Elven Legacy PC Game Review - Turn-Based Strategy in a Fantasy Settings
Elven Legacy
**
Elven Legacy is a turn-based strategy game for Windows PC, but it also has some minor role playing elements. I found the gameplay to be a little too tedious and slow, but others may enjoy the slower pace of this type game. Casual gamers probably won’t get much out of this title, as it seems to be geared more toward hardcore strategy and tactical game fans. It was released in early 2009.
As the story goes, the race of man is facing big trouble after a wicked sorcerer learns an ancient spell that can do unprecedented global damage. When the elves catch wind of this WMD (Witchcraft of Mass Destruction) research, they go out in search of the sorcerer to put a stop to him before he can cast the spell. In doing so, the elves get into a bunch of fights with other races like humans, dwarves, and some monsters. Obviously, there’s plenty of influence here from Lord of the Rings.
Gameplay (3 out of 5)
This strategy game plays a lot like a board game in that you will spend as much time moving armies into position as you will engaging in combat. It takes some planning and forethought, and you can put a lot of time into your tactics only to see them fall apart and have to start all over again. On top of that, some of the missions are deliberately balanced in the enemy’s favor and you must figure out one of the few ways the game designers intend for you to win. Because of this, there is a high replay value, but it requires a lot of patience and determination to get through.
When commanding large armies, I much prefer to have real-time strategy and feel like the turn-based tactics work better with smaller groups. Otherwise, you end up going through a series of boring move after move just to get your armies into position to strike. I do enjoy turn-based games like Civilization that provide you tons of other options along with strategic military conquest, but this game offers very little besides straight combat like in a board game.
Graphics and Sound (3 out of 5)
I found this game to be visually appealing despite its somewhat generic fantasy setting. It was colorful and there is a good bit of detail to the terrain, characters, and buildings. On one map, I did have a problem with the textures not loading correctly and it made the ground tiles look like some kind of psychedelic carpet. I will say that the game does run pretty smoothly so long as you don’t turn all the graphics settings up too high. The sound effects are your typical sword and shield type stuff and done well, but the voice acting is so bad that you’ll laugh at the obviously non-natively fluent actors and their phonetic battles with pronounciation.
Overall (3 out of 5)
I didn’t get much out of Elven Legacy because I am not a hardcore strategy gamer who enjoys spending hours just trying to get past one map.This game can sometimes be very tough, and I think it would make a casual gamer frustrated to the point of quitting the game and never looking back. If you are up to a serious strategic challenge, this game will certainly give it to you.
You can download a free demo of Elven Legacy from SteamPowered.com
System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
- Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista
- Processor: Intel® Pentium® IV 1.5 GHz or AMD® 2000+ (single core)
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Hard Disk Space: 3 GB Available HDD Space
- Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX 5700 or ATI™ Radeon® 9600 and above Video Card
- Sound Card: DirectX-compatible Sound Card
- DirectX® Version: DirectX® Version 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
