Posted February 07, 2013
(I'm posting this here, because of GoG's "Review too long" restriction.)
The story is thin and on rails, the voice acting is fair to horrible, the music is forgettable, and the online servers have been taken down; yet, I cannot pull myself away from Etherlords 2, and find myself chanting "just...one...more...battle" like a mantra.
While there isn't all that much of a plot (different factions across the world are in different skirmishes at all times, and you must get involved) the campaigns are of a decent length, and there is a lot of variety, thanks to varied cards, enemies, and a goodly amount of luck. It is this latter quality that will have you either cheering with victorious glee, or banging your head against the wall in defeated frustration.
Gameplay consists of the player character traversing a map (similar in style to Diablo or the older Warcraft games) over land and sea (methods of transportation include a player mount, ship, and teleporters) while encountering non-random battles. These battles are the core of the game, and switch the player into a Trading Card Game (TCG) of sorts.
You will accumulate hundreds of cards through the game, but can only bring sixteen into battle at any one time. Cards can be purchased, found, or won. In a twist from other TCGs, resources are not used to play a card; rather they're collected in the environment and used to purchase cards. Rare cards, of course, require greater amounts of hard to get resource materials, but once purchased they're yours forever. Because of this, exploration is not only advised, it's pretty much mandatory if you want to succeed.
At the start of a campaign (there are five of them, although only two are initially available) you are on a linear path but, as the game progresses, the map will open up to give you many more choices as to where you want to travel.
The Good:
========
The amount of variables that can affect a battle's outcome is mind-numbing: Specializations, Offense cards, Support cards, order in which cards are drawn and played, Skills, Creature Abilities, Spells, Enchantments / Sorceries, Creature Power/ Toughness levels, Artifacts, and environmental factors (such as toxic areas or nearby Shrines) can all play a role. Moreover, the actual gameplay is not nearly as complicated as all this makes it sound. Two decent tutorials will have you up and running in about 15 to 20 minutes. Balance is, overall, pretty good, although...
The Bad:
=======
1) ...there is at least one combination (that I have found) of a character card and specialization that is way overpowered, so there are probably more such combinations.
2) Battles can take quite a long time, mostly due to repetition, camera sweeps (where you'll most likely have to stop playing until it stops moving), and the lack of a “Repeat Last Command” button, which would have been very handy during long battles.
The Ugly:
=======
The camera sweeps across the battlefield many, many times during combat which, if you happen to be clicking on a target at the time it starts to move, can cause you to cast on the wrong target, including yourself. Yes, you can actually damage your own hero, so beware. It is possible to do away with the automatic camera movement, but doing so disables ALL camera views (normally, you can switch between four static camera views using the F1-F4 keys).
The Meh:
=======
Etherlords 2 will not let you make any plot-altering decisions. For example, if the enemy tells you they will kill a hostage if you take one step closer, then feel free to move as close as you want without repercussion; your character will stop on his/her own while telling you “I think they mean business.” This takes all chance of failure away and puts it solely in the battles, where you can reload as often as you like. Whether or not this matters is strictly personal preference. Personally, I'd like the dignity of risk associated with making my own choices, but it's not a deal breaker.
The Bottom Line:
============
This is a solid TCG that doesn't really feel like a TCG. As such, it should appeal to a much broader variety of players, including TCG fans. If you have someone with which to battle over LAN, this is a five star game. If you're only playing solo, then bump it down to four stars, as there is little replayability here. That said, you've got a lot of hours worth of turn-based fun for less than the cost of a movie ticket. For fans of TBS, TCGs, or RPGs, this is a must own.
The story is thin and on rails, the voice acting is fair to horrible, the music is forgettable, and the online servers have been taken down; yet, I cannot pull myself away from Etherlords 2, and find myself chanting "just...one...more...battle" like a mantra.
While there isn't all that much of a plot (different factions across the world are in different skirmishes at all times, and you must get involved) the campaigns are of a decent length, and there is a lot of variety, thanks to varied cards, enemies, and a goodly amount of luck. It is this latter quality that will have you either cheering with victorious glee, or banging your head against the wall in defeated frustration.
Gameplay consists of the player character traversing a map (similar in style to Diablo or the older Warcraft games) over land and sea (methods of transportation include a player mount, ship, and teleporters) while encountering non-random battles. These battles are the core of the game, and switch the player into a Trading Card Game (TCG) of sorts.
You will accumulate hundreds of cards through the game, but can only bring sixteen into battle at any one time. Cards can be purchased, found, or won. In a twist from other TCGs, resources are not used to play a card; rather they're collected in the environment and used to purchase cards. Rare cards, of course, require greater amounts of hard to get resource materials, but once purchased they're yours forever. Because of this, exploration is not only advised, it's pretty much mandatory if you want to succeed.
At the start of a campaign (there are five of them, although only two are initially available) you are on a linear path but, as the game progresses, the map will open up to give you many more choices as to where you want to travel.
The Good:
========
The amount of variables that can affect a battle's outcome is mind-numbing: Specializations, Offense cards, Support cards, order in which cards are drawn and played, Skills, Creature Abilities, Spells, Enchantments / Sorceries, Creature Power/ Toughness levels, Artifacts, and environmental factors (such as toxic areas or nearby Shrines) can all play a role. Moreover, the actual gameplay is not nearly as complicated as all this makes it sound. Two decent tutorials will have you up and running in about 15 to 20 minutes. Balance is, overall, pretty good, although...
The Bad:
=======
1) ...there is at least one combination (that I have found) of a character card and specialization that is way overpowered, so there are probably more such combinations.
2) Battles can take quite a long time, mostly due to repetition, camera sweeps (where you'll most likely have to stop playing until it stops moving), and the lack of a “Repeat Last Command” button, which would have been very handy during long battles.
The Ugly:
=======
The camera sweeps across the battlefield many, many times during combat which, if you happen to be clicking on a target at the time it starts to move, can cause you to cast on the wrong target, including yourself. Yes, you can actually damage your own hero, so beware. It is possible to do away with the automatic camera movement, but doing so disables ALL camera views (normally, you can switch between four static camera views using the F1-F4 keys).
The Meh:
=======
Etherlords 2 will not let you make any plot-altering decisions. For example, if the enemy tells you they will kill a hostage if you take one step closer, then feel free to move as close as you want without repercussion; your character will stop on his/her own while telling you “I think they mean business.” This takes all chance of failure away and puts it solely in the battles, where you can reload as often as you like. Whether or not this matters is strictly personal preference. Personally, I'd like the dignity of risk associated with making my own choices, but it's not a deal breaker.
The Bottom Line:
============
This is a solid TCG that doesn't really feel like a TCG. As such, it should appeal to a much broader variety of players, including TCG fans. If you have someone with which to battle over LAN, this is a five star game. If you're only playing solo, then bump it down to four stars, as there is little replayability here. That said, you've got a lot of hours worth of turn-based fun for less than the cost of a movie ticket. For fans of TBS, TCGs, or RPGs, this is a must own.
Post edited February 07, 2013 by SpiderFighter
