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Date |
: Dec 11th, 2001 |
| Genre |
: Strategy |
| Developer |
: Nival Interactive |
| Author |
: Jin-Ning Tioh |
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Gameplay for Etherlords come in two different basic flavors - strategic and tactical. The strategic form unfolds on the adventure screen, whereas the tactical form goes on during battles in the combat screen. Both forms of the game moves on a step-by-step basis. After giving out the necessary orders to heroes or creatures under your command, you end your turn and move on to the next turn until you have either crushed your opponent or completed the mission.
The strategic part of the game is similar to the Heroes of Might & Magic series. This includes territorial development and expansion, consisting of map exploration, resource accumulation, and capturing structures, as well as shopping for those much needed spells and rune supplies that are vital to your success in combat. Contact with hostile heroes and creatures result in a battle sequence occurring between your hero and the hostile hero or creature. You can also enter into or dissolve alliances with other races in the adventure screen. The main structure on the map is the Castle. Each player only has one Castle. Defend them as once they crumble under your enemy's onslaught, you have lost the game. Castles possess certain amount of structure points, similar to the toughness of a hero or monster. It is in the castle that you can cast global spells. Global spells serve a number of important functions, such as erecting temporary forts, summoning new undeveloped heroes of different levels, attacking enemy castles and challenging enemies to a fight in a special battle arena known as the "Ethereal Arena". Also worth a mention is the fact that in the single-player campaign, heroes don't carry over between missions. So take a last look, and say bye-bye to all that valuable experience, powerful cards, and all those artifacts... Nuts.
As mentioned earlier, one of the key elements in Etherlords is its tactical part of the game. This is similar to the combat system for Magic : The Gathering. The idea is to build a deck of cards suited to a certain strategy and use it to duel against other opponents. You play cards to build up a powerful force as well as to try overcoming what your opponent might do, drawing on familiar CCG concepts such as tapping, blocking, summoning sickness, walls, flying, trampling, first strike and regeneration. Thus, you must learn to master the cards in your deck and make they work together. But which card will your opponent draw next? Can you block his attacks? Games can be exciting, and deck building can be a very enjoyable hobby. So naturally, what excited the team most the combat system was the virtually endless number of individual strategies you could develop to effectively combat differently skilled enemies. The freedom of choice was immense, but still, it lacked the magic in which every game ever created offered - The thrills and chills of a full-fledged adventure, the dynamism of single and multiplayer combats, and last but not the least, the gorgeous visual representation it so richly deserved. Etherlords delivers this in the form of a "one on one" combat with an enemy hero or creature in the battle arena. Warring sides are situated motionlessly facing each other and don't enter into direct conflict with each other. A player's attack and defense occurs by means of casting various spells and summoning creatures. As the fight continues "attack" and "defense" phases alternate. In the beginning of the attack phase each of the sides receives randomly selected spells from accumulated spells in your spell book. Obviously, the fight finishes with the death of either your hero or the hostile hero or monster.
A few differences abound between Etherlords and Magic : The Gathering however. Instead of tapping lands as in Magic, ether management is automatic and based on a hero's experience level. A significant twist that helps prevent long standoffs was also added. After quite a few turns, wizards start taking increasingly more damage at the beginning of every turn. Waiting your opponent out and making sure you have more health will see you triumph over quite a number of duels.
Finally, each hero has a specialization that gives him or her a slightly erratic bonus effect. Some specializations work only with a specific summoning or blessing, while some even help your minions evade death by tweaking some of the basic rules. For instance, Kobold's cunning means that the hero's kobolds have a chance to inflict double damage during an attack. There are also skills that can be learned and improved over the course of a scenario and artifacts with limited charges that can cast powerful spells a certain number of times in a duel. Combined properly, these skills, artifacts and cards can present an even greater threat to your opponent than if you used them alone, without a strategy.
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