Many intriguing games have appeared over the course of our game industry's history. From Black & White to Populous, these games have tried to push the envelope on their respective genres. One recent example would have to be Nival Interactive's latest 3D Turn-based strategy title, Etherlords, a mixture of the popular card game Magic : The Gathering, as well as the well-received strategy series Heroes of Might & Magic. The talented folks over at Nival have toyed with such an interesting mixture, that one way or another, this is one title which simply cannot be ignored. In beta-testing sessions held for players around the globe recently, I had the pleasure of helping fine-tune it almost to perfection. So, should you burn open a big gapping hole in your wallet and purchase this game, or should you just forget it and go buy some candy instead? Find that out and more in our in-depth coverage of Etherlords.
Ether - From the simplest Gibberling, to the very crust of the earth itself - Ether is everywhere. Flowing from the very fabric of the universe, Ether knows no boundaries. It's flow - the essence of life. Worlds spring from its arcane energies, and change with its flow. Pure energy, dazzling like fresh white snow, flows through the center of the universe as White Ether. Only those souls who are bold and mighty enough to curb it are granted great powers. Unfortunately, only a precious few have managed to achieve such a bold feat. White Ether exists only for a few brief, elusive moments. Now and then however, its arcane energies spill out into four currents. While these currents are not as powerful as the pure energy found in White Ether, they endure much longer. The Ether of Chaos is scarlet like blood. The Ether of Motion is as blue as the skies. The Ether of Vitality is green like a freshly unfolded leaf. And the Ether of Synthesis is as black as scorched stones. These energies form the basis of everything existing in this Universe. When the flow of the ether is smooth and measured, they emit pure energy. But when their pace quickens, ether whirlwinds form and give birth to matter. With inexorable regularity the four multicolored flows of energy rush to join each other and become White Ether again. And where they mix their kaleidoscope of streams in an impetuous whirlwind, the World of the Lords begins.
The World of Lords is but a single world in a universe filled with ether. Intelligent inhabitants know that the crust under their feet is in reality, just another ether whirlwind, a clot of energy. Four celestial bodies travel over that world. The Red Sun, Blue Star, Green Moon and Black Planet, named an eternity ago after the Ether flows whose energy they emit. Spending eternity upon eternity hovering in space, they are deceptively idle. This is not so. Time passes and a mysterious force lines up the stars in single file aimed at the center of the universe, at the point where White Ether is created. Like any creature destined to go through a dawn, zenith and decline in life and then to return in another incarnation after death, the World of Lords emerges, reaches its full beauteous bloom and then dies, in order to be born anew in all its wonder. A Time of Change... The long awaited Time of Change comes to the World of Lords. As soon as the planets combine, their energies flow into a single blinding beam that streaks to the center of the whirlwind. It then unfolds and starts moving backwards. The World of the Lords begins to change wondrously - Imposing mountains turn into flat plains, troughs in the sea turn into dry land, previously unexplored lands now appear in plain view and impregnable fortresses deteriorate into nothing more than mere mirages. The inhabitants must then rewrite their history and redraft their maps. Powerful mages and wizards who control the direction and speed of ether flows using invisible currents of energy flows must discover new spells and hexes from this renewed source of energy to create armor, weapons and servants to combat new foes and old enemies alike or perish in this time of great change.
And thus begins the deadly battles between the four races and their respective Lords. Will the sacred alliance between the Lord of Vitals, Lord of life and diversity, and the Lord of Kinets, Lord of harmony, order and wisdom, manage to reach the Temple of Time and defeat the White Lord to preserve the world from further destruction? Or will the unholy alliance between the Lord of Chaots, Lord of raw power and pure rage, and the Lord of Synthets, Lord of refinement and mechanical monstrosities prevail in this time rife with chaos and destruction? Only time, wisdom, courage and a keen tactical mind can tell...
As foretold in the prophecies of old, the Time of Change has finally arrived, trailing in its wake death and decay. Four races stand at the heart of the conflict, battling each other to reach the Temple of Time to become the next White Lord. Forming into two alliances, the Vitals now fight side by side with the wise Kinets against the unholy alliance of the fiery Chaots and mechanical Synthets.
