Customer Reviews

Elven Legacy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Please see my review of the prequel of this game, Fantasy Wars, for a nearly identical review (both games share the same game engine, graphics, sound, gameplay, overlapping storyline and characters to some extent).

First the basics:

Video - 4.5; Positives include generally crisp resolution in higher settings, excellent terrain. Negatives are include character models, which are less convincing as well as some cinematics. Based on the somewhat scantily clad Elven women, one has to wonder what is wrong with the Elven males that their race is dwindling...

Sound - 5; excellent sound and musical score. Music was appealing and seemed broadly "period correct" - whatever that is for a fantasy game!

Gameplay - 4.5; Positives include ease of play and user interface, which is very intutive, as well as in-game battle sequences and sounds (though you have to get close to the action to really hear the sounds, which is realistic, I suppose). Spells effects are decent, overall, though most of the actual impact on troops is marginal. With a couple of noted exceptions, the magic takes definite second stage to the battle elements. Unlike Fantasy Wars, the elves have more magic, and there are two kick-butt spells that are the fantasy equivalent of tactical nukes which they can employ - devastating to most troops when they are concentrated together, and decent visual and sound for the spell effect. No mushroom cloud, though.

Atmosphere - 4; I found the maps and story line to be engaging and immersive, within the limits of a turn-based wargame (v. a first person game). Landscapes and buildings were overall well done and evoked the right reactions.

Replayability - 3 (5); Not much, unless you want to play it again at a differnt difficulty level or try some different units or tactics since the overall storyline is the same.

Commentary: Overall, I found the game one of the more enjoyable and engaging fantasy wargames I have played in some time. I admit I strongly prefer turn-based wargames that are NOT RTS (Real Time Strategy - but actually have little strategy and are mostly just "gather resources/build structures/produce troops" efforts with little or no real military tactics or strategy). Elven Legacy is - refreshingly - NOT an RTS, but a thoughtful turn-based strategy/tactics game with NO resource gathering, NO structure building, and troops are purchased/recruited rather than produced in structures. The only resource is gold (money), which you get for accomplishing missions or taking ground in cities.

So if you like turn-based wargames, and a fantasy theme is up your alley, this is a great game (as is Fantasy Wars, the prequel to this game and using the same game engine). On the other hand, if you really like the RTS "gather/build/produce" games, Elven Legacy probably won't be what you are looking for.

Over the years, solid turn-based strategy games have fallen by the wayside in favor of real-time strategy games. Companies seemed to have stopped producing TBS games simply because RTS games sell better. I chuckled as I read somewhere recently, in criticism of recent games, 'why make a great game when a good one will sell better?'

While most recent PC games have been developed to market to the drooling masses of Alienware customers, Elven Legacy is true to it's genre and will likely be a highly underrated and unappreciated game. The game doesn't rely on high-end graphics to maintain it's playability, it relies on it's game play. And that's where it shines.

You command an army of troops over a hex-grid. Each unit has different stats, and is able to level up and gain new abilities. The controls are intuitive, and the GUI layout is clean and elegant. The game itself combines elements found in games like Fallout and HeroScape.

Truly, this is the first game for gamers, and clearly by gamers, in a very long time. This is a great game, and a purchase I would recommend to any strategy fan.

I learned about this game in a conversation with a teenage relative of mine, who complained that it was impossibly difficult even on the easiest difficulty. He could not make it past the third (optional) mission, and he was getting frustrated. Together, we beat the mission, on the hardest difficulty, and with the best possible rating, but not before we had learned quite a bit about the game's mechanics.

So I want to make a few things clear, so you know what you are getting it, should you buy this game:

o The game is rather complex. Be prepared to spend some time figuring its intricacies - unit skills, terrain effects, morale effects, temporary effects from spells, neighbors, attacks, perks, etc...
o The game is too challenging to win by throwing your men at the enemy, even if you manage to "get there fastest with the mostest". You will have to understand the way his units interact, and you will have to devise a strategy to dismantle his formation.
o In some scenarios, there simply isn't time to both finish quickly enough to get the best victory reward, and to explore every corner of the map to get all the goodies to be found. This can be frustrating.
o The translation is not very good. Sometimes I read the mission briefings, and could not understand what the characters were trying to say.

