If you’re a hardcore strategy gamer, you’re in luck, as the recently released Elven Legacy is everything a truly hardcore strategy gamer could ask for. Now when I say hardcore strategy gamer, I mean the type of person who owns multiple turn-based hex strategy games, perhaps a few cardboard-and-plastic WW2 wargames, or maybe even a set of minatures with a 10 foot wargaming table. Elven Legacy, while much more accesible to the common videogamer than a WW2 chit-and-paper battle simulator, is at heart a game meant for those who truly love strategy games. I was excited to hear about Elven Legacy’s release, as I enjoy “lighter” strategy games like Civilization or Final Fantasy Tactics, and thought I would be in for a treat in writing this review. I found out I wasn’t really a hardcore strategy gamer after losing on the first mission of the game multiple times before figuring out my strategy wasn’t working. While the game is fairly enjoyable for me as a moderate strategy gamer, this game is much more suited to those who love to spend hours pouring over the terrain and perfecting their unit selection before heading into a carefully planned-out battle.
The story is standard fantasy fare, an evil mage has escaped after learning a forbidden spell. As leaders of the Elven forces, it is up to you to stop him before he destroys the world or opens up a portal to nothingness or steals all the underwear from elven cities (the lead female character looks like she may have lost hers somewhere along the road). It provides decent enough backstory for the various campaign missions you will lead, finding your way through various locations throughout the continent but it’s nothing spectacular. The elves are your usual haughty know-it-alls who live for thousands of years, the orcs are Warcraft-style “zub-zub” worthy, and the humans are pluckily defiant naive medieval folk. It’s not helped out by the generally overdramatic and cheesy voice acting, but honestly I am impressed that the text has voice-over at all.
The game goes like most turn-based strategy games. You pick your troops in the beginning of each battle at a battle management screen, each troop type has strengths and weaknesses, some are great at defending and soaking up damage on the front lines, others are siege style weaponry or can cast magic spells. Troops stick around from battle to battle in the campaign, leveling up and gaining new abilities called “perks.” These can really help you out within battles, so an extremely skilled general will try to prevent any of his troops from dying. The problem with trying to be an extremely skilled general however, is the fact that when venturing into unexplored territory on the hex-map you are occasionally ambushed by a huge amount of enemy troops who will pop out of the fog-of-war seemingly from nowhere and crush you mercilessly. This is incredibly frustrating, as when units are dead, they are dead for good. Did you level up your favorite group of Elven Fencers since they were wee baby level 1′s and watch them grow into strong and proud level 4 adults? Too bad, because your fencers just got the crap kicked out of them while you were unable to respond. Now you have the choice of either restarting the mission from your last save game, or continuing along the campaign without your beloved group of Elven Fencers.
This brings me to another point of contention: the design of the movement system. Certain units, and only certain units which have the “Segmented Movement” perk (such as buck-mounted warriors), are able to move 1 or 2 hexes, attack, then use the rest of their available movement to back away from the fray. I realize this is a design issue, but from a gameplay standpoint I find it extremely frustrating, especially when coupled with the turn limit on battles. Do I want to push forward with my more vulnerable Elven Fencers in order to pick off a retreating enemy 2 hexes away, but leave him vulnerable to counterattack? This would be a more strategic decision if the answer was not almost always “Yes, because I only have 5 turns left to complete the mission.” This way too restrictive for a strategy game.
I also found unit healing frustrating, as this same group of beloved Elven Fencers (I know, I get too attached to my units in strategy games…but he’s level 5!) must not move nor attack in order to heal damage taken. And even spending an entire turn with your thumb in your proverbial behind doesn’t grant you a full heal, as individual troopers within the group may have been killed by enemy attacks. Therefore you must be within a captured town’s walls to reinforce your troops, provided you have the available cash on hand and didn’t spend it all at the beginning of the mission replacing the beloved Elven Fencers that died right at the end of last mission…
The graphics do their job well when zoomed out on the battlefield, but are really nothing incredibly flashy. For a game coming out in the middle of 2009, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. The character models during the cutscenes are almost embarrassingly bad as they were never really meant to be viewed this close. This is no Gears of War, but again, for a strategy game that could essentially be played with tiles on a blank hex-board, they add something interesting to look at while you ponder your next move. Most of you will inevitably end up skipping through the zoom-in battle sequences that occur when you destroy or inflict some particularly nasty damage on an opponent, as they get extremely repetitive after the 5th time you see the exact same thing happening over and over. I feel like if some more time were spent with these character models, the game could look quite good. With the addition of ragdoll physics it would really get me excited to watch my cavalry charge into a group of Orcs. Unfortunately, this is not the case, but these battle sequences can be easily skipped by a click of the mouse. The fact that the UI was reskinned for each faction, Elven, Orc, and Human is a nice touch and shows that the designers did have detail and aesthetic appeal in mind, but perhaps did not have a blockbuster budget like many larger game developers.
But really, I’ve been complaining a lot, and it’s not all bad! In fact, it’s pretty good. I’ve mostly detailed the drawbacks about the game, but most of these things can be adapted to by a skilled player. The game is quite enjoyable after spending a decent amount of time with it to get used to the idiosyncrasies. It feels similar to the combat in Civilization at times, but much more finely detailed. The AI brutally crushed my moderate skills as a commander on normal during many missions and was still sometimes hair-pullingly frustrating on easy, forcing me to reload saved games over and over. The strategy buffs among you will enjoy the challenge, although the aforementioned losing troops when walking into the fog-of-war issue occasionally feels a bit cheap. The campaign is addicting despite the story, and unlocking new units for purchase after each battle is very rewarding. Receiving a gold victory for a campaign mission (completing the mission within a specific low number of turns) I found to be one of the hardest things in the game (I still can’t do it), and players can spend quite a while trying to figure out the perfect strategy.
If you are interested in strategy games or are a tabletop strategy gamer (and don’t mind the fantasy setting), this game would make an extremely solid purchase, one that I would highly recommend. If you are simply interested in elves and orcs slugging it out, you may find it too challenging or too niche-specific. It is an unapologetic strategy game, with the teeniest bit of RPG elements thrown in with the perks and leveling system. If you’re the type of player who would rather strategically plan out your crushing blow against the Orc warbands, rather than rush in with guns blazing, you will likely find Elven Legacy immensely rewarding, despite it’s flaws.
