Floating worlds

The universe of Eador is made up of infinite fragments of worlds floating in the great nothingness. Each fragment is different in population and geography. Above all, the fragments are not in contact with each other and wander alone, unaware of their surroundings. At least they believe so, because in reality there are powerful entities, the Masters, who are vying for their control. The player is called upon to play the role of one of these super creatures who must try to unify the fragments into a single land mass. Whoever succeeds will become the lord of the universe. Eador. Masters of the Broken World is the remake of a Russian strategy game released in 2009 Eador: Genesis (our review here).



Floating worlds

Never as on this occasion the word remake is not used by chance, since it is, at least in single player, the exact same game, with the same exploration and combat mechanics, only with better graphics. Not bad, you say, because the first is now his years and technically he was not very good. In reality the situation is a bit more problematic, because it is true that Eador: Genesis was first published in 2009, but only in Russia. The rest of the West was able to enjoy a version translated into a more easily understandable language, namely English, only in December 2012, about six months ago. Ergo, if you already have the other and are not interested in playing it in multiplayer, Eador. Masters of the Broken World offers very few new features, so few that to talk about it it would be enough to invite you to read the review of Genesis, applicable in its large part also to this chapter.



The basics

You have read? No? Do you want us to rewrite everything? What would we not do for you readers? As already mentioned Eador. Masters of the Broken World it's a turn-based strategy where you have to try to conquer land masses to create a bigger one world. The game starts with a world / tutorial that serves to illustrate all the mechanics in a very clear way. At the beginning of each world, the Master must select a hero to send into battle and equip him with an army. The hero can belong to four different classes: Warrior, Commander, Mage and Ranger, each with its own abilities and each with its own specializations, which must be selected after making it grow by a certain number of levels.

Floating worlds

For example, the warrior is a very strong unit that will tend to develop its combat capabilities, while the commander is intended as a support unit for all other friendly units on the battlefield. If desired, during a game it will be possible to drive more heroes (just hire them by paying), which will become necessary as soon as you are on more complex worlds than the basic ones and you will have to face contending Masters. The gameplay is divided into distinct phases. There is an exploratory phase, which consists in conquering and exploring the individual territories. There is a management phase, in which you have to build buildings in the capital to get new troops to hire, new spells for the heroes and a whole series of other bonuses that are of enormous importance in the course of the game. Finally, there is the phase of the actual combat in which the troops are deployed on the battlefield, divided in a chessboard, and must give each other healthy blows. Everything easy? Not really, because each stage has its own complications.



Exploration

Eador. Masters of the Broken World it's a complex title to play and requires careful planning of your moves if you don't want to be wiped out immediately. At the beginning the resources are few and new territories must be conquered to increase them. By resources we mean: gold coins, needed to buy new units for the hero's army, to build infrastructure, to buy equipment in shops, and so on; and magical crystals, useful for rituals and generally linked to all that is magic. Unfortunately, conquering a territory is not enough: if you want to make the most of it in terms of resources, you must first explore it as much as possible. Exploring a territory is a long operation that takes a hero for an entire turn.

Floating worlds

Doing so allows you to discover secret places, where you can usually face more or less strong enemies to get objects and money, and to enlarge the habitable area for the population, thus making it grow and prosper. By fully exploring a territory, you get bonus resources, which never hurt. The more territories they conquer, the more likely it is to face random events that will require our indirect intervention. For example, it happens that you have to suppress riots in the blood, or you have to choose whether or not to sacrifice part of the population to powerful enemies and so on. Usually these events are resolved by spending money or crystals and, especially when you have few resources, they are a big nuisance, because a negative result decreases the happiness of the local population who becomes more prone to rebellion.



The fight

The combat phase is the clearest one: deploy the troops on the field, you have to try to defeat the enemies without being overwhelmed. Usually the fights require a lot of planning, especially at the higher difficulty levels, where the foregone victories are few and far between (in case of clear superiority on our part, you can press a button to have the CPU calculate the outcome of the fight) . Whether the enemies are an army led by a CPU Master, or monsters found exploring some territory, you will always have to place your troops on the left side of the battlefield, then move them in turn with the opponent. Obviously, you have different types of units, all of which are able to level up by accumulating victories.