That said, I loved the game. It is very satisfying, the campaign is long enough, and I found myself replaying the missions, trying to improve my final results (higher difficulty, fewer losses, more artifacts, faster completion)

This is a fantasy, turn-based strategy in its purest, and arguably best form.

This is a solid turn based strategy game but it does limit your options in exploring the game's world. It has good graphics and quite a few opponent types. Music is OK. Color scheme could be tamed down a bit. One thing to remember is that I do have an affinity to the Elvish race, probably because I was a 98 pound whimp in my formative years. The Heros of Might & Magic and Disciples games are among my favorite, but this game is a fun way to fill the time between releases (are you listening Ubisoft?).

As others have said, the game has a good atmosphere and is complex. I haven't finished it yet but it is quite fun, just not enough time in my life for all the games. As I'm a turn based strategy gamer, it was right up my alley. If I had paid $50 for it, I might not be so happy but it is a great value for the around $20 that it is going for now.

I liked it, but not as much as the first game, Fantasy Wars. This is a full game, not an expansion, so you don't have to buy both.

Pros:
Excellent upgrade system.
Better story and acting than Fantasy Wars. (Not a major selling point.)
Solid use of terrain.
Challenging campaign and scenarios.
Good balance between rewards for map exploration and rewards for speedy completion of objectives.

Cons:
Crashes Frequently.
Cover picture has nothing to do with the game. (Although it gives an idea of what to expect from the cutscenes.)
No orc campaign. (The orcs are more fun than the elves, dwarves, and humans.)
Tactics are very simple to learn and master.
Not much content. If I hadn't played FW already, I would have felt gypped.

This game is a joke. It crashes frequently, the character models are sloppy and pixelated, the cutscenes are jumpy, the voice acting is stale and often buggy (multiple characters talking at once), and the story is...yeah. It's something about an evil wizard and the demise of the elven race, and it's so stereotypically bad that you'll lose interest in that aspect of it before the opening cutscene of the game is done. And the translation is pretty laughable too. I'll admit that I didn't get far into the game, but if it were a book, I definitely wouldn't have read through chapter 1. Pretty bad all around for me.

But as this is a strategy game, and not an RPG, the story takes second seat to the game play. There isn't much to say about that either. The game play makes you feel like you're playing a boardgame. With yourself. If you've ever played computer monopoly, you'd know what I mean - after a few games, you simply want to throw in the towel from boredom. There's not much to it without interaction, and it shows. And in Elven Legacy, you're in the same situation. The computer always reacts the same way, and it balances it's lousy AI by simply tripling the number of troops they send at your forces. It feels unfair at first, but eventually you start to realize that without doing that, the game would be, if possible, even more simplistic. Yeah, you need to use some advanced tactics, but once you figure out a few things, it's easy to wash, rinse and repeat to dominate missions. After a few 3 or 4 hour turns, with a few crashes thrown in for good measure, you'll be quite over this one as well.

If they did anything right, it's that they did include a fair number of units for you to play with, a couple of special abilities (most of which seem really weak, but at least they're there), and a few bonuses that can be unlocked if you are willing to put up with the already enormously tedious gameplay.

You move your coarsely pixelated units around a map that functions pretty much exactly like it would have 15 years ago, and you do battle. In short, if this were released in 1994, I might have been impressed, but today, it not only feels clunky and outdated, but it looks it too. A game like this is simply not acceptable in 2009 and beyond, especially if they're not going to take the time to make sure that it actually works on most machines. There's nothing worse than moving some troops, responding to the computer's attacks, and then, when you've set yourself up for over 40 minute (no exaggeration), the computer takes a turn and the game crashes. They had a good premise of bringing back the old style of gaming, but if it is to work, you're going to need to do a little better than this.

This game is pretty cool. I like strategy games, and this one kept my interest for about a week or so. I prefer deeper gameplay, such as the Total War series, but for the price I was definitely satisfied.

Turn based, strategic battles is why I gave this game a try. It takes some getting used to, and it is not a mere walk in the park. Even on the easier setting, I did not "walk thru it". I played a few of the scenarios more than once before I was able to advance.

I realy like the game and the gameplay but on my laptop it often crashes to power off and that is a pain.