Elemental: Reforged

This is a soft thumbs up recommendation. Elemental: Reforged isn't going to be for everyone. If you're not sure if you'll like this, then just pick up Fallen Enchantress on a steep sale. It's almost exactly this game, but it runs better on older hardware. I've been enjoying the Elemental game series ever since the admittedly poor initial game launch many years ago. Brad Wardell and Stardock have been supporting this game forever - it's a labor of love and it really shows. The improvement over time is what nets this game a thumbs up for me. Right now, this game is an adequate 4X, but not as good as Master of Magic, Age of Wonders, Warlock Masters of the Arcane, Fallen Enchantress, or the much-underappreciated Planar Conquest. It's light on the strategy but robust on the tactical combat. The graphics are great. The research & economy part of the game is just fine. The world is lore-rich and there's a lot of "show, don't tell" storytelling, which is really the best kind, in the pieces of the game world that you'll uncover as you play. Nothing quite comes together perfectly. There's not enough tactical option to go with the amount of tactical depth the game provides. There's too much micromanagement of your too-few cities. Combat gets repetitive very, very quickly - by early mid-game every fight will be the same, depending on how you've specced your heroes. Heroes are still so powerful that it doesn't make much sense to train armies except as city defense, but there's no significant pressure on your cities if you're using your heroes to clear the map. This is a fun game, and maybe a good game. If it's anything like the previous iterations of Elemental, it'll end up being a very good game...eventually. If you've got a few bucks to throw at a developer who really does care about their game and will in all likelihood keep supporting it for a long time, buy this game, maybe leave it a positive review if you think it deserves it, and keep coming back as the game changes and improves over time.

Finally got a chance to play this weekend. This is a highly underrated turn based strategy game. Overall mechanics are relatively simple which is actually quite refreshing in this day of information and data overload. It gave it a flavor almost of a tabletop gaming session in that it was a very relaxing mode of play. But don't let the simpler mechanics prevent you from thinking it's a simple game. There is a significant depth of play, strategic and long-term thought that simmer just below the surface. Still waters run deep. Building a dynasty and carrying the game on through generations is very intriguing. Who of the available sovereigns do I court? What strategic political and magical benefits could they bring to my bloodline? Will they reject me because I don't bring enough to theirs? This took me back to when games were built around an actual world, unlike many modern games where the world feels like an afterthought to support the game mechanics. I'm looking forward to many more hours building a dynasty to rule for centuries. The only negative I have so far is the inline documentation. It is poor at best. The information may be there, but the organization is beyond awful. Trying to look anything up is hit or miss. I still can't find (for example) a simple list of all the keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys. On the flip side, the tooltips for each building, unit, and spell are VERY informative and contain all the critical information. But the help needs...help.

I bought the game in early access, but honestly still feels it should be in that stage. I’m enjoying it though and the devs are still actively patching the bugs and improving gameplay. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt but would advise people looking for a polished version to wait for the next major release.

Honestly, while it's pretty buggy I have hundreds of hours in the original Elemental and like this one even more (when it works). I also trust Stardock to eventually patch the bugs away; they're usually pretty diligent.

One of my favourite Turn-Based games. It's like Master of Magic mixed with Civilization with some new ideas. This game is one of the classics up there with the best of them. The first strategy game I ever played was Lords of Conquest on the Commodore 64. I fell in love with computer games because computer games were the only way you could play certain types of games like these. I was always on the lookout for new strategy games. I still have the Elemental War of Magic collector's edition box that I bought 16 years ago. I also still have the Destiny's Embers book. I've been playing the Elemental series for 16 years now. Having this newest updated version with better graphics that will get updates and new content is a welcome change to the Elemental series and computer games in general. Imagine getting new content and updates for Heroes of Might and Magic 3, that would be pretty cool, right? You don't always need brand new sequels and complete changes to game mechanics. I hope this game will continue to receive new content and updates for years to come. I've been playing computer strategy games for over 40 years and I got to see all the ways it changed from game to game. The most awesome thing about this game to me is that I can create my own units. I can design how they look, I can choose what armour and weapons they have, I can have my troops be male or female. This is an insanely cool thing that other strategy games never took up to adding in their games. You're always given a pre-defined set of troops in strategy games that you have no control over how they look or what they use in battle. Which is not only cool in how you can customize your own culture, but it also adds more layers to strategy and lets you do things outside of the box. This is a feature that I always loved and found awesome about this game. I can't imagine why no one else does this with all the advances of technology. Thanks for bringing back this game with an updated version. Keep on making updates and DLC for it.