Synthets, Ether of Synthesis - Impossible to mistake for any other creature, Synthets are born from the Ether of Synthesis. Ill suited for living creatures to exist and develop in, the Synthets have managed to adapt themselves to their harsh conditions in a most peculiar manner. Reducing their bone and flesh to the bare minimum, they have replaced the rest of their bodies with machinery. Interacting with non-living matter flawlessly, Synthets have hordes of mechanical monstrosities attending to their every whim and command. This, combined with their ability to keep a perfectly rational mind during the heat of battle, make the Synthets a formidable force to be contended with in battle.
Chaots, Ether of Chaos - Born from the Ether of Chaos, you can recognize the unruly sons and daughters of Chaos by the scarlet sheen in their faces - the reflection of the irrepressible fires of war and blood shed in the thousands of battles they have fought. Strong and sturdy in build, Chaots possess incredible strength and stamina, making deadly foes on the battlefield. Worst yet are their warriors and heroes. Rushing into the heat of battle without giving a thought to their own safety, Chaots have been known to charge against even superior forces, emerging victorious and leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in their wake. While this is partly due to the fact that they do not enjoy thinking, it is mainly due to their superior numbers. Casualties also do not derail them easily from their ambitions of glory, as they have never learned to value life, due to their incredible fertility. In fact, very few things can frighten a Chaot - After all, obstacles exist simply to provide the fearless sons of Chaos an opportunity to sweep them out of their way.
Vitals, Ether of Vitality - Conceived from the fickle flow of the Ether of Vitality, Vitals are at times known to be incredibly bizarre looking. Just by watching them, one understands just how multifarious life is. Able to interact with living creatures and command them in battle effortlessly, Vitals are accepted as true masters of nature. This, harnessed with their ability to thoroughly analyze any situation and plan many steps ahead into the future, make them indeed worthy opponents to the unholy alliance of the Chaots and the Synthets.
Kinets, Ether of Motion - Not unlike the Ether of Motion that gave birth to them, Kinets always aspire upwards. Their build is aesthetic and delicate, their bodies slender and their faces impassive. When you look at a Kinet, their features give them the look of great wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately, that is hardly the case. However, they do value knowledge. Their first commandment - Knowledge is power - shows their extreme desire for knowledge. Joining the Vitals in their sacred quest to prevent further destruction and chaos, the Kinets have proven powerful allies with their strategic planning and tactics against the forces of darkness.
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.
Before all the ass-kicking and battle cries however, resources must be collected. Resources can be used to support heroes, buy new spells and purchase runes. Eight types of resources are available. Seven types are accumulative - Obtained amounts are added to your supplies. This include plants such as the Black Lotus and Mandrake Root, rare resources such as the Bloody Ruby, Poison Emerald, Star Sapphire, Smoke Diamond and the much sought after Frozen Flame. Plants grow in gardens and minerals are extracted from mines. When a garden or a mine is captured, it begins producing certain amount of resources daily. Production can only be raised if a mine or garden is upgraded. Still, it's not all bad news. Some resources can be freely picked up in some areas of the map, but beware - access to deposits of resources are usually very well guarded! You can also receive resources in the form of loot after winning against an enemy monster. A good strategy is to concentrate your forces on resources that are more useful to your race. For example, Chaots generally like rubies, Kinets prefer sapphires, Vitals favor emeralds and Synthets like diamonds. Last of all, is the much sought after Frozen Flame. The Frozen Flame is a unique resource since its deposits and mines are very hard to come by and they are often extremely well guarded. However, without this resource you won't be able to get many uncommon and rare spells or upgrade your mines and gardens.
Last of all, is Ether - A non-accumulative resource. This means that unused amounts disappear at the end of the day. Ether can be obtained from various Ether sources found on the adventure screen. Four types of Ether can be found - One Ether type for each race. Blue for the Kinets, Green for the Vitals, Red for the Chaots and Black for the Synthets. As a rule, Castles are created near sources of a race's "own" ether. So Ether of a certain color is fairly easy to find. You can also seize "strange" ether sources but you will only be able to use half the amount of such Ether. In other words, your daily supply of "strange" ether will be two times less than that of your "own" ether. Seizure of your enemy's Ether can also significantly complicate his actions. Ether units are called "Ether Quantums".
