Nenjin

Unlike some of the harsher critics, I'm going to say yeah, it's ok to buy now and you won't be ripping yourself off. I may have some serious problems with the game, but the potential is there and clear for anyone to see. Elemental is actually about par for Stardock release (other than some of the reactionary behavior...) which means the game is going to get a lot of love in the next few months. So if you're in it for the long haul, and don't mind being part of the balancing/tweaking process,

No, I think he's firmly in that special place fans get when they're experiencing cognitive dissonance.

[quote]No, I read it, and it's all stuff I noticed my first hour of playing while I was still barely scratching the surface. For all its length, your "review" is actually quite shallow. [e classic];)[/e] [/quote] Well, you seem to be in the minority. I await your own flawless and insightful review. No seriously, where is it? Let me guess, you're waiting for more patches.

So you didn't even read my review, and yet you're saying I haven't played the game enough to have an opinion? Now that's funny.

To add to that, screw Civ 5 and its release slot. If you are financially able to take more time, TAKE MORE TIME. That's the golden rule of any deadline work. I thought this was a given since this is Stardock's release and presumably no one elses. Those those that might have worried Civ 5 would overshadow Elemental's release, had Stardock taken the time to make content and polish it all, people would have played both for being two different, interesting games. As it is, when Civ 5 rele

[quote]the reason is simply magic came in the beta too late and wasnt tested and developed enough[/quote] Which speaks to some serious miscalculations on their part, or just a lack of a strong hand guiding development. Someone should have been there every day going "what about magic?" We called our game War of Magic!" [quote]like questing, its fun and well thought and even balanced[/quote] But even the implementation is rocky. In one game I found the Midnight Stones qu

The amount of PR and damage control that is going on around this game is surprising me. I reserved that kind of behavior for big dev houses and publishers. Stardock has always been very open in general and open to taking criticism. Pulling down your own code of conduct amidst a rocky release is not prudent at all, from a PR standpoint.

[quote]The problem here is Master of Magic really set the bar too high. But then again they focused IMHO only on the fun part - MAGIC[/quote] This. Hats off to Stardock for trying to do more than just a single concept game, but they put their time and attention into parts that they ultimately weren't using to sell the game. Cities was the one place where a selling point matched the amount of polish and attention it received. Tactical battles, for what we got, feels like it ate up a lo

Elemental has depth, but not that much depth. From the earlier pre-order release until now, people have had ample time to experience the limits of the depth the game has to offer. On top of that, in this day and age, people don't read a book they're not enjoying for 4 hours to get to the 2 hour part they will enjoy.I've done that because I put a lot of hope into the game and gritted my teeth through the boring, the broken and the downright insulting parts to get to the part where I st

I was meaning to give some more targeted feedback later in greater detail (i.e. I have lists of spells in my head I would like to suggest), but the length is just so I don't get accused of giving a bullet point "why it sucks" post. Some less level-headed posts have gotten nuked for that reason, no matter how right they might have been. Plus...some of this stuff just seems painfully obvious to me. Pastel. Who in god's name made that call?

[quote]the documentation is a nightmare, i just read a threat stating that there are different damage and defensive types (like blunt damage etc.) yet i never ever read it ingame. for all i now there is just damage and defense.[/quote] Well, there you go. One of my complaints partially addressed simply because it's not explained at all. Normally I would read a game manual cover to cover, but I dove right into Elemental because I figured, hey, Stardock knows how to do 4x games

The only thing ridiculous is people saying no one has the right to judge Elemental when it's been released for two days. Whether you liked it or not, everyone has the ability to have an informed opinion on it, and since Stardock decided to sell it, the people that paid have the right to judge it based on what's presented.

I can read patch notes, which I did before posting this. 99% of it is still relevant. One incremental patch does not change the game completely.

TLDR: C+, moving higher with every patch they release. From patch 1.01.... Review Overall: Mechanically and technically, the game shows a lot of promise, and is a solid base on which to build a truly epic game. It doesn't deliver on several key selling points however, or under delivers. Thematically, I don't enjoy Elemental but I guess that's to taste. Campaign:

Hey liq3 :P

I guess my biggest complaint is that if you're going to roll out a SP campaign, and a big story behind it, and everything else, it should be a good introduction to the game. The SP campaign is pretty rough in some places. My first NPC just sort of vanished from my army, but I still get messages from him now and then about...stuff. Instead of explaining the mechanics or even trying to guide you on your first attempts, the game just kind of throws itself at you. Again, if there was no SP campai

In complete agreement with the OP. I figured out some stuff on my own, but many, the game does not help you in the slightest. I figured out what I needed to because I've played TBS and have been following Elemental closely. The lack of any instruction too takes a lot of polish of the SP campaign, adding to the abruptness and out of place events.

Yes but apparently a lot of balancing is tied to the seeds they created, so making your own may result in a very random experience. Read as: no viable resources to start a town and get your feet under you.

PM Frogboy?

No. You get billed when your pre-order is processed, it's very clear about that. If you ordered in the wee hours of the morning, like a lot of us here just did, someone is going to have to process your pre-order on their end, send you your registration key for download, and charge your bank account. If you ordered today it should be done today, but it's not instantaneous like Steam. It took about 1.5 hours for them to charge me and get my download code, so I think you s

They found in beta that the game started way too slowly with totally random resource allocation. You needed some basic resources just to get a town started. So yeah, the code is evenly distributing good stuff, which has a large impact on how the game plays. The symmetry just goes toward not having enough interesting seeds.

I guess I'm just a little weary of being billed an idea and not really seeing it in the first release. There's plenty of game there, no denying that, and it all looks very fun. The reason I got into Elemental was because it promised to be big on magic. What I've seen instead is a world setting that revolves around magic, and the same generic, bland treatment of magic in game that characterizes every fantasy game made today. So that makes it standard. And I have faith they'll get back

...Tell me it's better than MoM. That's my litmus test.

Hoping this is yet another aspect you guys are planning to address in the coming weeks.

Hey guys, been following beta closely, finally registered. While I appreciate Stardock's candor and their enthusiasm, I do have one thing to say. For a game with MAGIC in the title, Stardock clearly shoved magic on to the back burner in favor of a lot of other features. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt because they've committed to updates for a long time...but that's a pretty big failing in my book. I hope Stardock uses this release as a c