wow! The game isn't even announced yet officially, there's a small preview @ gamespy already!
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/elemental-war-of-magic/926527p1.htmlAnybody out there remember Master of Magic? Those who answered "no" need not be ashamed. This mostly forgotten turn-based strategy classic from now-defunct Simtex and MicroProse was first released back in 1993 in a heavily bugged state that caught heavy critical and reader flak and no doubt kept it from achieving the kind of success it deserved. Those who stuck it out through many, many patches, though, discovered a wonderful Civilization-style turn-based "4X" game based on the notion of dueling wizards trying to conquer a fantasy world. It's a fair bet the folks at Stardock haven't forgotten the game, because while they can't officially embrace the heritage, the company's just-announced Elemental: War of Magic is looking like the rebirth of Master of Magic, something any strategy fan should celebrate.
The game's basic premise is that the world of Elemental is recovering from a devastating apocalypse resulting from a war between magic-wielding gods who were wiped out in their final battle. A few centuries later, the all-but-lifeless and magically dead planet has started to recover. This process is accelerated when a few people -- called "channelers" -- find they can still access these ancient magical forces via magical crystal fragments that were spread across the world during the apocalypse. Naturally some of these channelers wish to help the world recover and rebuild civilizations. Others have motivation that aren't quite so benevolent, setting the stage for a conflict.
The basic gameplay of Elemental, like Master of Magic and Civilization, is a classic 4X conquer-the-world empire builder. Players begin by creating their "channeler." Unlike many "4X" games, the player's avatar isn't a distant unreachable sovereign: The channeler will be an incredibly powerful unit within the game. By him or herself, the channeler will be able to easily take on an entire enemy army and cast spells of devastating power; at the head of an army of men and fantastic beasts they'll be a military force to be reckoned with. The channeler may also remain within one of his or her cities imparting bonuses to the town, casting overland spells that aid in conquering the world, and researching new and more powerful magic spells.
The balancing factor in the power of the channeler is that the avatar's power is not unlimited -- in fact, the avatar basically acts as the power source for the empire. In order to found a city, the channeler will have to funnel a bit of power into the land to make it habitable. There are powerful NPC adventurers who wander the world delving into lost dungeons and forgotten ruins to discover powerful magical artifacts from the past. The player can recruit these heroes and use them as generals, imbuing them with a portion of the channeler's own power to cast spells in combat.
All of these functions will drain energy from the channeler, reducing his or her personal power in favor of using magic to spread the power of the empire. The choice for the player then becomes how much of their own personal power they're willing to sacrifice for the growth of their magical empire. Players may, for example, choose to found a lot of cities at the beginning of the game, but the cost is making each one extremely weak and leaving the player vulnerable to getting killed.
As the player works on building up their civilization, various other strategic factors will come into play. The world's magic is divided up into five "schools" representing the four classic elements of Air, Earth, Fire and Water, along with Life magic. Each of these obviously comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. Life magic, for example, will assist a player economically, helping to make cities grow, while Fire is the obvious choice for those looking to create strong, aggressive armies. Players also have a choice about whether they're going to be a positive or negative channeler. Positive channelers are benevolent magicians looking to heal the land, while negative channelers will create a Mordor-like landscape of destruction. Each type will receive various military bonuses or penalties based on the kind of terrain they're fighting on and which school of magic it's most connected to.
The world map also plays a significant role in the way the game plays out. One of the design team's mantras is that everything the player sees should be "real." That is, everything in the game should represent a real strategic factor the player must take into consideration. Cities aren't just single-tile icons. Instead players can grow their cities according to specific strategic dictates. As cities expand, players can choose how to spread their cities across the map and can locate individual city elements within those tiles. This can lead to cities being used as fortresses to block specific mountain paths or a situation like the classical Greek cities of Athens and Piraeus in which the Greek city-state's naval power was extremely dependent on maintaining a thin, vulnerable strip of land that let them control the port city of Piraeus.
The best thing that strategy gamers have to look forward to is how fifteen years and the advent of the Internet have changed what's possible in a turn-based strategy game like Elemental. The game will come complete with several different multiplayer modes, including classic skirmish and a persistent universe mode that will allow players to develop long-term open campaigns.
Elemental will also mark Stardock's entry into the realm of Spore-style game broadcasting.
The game will do much more than offer support for modders, as the company is developing a back-end infrastructure through its proprietary Impulse service that will let players seamlessly integrate new races, units, spells, technologies, buildings and much more into their game. Every time a player starts a game of Elemental, they'll have the opportunity to seamlessly incorporate new content straight from the fertile minds of the game's biggest fans. Elemental: War of Magic is currently scheduled for a February 2010 release.
The first screenies:
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Topic: Elemental: War of Magic - Stardock's upcoming fantasy TBS (Read 50444 times)