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A leading Russian game developer and publisher targeting the international games market. Founded in 1996, Nival has been dedicated to creating unique titles with innovative gameplay. Past titles include original role-playing games such as the Rage of Mages series and Evil Islands : Curse of the Lost Soul, a 3D role-playing game. Recently, they also released Etherlords, the clever 3D turn-based strategy game utilizing collectible card game system. Currently a premier developer with 75 team members, Nival Interactive continues to challenge the world of interactive entertainment. Right now, they are developing Blitzkrieg, an upcoming World War II real-time strategy game which has recently reached alpha stage.

My first personal experience with their creations began with the first Rage of Mages. Although it only featured 2D characters strutting their stuff among dense forests and mountains, it gave players a sense of freedom by allowing players to hire teams of archers, cavalry or warriors to help out - For a price. Players can also train up their magic or fighting skills at the local training center and take up dozens of quests and sub-quests at taverns. The storyline is original and missions can prove to be quite challenging. Players must really learn to make the fullest use of spells, including poison gas, fire walls and so on. Rage of Mages 2 : Necromancer only improves on this formula, with several new towns including an elven camp in the forest and a dusty desert town. Dozens of new enemies including orcs, demons and the undead also populate the deserts and forests. Tons of new spells and enchanted elven weapons are also available to choose from.

Evil Islands : Curse of the Lost Soul was also another memorable gaming experience, although it was widely overlooked and proved to be difficult in the extreme for even veteran RPG gamers. It brought players on an epic quest through several unique islands, each with its own culture, feuds, races and climates, including snowy landscapes and barren deserts. With the help of a small battle party, players must battle their way through several orc tribes, ogres, goblins, dragons, cutthroats and the undead with stealth, cunning and brawn. Strategic planning is the key.

And recently, Etherlords was released to quite a number of rave reviews. A clever game, Etherlords featured astoundingly beautiful graphics. While several computer games based on collectible card games such as Magic : The Gathering simply featured little pictures of cards, Etherlords manages to bring the card game to a whole new level, with lively and fully 3D creatures and heroes battling in all their glory. To go with its the detailed graphics is its equally enjoyable CCG gameplay. Gamers are set free to customize their decks with over 300 spells of destruction and mayhem. It's a shame more developers didn't think of ideas like these sooner. But hey, as they say, "Better late then never". Hopefully clever games like Etherlords won't be such a rarity in tomorrow's gaming world.

With such memorable titles under its belt, we over at BlueSmoke are looking forward towards Nival's and CDV Software's upcoming World War II real-time strategy game, Blitzkrieg. Hopefully gamers around the globe will pay more attention to titles from Nival Interactive in the future, so to experience all they've been missing out on.