Like it.

Kann man jedem 4X Fan empfehlen,die Grafik ist schlicht gehalten etwass veraltet. Aber dafür geht dass SPiel ordentlich in die Tiefe,lasst euch nicht täuschen hier wartet ein Juwel auf euch und das beste die Runden werden wirklich schnell berechnet!

Excellent 4x game. Great customer service too. I encountered a bug and posted about it and a couple days later the bug was fixed.

Not bad, a lot better than the original run of the game.

bonjour; Très fan du premier fallen enchanteresse, je me suis lancé sur celui là, en croyant à des nouveautés. J'avais fait le tour du 1 plus que de raison...Bref, j'étais enchanté à l'idée de rebaigner dans l'univers si particulier de ce jeu..Mais voilà si la nouveauté, ce veut graphique avec un rendu 64bit, la nouveauté est rare....Il y a bien un DLC minimaliste qui ajoute quelques suppléments, mais rien de vraiment nouveau...Je crois, mm qu'ils ont mis la barre trop haute avec un générateur de carte aléatoire en mode XXL; mais qui hélas est lourd en chargement quand vous passez un grand nombre d etour; pour dire vrai en fin de game, cela devient injouable; ça plante souvent...Trop souvent. Frustration et temps perdu sont le lot de ce jeu.... Alors, voilà si en note graphique en univers , en lore, en quête il a le mérite de frôler la perfection, en terme technique, c'est une grosse merde...Les débuts de partie, quand vous avez que quelques troupes restent jouables; mais dès que vous enchainer les combats tactiques (en réel); les sorts finissent par faire planter le jeu et on se doit de revider sa mémoire, en rechargeant le jeu avec un temps OFF...Et pourtant, c'est une grosse boite....Néanmoins c'est aussi très frustrant et je vous parle pas de créer des parties avec plus de 4 adversaires; là, en milieu de game, vers le tour 100; ça plante mm quand vous ne faites pas un combat...Pour dire vrai, j'ai reussi a faire une partie vs 2 adversaire avec plus d'une cinquantaine de ville; mais cela rame, et cela plante très souvent...EN gros, je n'ai pas reussi a finir une seule partie; trop de probléme technique; Sans parler des mods; ils sont aux nombres de 10 ou 11 (pas nombreux) et ils sont mal traduit en français; pire, ils alourdissent le noyau du jeu et cela plante encore plus...ET l'I.A, parlons en: elle est pas très jojo..en combat automatique, c'est souvent votre dernière recrue (Héros ou troupes), qui prenne cher; et cela mm si c'est une recrue distant...J'ai mm fait des combat réel pour eviter l'I.A et la mort de mon dernier héros, jusqu'au dernier mob a tuer, et voyant que je gagnai et qu'il restait un coup a donner pour gagner la bataille, je me decidai è finir en auto le combat; et bien, mm là, l'I.A, je ne sais comment me tuer mon dernier héros....EN somme il faut faire bien trop de combat pour éviter les pertes débiles et bien trop de combat finissent par planter...C'est très très frustant. Voila, en conclusion si vous connaissez fallen enchanteresse , passez voutre chemin; ici il n'y a que des squelettes au fond des placard , des toiles d'araignées d'ennuis, et des plantages rageant...Par contre la réalisation graphique frisant le 18/20, je ne peut que vous poussez a découvrir ce jeu; mais ATTENTION; je vous aurai prévenue; passeé le début de tour et les 10 premier combat, les 10 première villes; les plantages sont récurrents et le temps perdu devient vite monnaie courantes....Voilà, à bon entendeur salut...Et si je recommande ce jeu...C'est en sachant que je l'ai desinstaller et que je n'y reviendrai..il y a bien d'autre jeu qui sont bien mieux optimiser.. C'est à se demander ce que font les developpeurs