SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

Elven Legacy [PC]                                                       

Preview - Release date 19th March 2009

A turn based strategy game, filled with magic and mayhem as you try and restore the Elven race to there superlative state, when disaster begins to emerge as a human mage uncovers a dark soul destroying secret which dates back to the past of the Elven race, the elves spring into action in this classic turn based strategy.

Story

As a short synopsis, due to the human mage uncovering this forbidden secret, the elves must stop this information from reaching sinister hands, or else the world will perish at the hands of the bearers of this knowledge, the sorceress Gilwen and ranger-lord Seagate pair up and venture into the world to stop the peril, accompanied by many elven warriors, with there friendships twisting and pushed to the boundaries of misconception in this tale of mythology.

Hexagonal turn based strategys may not be everybodys cup of tea

Elven Legacy

Basically, this game is definitely not for everyone, action lovers steer clear, but strategy fans, and aspiring strategy fans, this could be for you. As a strategy fan the game does start a bit slow and dull, though it does grow on you and boast a very nice selection of aspects, such as the hundreds of various units to use, the different factions, the in-game editor, but the feature that I most love and should be in most games, is that you can play it again and again and it be different, carving your own future is always fun, with branching paths that lead into alternate directions deepening and widening the plot, meaning there’s plenty of replayability factor.

The units that you have to play with range from normal archers to giant ogres to flying ships, each with there own strengths and weakness’ the player also gets the option to upgrade experienced units, using experience points as seen in most mythical style games, with many upgrades it can either give your army a big variation of units to use, or simply specialize in one kind of unit, there are countless possibilities.  

The gameplay is that of a typical turn based strategy, units of your army progressing over a terrain, split into hexagonal spaces with which you use to as best of your advantage, setting up flanks and other tactics, and eventually reaching the goal of your objective, finishing within a certain number of turns often give the player many satisfying rewards, including new units, artefacts and other useful items to aid the player to progress within the game. The action takes place as you click the option to attack an enemy unit from the required distance, either with a weapon or magic, it then cuts into a scene where the action takes place, from time to time the fight scenes will slow down almost bullet time like, which is a very nice feature which keeps the fight scenes from getting dull fast.

The editor will be very easy to use and include simple tools

The enemy AI did at times provide me with very easy victories, but as I played a preview I’m sure this will be tweaked and fixed come the final release. The graphics are very colourful, pleasing even the most fastidious of gamers, the textures and environments include forests and fields, boasting every green colour variation known to man, snow and ice fields, evil looking volcanoes and many more.

There is an option to create your very own missions and campaigns, which you can share throughout the multiplayer nation, and take your elven army head to head with another and conquer even more land, as the campaign is quite long and does give you many hours of gameplay, the multiplayer just adds that little bit more elements to the game, though not all the features were available to play.

Many detailed units, with very shiny poles

The good

-   Stunning, colourful graphics

-   Branching paths, meaning a more in depth storyline

-   Plenty of units to upgrade and personalize as you wish

-   Rewards offer a challenge to those experienced games; though don’t pressure newer gamers unfamiliar with the game to complete a level as quick as possible.

The bad

-    Not exactly ground breaking material, as we’ve seen many of this, all before

-    There is better strategy games for the same retail price as Elven Legacy

The ugly

-    The version I played didn’t have everything finished, so hopefully just a few polishes and everything including the AI, especially will be fixed!

Stunning environments is one of this games biggest forte

Summary

Elven Legacy is a rather interesting turn based strategy that will not appeal to all gamers out there, though the lush environments and highly detailed units that has a compelling storyline with many depths and twists backing it means that Elven Legacy is worth a play, but for the retail price there are much better strategy games, but for turn based strategy fans then this is for you, but as its a preview version it would be unfair to give it a score out of ten, the game will be hitting stores in March.

By Liam Copping