Eldara

Ignoring the AI art (which makes the game feel cheap and doesn't really quiet gel together, as all AI does), I looked into the skills and noted the game lacked much of the depth of Melvor Idle, which is the same price. While this may get addressed, what put me off the most was the game shoving a whole bunch of lore that sounded painfully generic and the quests being pay for buffs, which felt wield. Personally, I'd drop the AI art in favour of a real artist (even if the art itself isn't good, there's charm in bad), make the quests actually feel like quests where they give a bit of lore or even teach the player mechanics (and not just paying for a random buff) and add more depth to the skills. Sadly, there's no "Meh" option, so a NO it is. Maybe I'll return, when the games more fleshed out.

Eldara is not a bad game, I just think there are better for the price. Gameplay: It plays like a streamlined Melvor Idle. I find the scrolling "whispers" feature to be a neat idea, but poorly implemented. "Encounters" which advance gameplay or offer rewards are lost in the feed of status updates and flavor text. Many items have no use other than to sell.. why include them at all? They just clutter the inventory. Otherwise, yeah, the bars fill and the numbers go up. I can think of half a dozen games with the same gameplay loop, some of which are free. Use of AI: This isn't a sore spot for me on its own, but it's worth mentioning. The art is almost 100% AI generated and much of the text reads like it is, too. Bottom line: Not a bad game if you like the genre. I might recommend it for $2 or less. Not worth more than that, in my opinion.

[h3]// DATA_LOG: Eldara[/h3] [hr][/hr] [i]"Elder Maren seems to think this mark on my flesh was mentioned in some tome written back before the dawn of time, when all the rivers ran straight. I just nodded and looked grave because the coins he shoved into my palm feel heavy enough to buy a dozen hot meals. Maybe a pair of socks that don't smell like swamp water. Outside of camp, three mangy curs are tearing holes in frozen mud and fighting over the old salted sardines I dumped from my pack earlier. Dogs need to eat too I guess. Somewhere beneath the town's nervous chatter, people keep muttering about voidstone like it's some kind of cure for a dying world. Or the cause of one. But I'm being paid to find out, let's hope I do before the snow sets in for good and seals the mountain passes. This place is a madhouse and I mean to tear loose of it both alive and paid."[/i] [hr][/hr] Eldara keeps things straightforward from the moment you boot past the title screen. Menus are clean and navigation never feels like wrestling a overstuffed manual. While your character grinds away in the background, random ambient chatter from passing NPCs give the world a lived in weight that most idle titles completely miss. Then a sudden boss fight drops out of nowhere to test your current build before you can zone out too long. Hunting mechanics and the prestige cycle keep the dopamine loop humming along nicely. Sure, playing through successive rebirths might eventually strain against a lack of fresh mechanical surprises if the narrative tracks the exact same beats. Still, every single dollar spent feels justified by pure enjoyment alone. You get your moneys worth and I've enjoyed my time in Eldara, it being an EA title, I haven't encountered any jankiness or bugs. So if you're looking for something lowkey and low price to scratch that idle fix, give it a shot! [hr][/hr]

Not really a game at all, it's just a bunch of bad AI. I'm not opposed to the use of AI in game development... I'm opposed to poorly-used AI in development. And this is one of the worst I've ever seen.

Can i say i would not recommend a game that i enjoy playing? Well let's say: I dislike that I enjoy it. The Game is fun, but it's evident that this game used ALOT of AI and by alot I mean that likely 95%+ of the game was just AI generated. The visuals look cool, best i would explain it is how i imagined cool swords and armors as a child. The gameplay loop is pretty much the same as Melvor Idle but a huge amount more shallow, there's probably 20% as much content as in Melvor. The amount of thought put into the game feels like it's close to 0, and here comes why so much AI generation is a problem. The game is extremely inconsistent - there's a built in item wiki that gives you little information, but it doesn't help alot because what's written is actually already pretty non explanatory except maybe where to get an item, apart from that it's incomplete: somehow ores are in there but ingots aren't? Also how bad can a search algorithm be to take more than 1 second to query through a list of 351 items on a modern PC ... come on - you can smith ruby, emerald, diamond and void gear (let's not talk about how gem ingots are cheap idea that doesn't make sense, at least it looks cool) and then you can craft sapphire, ruby and diamond rings but no emerald and void? for amulets you have sapphire, ruby, emerald and ... dragon (?). also diamond ring is epic, diamond armor is legendary - accuracy in combat? yeah exist i guess but no hint how it works, actually alot of the combat seems shallow but still it's not clearly explained - thieving ... the heck is the point of it, in melvor you have a dozen ways to improve the loot, success rate or reduce failure rate. Here? oh you level up and then also buy an upgrade with gold and that's apparently it i could go on and on because everytime i play the game, there's so many things that are annoying because they aren't thought through. And it really really really shows how little the devs care when every improvement or question on steam is unanswered while the game also gets no updates. The game was made for the sole purpose of getting money, not even a bit of care in the world to make a good product. A prime example of why too much AI use is absolutely disgusting

Honestly, if I wanted to play Melvor Idle, I'd just play Melvor Idle. This game, for being a replica of other games of its type, offers nothing unique or inspiring to keep playing it. If it wasn't so hardcore AFK (in hopes that what's been said in this comment actually changes) there's no legitimate reason to have put any hours into it, let alone spend money on it. I think it cost money. Frankly I don't remember. If it does it shouldn't.

AI slop

I see that most of the negative reviews are [b]Melvor Idle[/b] enjoyers that are defending [i]their game[/i] for some reason, as if the mere existence of [b]Eldara[/b] is an attack on their beloved title. I prefer this over Melvor Idle as it's just a better game (to me). Are there some similarities and overlap? Absolutely. There are room for both games. You can enjoy both. I've played a lot of idle games. This one stands out as a top tier game for me. The UI is simple and sleek. It's very pleasing to look at. There are no paid DLCs (at the time of this writing). The skills that you level up serve a purpose in some form or another, not just something for you to level to make you spend more time in the game.