X
- T
- Stardock
- T
- Stardock
- T
- Stardock
- T
- Stardock
Elemental: War of Magic
Released On: Aug 24, 2010
53
5.9
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
53
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
37% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
53
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
63% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
37% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
Elemental: War of Magic has a lot of good ideas that set it apart from being another kingdom-building clone, and while it borrows from many places, it doesn't really do a great job of making any of them feel particularly strong or fully fleshed out.
My intense 4X fandom has been conquered by Elemental's nonstop irritations. I'm putting it down for now, but I'm not writing the game off forever.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 74 User Ratings
5.9
46% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
12% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
42% Negative
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 74 User Ratings
5.9
46% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
12% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
42% Negative
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
Elemental War of Magic might seem like a promising game but beware! It is packed full of bugs, UI issues, gameplay issues, balance issues and stupidity. DO NOT BUY IT!
Each patch makes things WORSE which is another reason I suggest you stay far away from this **** tragedy. Memory usage went UP (1.4 gigs) as did crash frequency (pretty damn often) when they patched to 1.1.
They tried to increase complexity by simply doubting various resources and splitting benefits into two tech trees. This makes the game slow and cumbersome and removes any advantage of research.
Gameplay mechanics like trade do nothing and several times upgrades did not do what they said and in fact seemed to do nothing at all. It's pretty hard to play a game when nothing does what it says.
Also vision is broken (you can't see things on the map). Movement is broken (you can't move according to your movement rate). Monsters are broken (looking at a stack gives you incorrect information about it's contents. Questing is broken (there are two types of quests [which makes no sense] and in two games I was unable to get a to a level where I could access any of the available quests. Units are broken in several ways.
Saving is also broken as you can't save keystroke/game progressions but only a fixed state. Conclusion: play Civ 5/4/2 or Alpha Centauri if you want a great 4x game. Play Galactic Civilizations 1 if you don't like Civilization and STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF CRAP.
Report
PC
There are, with the current patches, still a few bugs. However, considering **** track record and the patches so far I'm sure these will be resolved son. The game itself is fantastic, masterfully combining RPG elements with classic 4X game-play. While there is room for improvement, I am sure that the full potential will be realised, going on what **** have outlined as content for patches, hence the high score. If you enjoyed Galactic Civilizations, then you will enjoy this.
Report
PC
In the end I have to admit that despite its large number of problems I find Elemental strangely engaging, and I want to keep playing just because I know that someday it's going to become a much better game than it is right now.
A complex story attempts to give meaning to each quest, but even the most hardcore 4Xers will feel betrayed by Elemental. There's very little to love here, and it's so unbalanced and frustratingly crippled no magic will fix it.
Rife with technical issues and a clunky user interface, Elemental: War of Magic is not yet the game I hoped it could be.
A decent strategic foundation is rendered all but meaningless by horrific bugs, missing features, a poor interface, and plenty of other defects.
I have been a long-time fan of **** games, and have been anticipating this one for quite some time. It has exceeded my expectations, and I can't say how many hours I have put into playing it since the weekend. The game has been very stable for me, and I have not experienced any crashes or major issues. I do recommend anyone who is a fan of this genre to immediately grab this.
Report
PC
It's funny how the "professional" reviewers finally grab their sacks when a middle market developer puts out a flawed game. Truth be told though, if I had rated this game on release, I'd have given it a 3. I think it's actually fun now and **** has bent over backwards to make it up to the people that bought the game in it's initial shoddy state. As of now, the game is now quite playable and I find it pretty fun. I think when the stand alone expansion comes out (Elemental:Fallen Enchantress) you'll see a truly great game.
Report
PC
I purchased the game last night with the hope to play multiplayer w/ a friend, but the multiplayer servers are unavailable until next week. Upsetting, but understandable. The game crashed on me after about an hour, but again I have come expect these type of crashes on new games. Play style: Civ 4 meets Warlords Battlecries on the map. FF tactics for the battle system. I like the spell system and overall feel of the game. It still needs some polishing. Character creation is a lot of fun too.
If you want this game to be great from the time of purchase, I would say wait. If you want something fun to play and don't mind the occasional crash or bug buy it now.
Scored it a 7 because -1 for the crash, and -2 for no multiplayer yet.
Report
PC
This game looked and sounded very promising before release. When I fired it up for the first time after buying it, I thought to myself that I was playing a shareware game from 10 years ago. Remember shareware? Bad UIs, graphics seemingly drawn with crayons, lack of documentation... Elemental hits all these marks. There is also a lack of exciting content. There is no variety of teams or factions to play - a problem brought on by the sandbox design. You create your own custom units from a pool of base types and gear. The story is nothing original. The game just utterly lacks drama. Also the magic system is awfully boring. Master of Magic is still 10x better than this game. It feels like **** put everything into designing the engine and technical details but forgot to give this game a heart. They had been pretty fast with new patches right after release, but I notice that version 1.1 is still not out and even that patch will not give this game the total revamp it needs. After a very rough release (lots of bugs, crappy AI, lack of direction for new players) I doubt this game can recover. They are better off sweeping it under the rug and putting out a new title next year, using what they learned from this bad experience.
Report
PC
Another pre hype game that did not live up to the hype has cost the jobs of many of the people surrounding it and those NOT involved with it. I dropped all support for **** after Demigod and I am so glad I did not fall for the pre order craze of this game. I don't pay 50 bucks to beta test people's games. Sorry I am just not that gullible. You can read more from Brad Wardell of **** (posting as Frogboy) on the official Elemental forums which are sinking into a cesspool rapidly. Hey make the game 20 dollars and I will pick it up!
****/394855/page/2/#2753014 It is true. Elemental's revenue was anticipated to provide the revenue both for our main games team's next project as well as a second team. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off. No one is being fired. None of these people did anything wrong. **** is a small company and each person here is truly amongst the best and brightest. So you can imagine how much it **** for all of us to lay off anyone. We haven't had to lay anyone off since our migration from the OS/2 market in 1998. It would be great if we can bring as many of these people back over time if the studio can afford it. No one involved on the core components of Elemental is affected. Elemental's rocky launch can be summed up (IMO) as follows: Our QA process was insufficient to handle a brand new platform (Elemental = Kumquat 1.0 versus say Galactic Civilizations II was using Pear which was the same engine, modified, from 1997's Entrepreneur) + my own catastrophic poor judgment in not objectively evaluating the core game play components.
Please note as a follow up: Joystiq has been informed by a source that this is only the first round of layoffs at **** and that the final count will be about 20 people. We've also been told the "games team itself is/was only 15 people big," so the layoffs will affect others at the company and outside contract workers. Survivors of the cuts will allegedly include the game's producer, art lead, and two lead developers. The source claims, "All of the posts [Wardell] has made in our public forums about how the games team is funded by our commercial software development and that Elemental was not rushed out the door for monetary reasons is a lie. These people are getting laid off due to poor sales and **** inability to pay back the capital investors that funded Elemental's development." Finally Blog of War goes into the situation even further with this blogpost:
****/DevBlog/?p=1452 So, basically, Brad says he was so in love with the world and the game that he lost sight of itâ
Report
PC
Summary Elemental is a fantasy strategy game set on a world filled with magic and ancient lore.
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Aug 24, 2010
Developer:
- Stardock
Publisher: Stardock
Genres:
