either you're too much of a fan boy to give a reasonable grade or you're been paid off.
Simply put, your review is a pathetic sham. This review should be taken down and reflects very poorly on Neoseeker. Try having someone who isn't in Stardock's back pocket write it next time.
Not going to let you ruin the good vibes here, sir.
but this is not a 9/10 game. At least not yet.
The interface is generally quirky and in some cases buggy. Tool tips exist in many places but often they are vague or even wrong. Some features aren't explained anywhere and seemingly simple tasks like starting a new sandbox game are confusing - unless you have experience with the GalCiv games and can base your guesses on that one's interface.
Game balance is nonexistant. The magic system is very bland compared to classics like MoM and key features like spells gaining power through controlled elemental shards are simply broken.
Personally I don't have many hardware issues but some do have quite severe ones.
Elemental will most certainly grow into a 9/10 title but a casual player with a low tolerance for bugs or crude game interfaces should run away screaming.
Also, the secondary (or maybe primary) reason for the art style is two fold:
1. It makes the game a lot friendlier to lower end machines, making it, in turn, accessible to more players.
2. This is an Indie developer. They don't have a massive budget, so they chose to cut out one of the biggest time/money drains - HD graphics.
ROFLMAO!!!!
Really, you should do you're research before sticking your foot in your mouth. The multiplayer servers are going online this week. Given the choice of having less than good servers active on day 1, they chose to delay it a week so they could finish bug testing. I promise you're not going to die just because you had to wait a week.
The complaint I do have is that there is no Hot-seat, because 4X games work best multiplayer when you can play with someone in the same room.
Really and honestly Granath, troll much?
Sure, I don't think that the game, in its current state, warrants a 9/10, but really, you couldn't have come across as bigger ass if you'd tried. Pull your head out of your rectum, grow up and act like a big boy, because right now you sound like a pre-pubescent troll with an overblown sense of you're own importance attempting to sound intelligent.
You don't like the game, fine. Move on. It's not your business how Neo does their reviews, and just because you disagree doesn't mean they're wrong.
It's possible some of the issues people are having with understanding the mechanics are ones I'm not having because I've come from the beta and played the pre-release versions also. But this is also the first kind of game like this I've played -- I've never played GalCiv or any 4x game...tried HoMM and MoM and couldn't get the hang of them. So maybe I just work well with Elemental's style, but many others find it strange.
I do like the UI though. However improvements are always welcome and I know they're working on a new version of it.
I should remind people not to take the score too seriously -- we don't. If you read the review without it, does it make more sense? Numbers seem to create a lot of conflict with people...to me, games are silly to quantify in that respect, so it's understandable there would be debate. I just do my best with it.
Krantos, you're on about the accessibility thing, but I don't think budget is much of an issue -- Stardock is doing quite well for themselves. Based on my interview with them, it seems it's purely about the accessibility.
Having a smaller budget frees them up to do more niched games that don't appeal to such a wide audience as AAA titles need to. It's not necessarily a bad thing, really. It's why I think that Indie devs are the future for Hardcore gamers.
I really like the focus on gameplay versus graphics anyway, it's refreshing (though I do love games with great gameplay and great graphics too, of course). I just appreciate the simplicity.
Raving fan boy much? Did the promised multiplayer launch with the game? Nope. Is it in the game over a week after launch? Nope. Is it delayed yet again? Yep. As such, the only person who stuck their foot in their mouth is you because a promised feature upon release still isn't there. As of today, right now - there is no multiplayer. That's what I was referring to and thank you for proving my point.
That term doesn't mean what you think it means. Ironically, your post is a prime example of trolling.
Thanks for your post, in which you just made an entire ass of yourself by trying to take something personally which:
A. Was entirely factual
B. Wasn't directed at you or any other person, but a computer game.
Now go back on your meds because it's obvious you need them.
And back to the original review - talk about an outlier! The next best score is currently 65 on Metacritic. As for the other reviews? C on Gameshark. 2/5 on GamerNode. 6.5 on GameInformer. 2/5 on G4. 58 on 1Up. 5/8 on OutofEight. 6/10 on GameEnema. 57% on iPon. 6.5 on Merristation. 30 on GameKult. This isn't a cherry picked list, this is the entire list!
So it's quite obvious that the poorly-written review on this does not reflect the general sentiment of virtually every single other professional review out there. I guess some people liked Battlefield Earth too.
It seems even the developer disagrees with the review score.
Now perhaps Neoseeker should pull the review and assign it to someone a little less emotionally invested in Stardock.
I feel differently than he does, at least in part.
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