We'd like to talk extensively about the contents of Elemental: War of Magic, how beautiful and complex the kingdom's management system is, how many playful possibilities it offers the player and how, from the day of publication, we can't play anything else. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. The first thing that should be noted is that we waited a long time before proposing this review. The reason is very simple: at present, even after the application of the first four patches, released in a hurry and fury (the version of this review is 1.08), Elemental: War of Magic it is simply unplayable. Imagine what the basic version was like.
But we have been patient, because the title has great untapped potential and we hoped that Stardock would publish a decisive update in a reasonable time. This was not the case, although a mega patch has been announced for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, we welcome you to the bug fantasy festival, an explanatory gallery of all the problems that can plague and bury any video game, with all due respect to the promises and hopes of those who believed in a new Master of Magic.
Love your desktop
The situation is rather dire. Here we are not talking about simple graphical glitches or some infrequent crashes: on the test machine, Elemental: War of Magic went back to Windows several times within an hour. This alone would be enough to crush him, also because one enters the paranoia of continuous rescue in order not to lose the progress made. We also tried to change computers, using a very light one to check if there were any conflicts with some other software, but the situation didn't improve much. We said to ourselves that maybe yes, you play a little at a time, the crashes are continuous, but it could be worth it. And it doesn't necessarily happen on all PCs. Ingested some tranquilizers to avoid bug hysteria, we moved on. Played for a while, Lady Luck assisted us and we managed to take a few turns in a row. Then freezing.
Probably some wizard has cast an ice spell at the computer, because he has frozen everything on us. Let's restart. Let's reload the game. We load the last save and ... it's corrupt. After a couple of thousand swearing out loud, we loaded the previous save. A few more turns and another freeze. Returns to the desktop were better, we immediately thought, as we cursed Manitou and Yoda in the language of oc.
It looks like an anthill
Now, what has already been described would allow us to stop Elemental: War of Magic without thinking too much about it. Fortunately, there is much more to wear on him. Stardock's title is, quite simply, an alpha version of a game.
It lacks finishing touches and has several problems in any field. Let's take for example the interface, often too cumbersome and not very versatile, asphyxiated by graphic bugs of various kinds (text that ends outside the windows, screens that cover other essential ones), or we take the lack of a tutorial worthy of the name that leaves unaware of many game mechanics. In the latter case, the solution is to proceed at random, but doing so is not fun, especially if you have the stability problems described above (we checked on the official forums and there are many players who complain about them). Another problem that plagues the game is the dancer frame rate. Now, just look at the pictures to understand that Elemental: War of Magic it's anything but a technically amazing title. Not bad, given the genre, but then why do we have to witness reckless collapses of fluidity, which arrive as sudden and unjustified as punches in the stomach?
You forgot the scaffolding
It is a shame to have to speak ill of the title of Stardock, which evidently has enormous potential by virtue of the advanced management of city growth and the versatility of its complex mechanics.
It is potentially one of the best strategists to come out on the market, but, in fact, it's hard to get passionate about any aspect. All the problems listed were not enough, we must also add an artificial intelligence that is deficient under different points of view and unable to engage the player. Another element that highlights the alpha state of the game's processing are the quests, overall few and flat. In such a game this is no small defect. It is evident that the developers have not been given time to create more, but the general question remains: why bring a reduced title to the market in this state? Wasn't it better to delay the release by a few months and come up with a full game? To these questions is added another, much heavier: if even in two or three months a resolutive patch comes out, who would pay attention to it anymore? And who bought the game on release, would they still be willing to reevaluate it? Imagine buying a computer today and being able to fully use it only after several months, would you be happy?
Comment
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Readers (26)
5.1
Your voteElemental: War of Magic it is a disaster, but it is a disaster that is particularly sorry because it brings great promise and because the developers are funny guys who have always defended development on PC. At present, buying it is a risk. Anyway, if you're interested in playing it, come back in a few months. Maybe they'll have it fixed by then. In the meantime, don't spend your money on it.
PRO
- It has a lot of potential ...
- ... but they have all been thwarted by an abnormal amount of bugs and various problems
- Multiplayer is unplayable (like the rest of the game)
- Suffers from absurd delays
PC System Requirements
Test Setup
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
- RAM: 4 GB
- Scheda video: GeForce 250 GTS
- Operating system: Windows Vista
Minimum requirements
- Operating system: Windows XP / Vista / 7
- Processor: 2,4 GHz
- Video card: 128 MB compatible with DirectX 9.0c (GeForce 6800 / Radeon X1600 or better)
- RAM: 1 GB
- Hard Disk: 2 GB
- DirectX: 9.0c
