Elemental:WoM AAR

[riadsala]

Anybody ever wonder how Elemental turned out? Sure, it had a crappy launch. But Stardock said they'd fix it. And they patched it. Again and again and again. And then Brad/Frogboy said that v1.4 was the final version, and everybody went off to work on the sequel (Ele: Fallen Enchantress).

Is Ele:WoM v1.4 any good? I have no idea. I lost interest in the game way around the 1.1 patch. But the talk of Ele:FE has got me interested again, as I'm a big fan of CivIV:FfH2 and Kael is now heading up the FE design team. I was almost tempted to try the beta, but then I remembered how crappy Stardock betas are. Hence, I'm revisisting the first game and giving it a fair chance.

Read all about it here

Comments and criticism welcome as usual

[Vexing Vision]

Reading this has made me sad. It's well-written, but the topic saddens me greatly.


I had such high hopes for Elemental when it was announced. I even pre-ordered it, and to day it remains my most regretted purchase.

"A simplified King's Bounty with less depth" actually sums up the combat very nicely. I'm now going to play some KB again.

[riadsala]

Reading this has made me sad. It's well-written, but the topic saddens me greatly.


I had such high hopes for Elemental when it was announced. I even pre-ordered it, and to day it remains my most regretted purchase.

"A simplified King's Bounty with less depth" actually sums up the combat very nicely. I'm now going to play some KB again.

thanks, and yes, I'm exactly in the same boat. Which is why I thought I'd give the "final" version of Ele:WoM a shot, with an open mind. So far, it isn't holding up well to CivIV:FfH2. There's actually less tactical depth in the "tactical combat mini game" than there is in Civ's stack-of-doom combat.

Still, I'll press on and see what happens in the mid-game...

On the plus side, did I mention how much i like the cloth map?

[riadsala]

Progress is slower than expected, as the game appears to have a built in method of protecting the AI from the human player... whenever i try to capture a city there appears to be a 50/50 chance the game will crash. :(

I'll keep plugging away at it though!

[potatoedoughnut]

Thanks for doing the writeup. I never actually got the game to run, and never bothered to try after it was patched a couple times. It's so promising, it's too bad it was half-assed.

[riadsala]

Thanks for doing the writeup. I never actually got the game to run, and never bothered to try after it was patched a couple times. It's so promising, it's too bad it was half-assed.

yup. It's now offically the worst game I've ever completed.

Anyway, AAR all done, although I rushed a bit towards the end as the game was depressing me.

Take home message: if you have any interest in playing Elemental: don't. Go and play either CivIV:FfH2 or King's Bounty instead.

Feedback is, as always, most welcome. If there's any interest, I'll do another game of something soon. Possibly another FfH2 game now i know how to play it a little better.

[The Innocent]

Good job, riad. Great writeup to a poor game.

[boots468]

Yes - good write up here, riadsala. Reminds me just how disappointing this game was. And why I really shouldn't get my hopes up for Fallen Enchantress ...

[Vexing Vision]

This morning, my eyes stopped at the big, black collector's edition box of Elemental still in my shelf.

My morning smile turned into a frown, and my heart wept a bit.

Then I went to work.

[R-F]

This morning, my eyes stopped at the big, black collector's edition box of Elemental still in my shelf.

My morning smile turned into a frown, and my heart wept a bit.

Then I went to work.

This is me every day.

[riadsala]

Thanks for the feedback. And here's hoping Ele:FE doesn't ruin Kael's reputation.

Does anybody have a working link to Tom Chick's re-review of Ele from last year? I tried to find it, so I could read and link to it, but it seems to have vanished off the internet.

I might do another FfH2 AAR if anybody is interested? Or any other suggestions? I'm thinking of starting one of the classic DnD RPGs (probably Icewind Dale or Torment) but I don't think they'll suit my AAR style. I was thinking that Daggerfall might be fun, but I'd need to do a few practise runs to learn the game a little, (or get save/load happy).