Floating worlds

Without mentioning them all, let's say that they can be divided into three macro categories: hand-to-hand combat units, long-range units and magical units, with all the variants of the case. The first type is usually the most resistant, but must reach the enemy in order to attack it, while the other two types are more fragile, but can keep a certain distance by throwing darts or bolts. Obviously there is no lack of the hero, who represents the real fulcrum of our strategy. In fact, each class changes the way of facing battles a lot, with for example the most suitable commander for a passive role, or the wizard who can rely on spells to produce various effects and so on. Usually it is clear from the description of the forces in the field if there is any chance of victory, with the hero who will do his utmost to point out the possible result of the clash with a specific comment (in green optimistic, in red pessimistic). Some special enemies, such as vampires or dragons, are relentless war machines and should only be faced by high-level heroes with a full army at their disposal. Doing otherwise involves the extermination of the troops and the death of the hero, who himself can be resurrected in the capital (the troops must necessarily be re-hired).

3D graphics and multiplayer

If everything written so far by Eador. Masters of the Broken World is also perfectly adaptable to Eador: Genesis, now let's see what are the real news of the title, that is the renewed graphics and multiplayer. On the first there is little to say: compared to Genesis, rather crude, this is pleasant to watch in its colorful 3D. Of course, the animations are few, but it is still a minor flaw for a title that has many other cards to play. Unfortunately, the interface has not changed, the same cumbersome as in the past, even if in some respects slightly clearer.

Floating worlds

In some cases, there remain some major shortcomings on the side of the information offered, some of which had to be made more evident, and in general we can say that more could be worked on this aspect, in order to make the similarity with the previous Eador less evident. . The real novelty of the game, which alone may or may not be worth the purchase, is the multiplayer side. Basically it is about spending a few points to create a hero and set off to conquer a world to contend with other human players, in the modes already seen for the single player. Unfortunately this is a rather controversial side, either because it is very buggy (especially in the first versions, then some patches have fixed various instability and problems), or because a whole series of options are missing, especially in the search for opponents, which make the organization of a match a challenge in itself. In short, it will seem strange to you, but what was supposed to be the stronger side of the game is currently the weaker one. However, especially if you can try online, Eador. Masters of the Broken World it truly offers many hours of gameplay and a depth hard to find elsewhere. If you are passionate about the genre, give it a chance.

Comment

Digital Delivery: Steam, GoG Prezzo: 18,99€ Resources4Gaming.com

8.2

Readers (12)

7.5

Your vote

Eador. Masters of the Broken World it is the exact copy of its predecessor, with more greasepaint on the face. If you have played Genesis recently, the purchase can only be justified by the desire to try it in multiplayer or to see the new graphics (even if the latter aspect is really relative). Anyone who has flown over it, know that Eador is an excellent turn-based strategy, with a great depth and quite different mechanics compared to the average of the genre. Unfortunately, a certain cumbersome interface remains, with some elements, especially informative, which could have been better explained. However, it deserves a promotion over its older brother and therefore deserves to be taken into consideration.

PRO

  • Deep game mechanics
  • Huge single player campaign
  • Good graphic restyling
AGAINST
  • Cumbersome interface
  • Few news in single compared to the predecessor
  • Multiplayer still unstable

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

  • The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
  • Processore Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz
  • 16 GB of RAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 video card
  • Windows 8 operating system

Minimum requirements

  • Operating system: Windows XP SP 2, Vista, Windows 7
  • Processor: Pentium 2,0 GHz / AMD 2000+
  • RAM: 512MB
  • Video card: GeForce 7300 / Radeon 9200
  • Disk space: 2GB
  • DirectX: 9.0c

Recommended Requirements

  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 / AMD 3000+
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Video card: GeForce 8800 / Radeon X1900
  • Miscellaneous: Touchpad is supported, but mouse gaming is highly recommended
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