Developer: Independent Arts
Publisher: Wild River, EuroVideo Medien
Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PC, PS4, Switch
Eldrador Creatures – Review
Turn-based strategy games have been a thing for many years now. Most of these game will require you to be known with the genre and have some experience with this type of gameplay. Eldrador Creatures is a turn-based strategy game intended for young gamers as an entry-point for those willing to bring some tactics into their gaming sessions. As players move through the game, the difficulty will slowly increase as your knowledge of the game’s mechanics also increase.
Story
Eldrador Creatures is based on the Eldrador Creatures universe, which is a series of toys created by Schleich that is purchasable in many toy stores and webshops. In this game, you’ll choose the side of one of the four worlds of Eldrador and fight alongside them to defeat all other worlds of Eldrador and obtain the Superweapon that is sealed amidst the four worlds. You can choose between the worlds of Lava, Ice, Stone and Jungle. After choosing whom to side with, you’ll start your journey to attain the Superweapon by completing levels accompanied by a narrator that will guide you through each and every aspect of the game.
Graphics
Eldrador Creatures looks very good. The creatures on the playing field all are worked out with quite a lot of details. Each world has its own themed creatures and look exactly like the toys you can buy in the stores. The environment in each level is designed around the world you are currently in. Like in a lot of turn-based strategy games, the playing field is formed by tiles that represent the distance between your monsters and those of your enemy.
Sound
The background music in Eldrador Creatures is simply great. The music you hear in the menus, sounds like it is performed by an orchestra. For gamers who are a bit older than the target audience of this game, it may remind them of Conquest of Paradise, composed by Vangelis. Sadly, there’s not a lot of these songs and they tend to be a bit short. The narrator in this game sounds very nice and he will perfectly guide you through every game mechanic the game throws at you. The tone he speaks is a bit childish, but then again, this game is intended for kids, so it fits perfectly.
Gameplay
Eldrador Creatures is a turn-based strategy game that is designed specifically for kids and those not familiar with this game type who want to learn how to play turn-based strategy games at an easy pace. Each and every game mechanic will be carefully taught to you so you will gain all the knowledge needed at a slow pace to beat the game.
In Eldrador Creatures, you’ll choose to side with one of the four worlds and the world of your choice will also be your starting point. From here on out, you will clear levels while learning new aspects of the game. The game starts simple with basic movement and attacking commands while more commands are added as you progress. As you clear levels, your creatures will gain new special abilities and passive skills when they level up. The effects of the special abilities and passive skills vary per creature.
When you clear levels, a rank in stars is awarded for the number of turns you used to complete the level, with three stars being the highest rank. After clearing levels, you’ll be rewarded with packs containing Mini Creatures. The amount of packs depends on the rank of how many stars you managed to get in that level. These Mini Creatures are power-ups that can be activated at the end of each turn in-game. These power-ups vary from dealing damage, protecting and healing your characters, to lowering the power of a creature on the field.
As Eldrador Creatures is intended for children, the difficulty of this game, especially in the first few levels, is a lot lower than in other games. This also means that you have some leeway before you miss out on that three-star ranking per level. For more experienced gamers, this part could easily be experienced as boring, but for the younger gamers it is perfect to learn everything step by step. They could’ve made the game even more accessible to children across Europe by adding more different languages to the game, as most children won’t really understand English or another foreign language at a younger age. The only available languages at this point are English, German, Spanish, French and Italian, which is of course already a fair amount.
Conclusion
Eldrador Creatures is a turn-based strategy game created for children to learn the basics of this game type at an easy pace. Set in the world of Eldrador Creatures, this game appeals to children quite well, as they could easily have some of the toys of the series. Everything is taught to you step by step at a pace that is perfect for these younger gamers, so they will understand each and every move they make in each level. This game is a perfect child-friendly way for them to get in touch with turn-based games, so we’d definitely recommend purchasing this game for kids that are eager to learn something with more elaborate mechanics.
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