Most of your Ether is obtained daily from the Castle while Ether Nodes are useful for supporting your heroes. Heroes use certain amount of Ether Quantums daily and Ether consumption increases with the level of a hero. Ether is also used to cast and maintain global spells. The remaining Ether can be used for the regeneration of your Castle should it be attacked and damaged by enemies. Unused Ether is irretrievably lost. If incoming Ether amounts dwindle however, the processes slows down in the reversed order. At first Castle regeneration stops. Then production of global spell slows down or stop. If Ether resources drop even lower, you heroes won't be able to receive any experience from battles. The suspension caused by lack of Ether is however reversible. As soon as you increase Ether resources or reduce consumption levels by canceling global spell production or dismissing one of your heroes, everything will return to normal.
Another unique resource is used in battle. Known as White Ether, it is available to heroes through special ether channels and only during battles. White ether sources cannot be found on the map.
Besides the all important Castle mentioned earlier, other important structures also lie strewn across the World of Lords. Spells and runes essential to success in battles can be bought in several shops. Spells are sold in Towers and Labs, while runes can be purchased at portals across the map. Towers sell creature summoning spells for combat. Labs sell various sorcery and enchantments spells.
Some structures can improve a hero's features. For example, teachers and masters can give additional experience or skills to heroes. Springs can temporarily extend a hero's life or increase their mobility. Gnome-artificers can recharge artifacts found by a hero. Dungeons will provide random melees to a hero every week. Altars can increase daily ether supplies while certain structures are under your control. Mines, Gardens and structures can be upgraded up to two levels. With every level their parameters improve. Daily resource production in Mines and Gardens increase. Better uncommon spells can be bought in the shops. Portals sell runes for better prices. However, the downside to this is that resources are required to upgrade any building.
Perhaps the most useful structure for guarding your territory are Forts. Located at strategic positions, Heroes can easily defend their beloved lands from invasion. A fort is a tower with enough space for only one hero inside. Forts have a wide-spread interception range that often cover important valleys and positions. When an enemy passes through a Fort's interception radius, he is forced to battle your hero. When Forts are well positioned there is no way for your enemy to approach your key structures such as your Castle and remain unnoticed. Besides Forts that have been erected across the map, additional Forts can be created through the use of certain global spells. The downside to all this is that you will need certain amounts of Ether to maintain these Forts. As opposed to regular Forts, created ones can be attacked and destroyed by enemies.
Spells are essential to your survival in this hostile world. They are practically your only means of attacking and defending yourself. Each hero has his own Spell book containing 15 scrolls. Spells that are the same still occupy one scroll each. At the beginning of every mission, heroes possess Primitive spells, which don't require any runes to be casted. However, runes are needed for more complicated and effective spells. Runes are not found in the game as separate objects. They can only purchase at portals for a price. The number of spells you can carry around is limited and depends on the hero's resources skill. When a hero doesn't possess the resources skill he will be only able to carry up to 5 runes by default and if he does he can carry more than that, which equals being able to cast a spell more times, provided you have the runes required.
During a battle, randomly selected spells from your spell book will appear in your hand. Primitive spells can be cast an unlimited amount of times. More complex spells will last as long as you have enough runes. After the Runes are exhausted, spells stop coming to a hero in battle and a corresponding spell appears instead. So it would be wise to replenish your rune supply in between fights. When buying a spell a hero exchanges it for any one he already has in his spell book. When buying identical spells, be careful to take into consideration the price of each following one increases based on the number of spells in the book.
Artifacts are unique objects that aren't sold in shops and can only be found on the map or received as loot. The hero who finds an artifact gets to keep it or later pass it on to another hero or sell it. Artifacts are only used during a fight with the enemy and are accessible after a certain turn. An interval of several turns is required before you can use the same artifact again. The total number of artifacts you can use is dependent on your hero's Artificer skill.
