1. Sharpe

   9

   Fallen Enchantress has the potential to be one of the best games not only of the year, but of its kind. Unfortunately, that potential has not yet been met. Players who are familiar with the Civilization IV mods Fall From Heaven and Fall From Heaven II will recognize the influence of Kael / Derek Paxton, the lead designer on this project. It is obvious to any fan that he was trying to realize his creative vision in terms of a standalone game -- an idea that should excite anyone, but that isn't "there" yet.
   
   Fallen Enchantress is also a great heir to the classic Master of Magic formula: It plays like a highly intuitive version of Civilization with magic and fantastic units included. When you first begin the game, you can easily find yourself pulled into the atmosphere and excited to see what your heroes, monsters, and beasts can do. For a while, it feels like you are playing both a great RPG and a great strategy game, as you build up cities from tons of building and strategy choices -- all while your customized sovereign explores the landscape, collects treasure, vanquishes monsters, and completes quests.
   
   However, there are a number of problems keeping Fallen Enchantress from becoming truly great:
   
   1) The graphics, although passable, are flat and do not create either compelling characters or landscapes.
   
   2) The RPG and strategy elements do not always work together effectively, leaving you quickly feeling that you have exhausted your options on the RPG side. To be fair, this is often very true with other, more highly regarded games, such as Age of Wonders.
   
   3) The mythology is usually very flat. While there are some fantastic late-level quests (the one related to the darklings and the Pit of Lost Voices stands out) most of the writing and flavor text is so-so. This is a result of Kael having to work with the frankly boring Elemental mythos. As we know from seeing his mods, he is great at creating an environment on his own -- but it doesn't translate well here.
   
   If you can look beyond these issues, you'll find that there is a great, engaging game that's already very playable and enjoyable. It looks some of its impact in comparison to what it could have been, but I for one intend to stick with the community through all the amazing modding (which has already started) and expansions that are sure to become available.
   
   Fallen Enchantress is a very ambitious project and a worthy successor to the games it's inspired by. When a few minor issues are worked out, it's sure to be a ten. If you're a big fan of 4X, buy it now -- otherwise, give it a few months to cook with the wider gamer feedback it's sure to get.… Expand

   • Helpful? 6 of 7 users said Yes.
2. giskard

   8

   Since Fraxis dumped down Civilization 5 for the kiddies, us long term civ fans have not had a lot to get excited about and I really was not expecting much from Fallen Enchantress either. But it turned out to be an excellent game. This game mixes a full blown RPG (I am not kidding) with Civilization style gaming in a fantasy world. Not only do you create your own leader character like you would in any serious RPG, but he levels up as you progress. You can hire heros too which also level up. Build cities which level up as they grow and gain extra features. And do all the building that you expect inside a city in a civ style game.
   
   For an RPG Fan + Strategy fan, it does not get any better than this. Its a mix that works really well and drews you in pretty quickly. The only real tactic you need to know early on is to build lots of cities. Not only is it rock solid stable game with out a single crash in 15 hours of playing. But the world is just so rich and deep it has lore running like rivers across the landscape. AI players all have their own background story and special abilities and if you choose to play one your self if you want. But I like to create me own character.
   
   As with all good RPGs, weapon types, units, spells are all different, so are the enchantments. You get a lot of strategic options from mixing units you can build with your leader and heroes. Sometimes you can get your butt kicked simply because you had no ranged units in your army, other times you will win because you have something the enemy has no defence against. The battles you will see in the videos look crap, it nearly put me off buying the game but to be honest, its a lot more fun and lot more tactical that the videos make it appear. So before puking at the sight of the battles understand, the game is a lot better than that and you can auto fight the battles and skip that if you like too. The part I like is exploring the map, seeing a village or a temple or a ruin or something else and sending a unit to that square and either getting a quest or a bad guy to fight or both. You just do not get that in Civilization games. The games background story goes something like this.
   
   The old world is invaded by titans and the battle to destroy them lays waste the world. When the Titans are finally destroyed most of the life on the planet is wiped out and for the next hundred years, ancient beings called Elementals start appearing and taking over the world.
   
   Mean while several kingdoms and empires start to emerge, kingdoms being life loving types and empires being merchants of death. Empires follow the old titan teachings, where as kingdoms fight against it. Several premade AIs exist for both Empire and Kingdoms and to win you can either beat them to pulp, allie with them or our research them I believe. The usual stuff. Each element (pardon the pun) adds a layer or lore to the game, once that lore gets about 12 layers thick, as happens in this game, you could almost drowned in the game lore if not for the fact the campaign walks you through it in a nice fun way. Though I should add, the campaign is NOT a sandbox game and plays differently from sandbox since most of the options are disabled in the campaign which focuses more on the story than the world conquering strategies.
   
   Everybody I know who brought this game, loves it so far. Its turned out to be a hidden gem of a game.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.
3. Mochnant

   7

   I'll start by saying I like Fallen Enchantress. There is a lot of good in this game for the fantasy 4x crowd. What it lacks is focus, polish, and a compelling setting. It does try to do a lot of things. Is it a hero based RPG with city building attached? Is it a fantasy Civ game? Something else? There is a lot of seasoning in the pot. Some aspects are well fleshed out, and some are not. I expect Stardock will work on the polish, but the bland races are likely to endure. I would have preferred stereotypical races. What we have are blue people fighting gray people in a brown world.
   
   That said, if you can get past some of the design decisions and you're a fan of the genre, there is no better game to play and no better company to support.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
4. TheXand

   0

   Might have been a good game if it weren't crippled by serious framerate issues. Go buy Heroes of Might and Magic 6 instead as that game is graced with a working engine at least.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.

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