Eador: Master of the Broken World – Review
Eador: Masters of the Broken World – is a turn-based strategy with loads of RPG elements from developer Snowbird. You will nee to conquer all the shards of the Astral to make the world whole again, fighting against demigods along the way.
Introductory Remarks:
You might notice that this review looks a whole lot like our preview of Eador. This is because there isn’t much difference between our preview copy and the full game. That’s not a bad thing though as the preview copy was already quite good and the changes in the full game do fix the major issues I had with the game. The inclusion of a very thorough tutorial and updated UI elements make the game much more accessible and the story has been a bit more fleshed out. Gameplay wise, there are no noticeable changes. These where not needed though as the gameplay was already rock solid.
Story:
The universe of Eador is called “The Astral” – a strange cosmic space in which small pieces of land called Shards are floating around.
Each of the shards is a little world unto itself, with geography and denizens of its own.
You will begin the game as a regular boy, living on one of these shards. You will then be discovered by an old wise man who knows your true potential and mentors you into becoming the lord of your shard. When you conquer your shard, it will be revealed that you are actually a demi-god who can go and conquer other shards. Your ultimate goal is to conquer every shard and add them together to create a whole world. Unfortunately these shards are heavily contested by The Masters, other demigods that also want to conquer all the shards.
You and the Masters, however, are not physical beings, so you will need Heroes to do your conquering for you.
This is how the stage is set, in Eador you will have to take on the Masters and try to conquer the Astral. During you conquest you will also have to make certain moral choices, which will affect which of the games 8 endings you will get.
Graphics:
Eador has some pretty nice graphics, the artwork is nicely done and fits the fantasy setting perfectly. There are loads of visual cues that can give you information about the world and the battlefield without you having to open information windows. It is clear, only by looking at the character models, which units are epic and which are practice dummies. I do have some slight issues with the battle animations taking too long, it can be annoying at times but it’s nothing major.
Sound:
Eador’s soundtrack is pretty nice. The music is very beautiful and fitting, and never gets annoying or too obnoxious. The in-game sound effects are not always that great though. Some of them are so quiet you barely notice them and they do sometimes sound a bit amateurish.
Gameplay:
There are three different levels of strategic gameplay in Eador. On the highest and most basic level, you have The Astral, where you choose which shard you will try to conquer next. You will make your choice based on the Shard’s difficulty levels and it’s rewards. The rewards can be resources: energy (which you need to invade new Shards) or technology (in the form of new buildings that you will be able to construct).
There is no other way to unlock new technology than conquering Shards so make your choice wisely!
On the mid level you have the Shard which you are trying to conquer. This level is comparable to a very light version of Total wars campaign map. The Shard is divided into different provinces, which you can capture through combat or diplomacy. To conquer the Shard, you will have to capture your opponents stronghold and you loose if your opponent is able to capture your stronghold. The stronghold is all that really matters. You will be able to upgrade your stronghold by building structures, which allow you to recruit more advanced troops or increase your income, etc. The captured provinces play a minor part in the game as you can only build a limited set of structures on them. To lead your armies into enemy provinces you will need heroes. There are four different kind of heroes which you can hire: There is the Warrior, a tank-like unit, which specializes in melee combat. The Rogue, a ranged combat specialist, which is better in diplomacy and exploration than the other heroes. The Mage which is excellent at casting spells and summoning minions to fight for him. And last but not least, the Commander which can lead the largest armies, he has attributes which are focused on improving his units abilities.
The lowest and most ‘awesome’ level of strategy is the combat, which happens when you decide to capture a province by force. This level looks a lot like the Heroes of Might and Magic games. You will deploy your units on a hexagonal grid, after which you and your opponent each take turns moving units and attacking. Here each grid can have its own terrain which provide boosts or penalties. For example, hills increase the range of ranged units but require more movement points to cross. Your units cannot be stacked so they will all represent one character on the field, and once it’s gone it’s gone (except for your hero which can be resurrected), so you’ll always try to come out of combat with zero casualties.
Besides the strategic gameplay, there are also tons of RPG elements in this game. As each of your heroes gains experience, they will level up and you’ll be able to improve some of their attributes and after a certain level you will even get to pick a specialty for them (i.e. the Mage can become a Sorcerer or a Summoner, etc). But it’s not only your heroes who gain experience, every single one of your units will be able to level up and become more powerful. There is also a karma system in the game which keeps track of all your decisions you make during random events. If clerics ask you to give them money to build a church for the Lord, you can oblige, refuse or hang them of course. It also keeps track of the types of units you use during combat (more evil units will give you bad karma). Your karma doesn’t have a lot of effect on the gameplay but will determine which of the games 8 endings you will see.
Conclusion:
All in all, Eador – Masters of the Broken World is a very solid game. It’s very deep and provides a lot of hours of gameplay. The strategy is deep and there are a lot of viable strategies you can try out. It can take a while to get into because it’s quite complicated, but that’s true to most good strategy games. So, if you like strategy and you are interested in this game, but weren’t sure whether to buy it or not, I hope that this review has helped you to make your decision.
Eador: Master of the Broken World - Review,
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