Your alternative road to victory, global spells can destroy or seriously weaken an enemy's Castle by means of an "Ether attack". Castles have structure points. A Castle is destroyed when number of structure points becomes zero. You can use global spells to attack an enemy's Castle, to challenge your enemy to Ether combat in the Ethereal Arena, and defend your Castle from an enemy's Ether attack. Ether combat differs from combat on land. In Ether combat heroes are not destroyed, experience points are not assigned, and artifacts do not get exchanged. In order to meet in an ether space heroes do not need to be located at the same point on the map. For Ether combat to happen one hero needs to be sent to attack the Castle and another one to defend it.
Etherlords features multiplayer support for its duel function, the main attraction of the game. Duels take away all traces of the strategic part of the game and instead focuses solely on the combat portion of the game. They're very flexible outside the strategy game, and you can practically spend hours engaging in dozens of five-minute instant skirmishes with randomly chosen heroes, decks and environments. This not only provides you with a great lunch-break game, but also presents an ideal way to learn the various cards. Here players are given the opportunity to configure their individual decks and heroes. This includes parameters such as resource level, race type, hero level, skills, spells, runes, artifacts, as well as your specialization. The resource level is the amount of resources you have at your disposal to configure your deck. Race types allow you to choose from either one of the four warring races. Your hero level decides the number of life points you possess. Spells are selected from the vast array of ready-made spells for each race. Runes decide the number of times you can cast a spell. Artifacts take no ether to cast in combat, and can perform a series of deadly attacks or curses on your adversary. However, they can only be casted after intervals of several turns. Specializations are unique skills that are available to your hero such as Smoke Resistance, Stones' Wrath, Burn Relief and so on. Only one specialization can be selected for each hero. And while the AI can at times make some interesting yet questionable decisions during combat, it genuinely knows how to use its cards to its advantage, and will probably provide even an experienced collectible card game players with a challenge.
It was during the early spring of 2000 when the Nival Interactive team was finishing up on their RPG, Evil Islands : Curse of the Lost Soul. The beta-test was proceeding at full speed, and a part of the team, especially the artists, had been released from work on the project and was anxiously waiting to start something else; something completely new and unexpected, as understandably, after four years of role-playing in the same fantasy universe, they needed a really strong blast of fresh air. This came in the form of Etherlords, a beautifully rendered 3D turn-based strategy with fantasy elements. Facing this new challenge with gusto, the concept artists and modelers working on Etherlords have outdone themselves, with four distinct visual styles for the four races and magic types. Looking at any object in the game, such as the terrain, battle screens, buildings, creatures, heroes, and effects could immediately tell you which magic and race type they belonged to - The steel of the Synthets, the fiery flames of the Chaots, the peace and tranquility of the forests in the Vitals and the cold ice of the Kinets.
Scenes during battles include lush woods, snow, plains, barren ground and even the "Ethereal Arena". Eye candy is plentiful here. On the snow terrain, for instance, snow gently drifts down from the sky, while an icy waterfall cascades down from the side of your screen. The woodlands feature a lush arena of green trees, and the desert has fine sand dunes and detailed columns of rock. To top it off, battles can be played from several key view points as well as by following an automatic camera. The automatic camera is a useful feature as it zooms up to key events happening in a battle, such as creature summonings, blessings, curses and creature fights. This, combined with the incredible amount of details found on characters and creatures, as well as a polygon count of over 50 000 polygons per frame, helps in making Etherlords even more immersive than ever, making it a treat to play.
The sound effects found within Etherlords are nothing short of amazing. From the battle cries uttered by heroes in battle to the clash of steel and flesh between your minions, loads of ambient noises for both the creatures and your heroes are abundant in the game. I even thought that a cricket had somehow entered my basement, until I realized that the sound was actually coming from the Ticks that I had just summoned. Sounds this realistic will be a big factor in helping to encourage immersion - What Coleridge called the "Willing suspension of disbelief". The music, although rather unsynchronized when heard alone, blends in perfectly when played together with the game. Each musical piece consists of four parts : an introduction, a development of the theme which has a culmination (often the loudest part), a "liaison", and an ending.
Etherlords could hold what some gamers have been waiting for all this time - Great graphics to go with an equally great collectible card game. 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.
In the end however, the gameplay is what counts. And Etherlords delivers with the ability to customize your 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. In the mean time however, go grab a copy of Etherlords and bring some strategic cheer into your holiday season. Enjoy!
