Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes – Review
Does a mixture of a Total War game and Heroes of Might and Magic sound like music to your ears? Then you might want to read this review of Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, the follow-up of the strategy game Fallen Enchantress made by Stardock Entertainment.
Story
After having played the tutorial, you can choose between 10 different characters, called Sovereigns, with each having their own background stories. Depending on which character you choose, a different storyline will follow. This, of course, gives you reasons enough to replay the game multiple times. However, the story isn’t the reason you’ll be playing this game as there simply isn’t much story to be told. Before going to the menu, you’ll get to watch a short recap on what happened and what’s the basic goal to strive for. Apparently thousands of years ago, Titans emerged to the surface to try and take over the magical world of Elemental. However, they ended up destroying almost everything and now it’s your job to bring back civilization. Other than that, not much more of what happened and what must be done is explained, so don’t expect too much concerning the narrative.
Graphics
Don’t expect to be blown away where the graphics of Fallen Enchantress are concerned. The game looks well provided of bright colors and the map does the job well enough, but the characters and monsters could have used some more details. In general, the cartoonish appearance of the game is pleasant to see and the effects of certain attacks and spells can be really cool to witness.
Sound
The music in the background while moving though the world map doesn’t dominate and brings a nice, laid-back tune which never tends to distract. When the game switches to battle-mode, the tune becomes more intense and action-oriented and it fits perfectly. The sound effects that occur when casting spells or slashing your sword at an enemy are well done and give every attack that little bit more oomph.
Gameplay
As already mentioned in the introduction, influences of the Total War and Heroes of Might and Magic series can be noticed while trying to manage your cities and fighting off all kinds of creatures. Luckily, the game provides enough own identity to feel like something fresh and new for the gamers who haven’t already played Fallen Enchantress. For the “veterans” among us, fear not because the multiple tweaks, new spells, bigger maps and new creatures will certainly keep you entertained for quit some hours… or days.
Before heading out to slay every monster daring to cross your path, it might be wise to check out the tutorial, particularly because it’s not that long at all and the game mechanics are neatly explained through several instruction videos. Although it’s pleasant not to have pages and pages of text to read through, some more information about micromanaging your cities would have been welcome. It feels like the developers want you to start your adventure as soon as possible (which is certainly not a bad thing!), but I still hadn’t quite figured out all buttons on screen yet when being dropped on a brand new map. This way, newcomers to the genre might struggle a bit at first to hold a steady flow of gildar (the currency used in the game) coming from their settlements and expanding their small city to a fantastic kingdom. Therefore, a little more guidance would be more thank welcome.
Some words about the actual fighting, which you’ll be doing plenty while exploring the map. Each (group of) monster(s) will have a certain level of difficulty going from weak to epic. This should help you to calculate your chances on a victory. After clicking on an enemy, the screen will change to battle mode where the area you, your army and the enemy are standing will turn into a gridded battleground. Each turn, you’ll be able to move every unit a restricted amount of space and if possible, even attack your opponent with spells or brutal force. On the left of the screen, shifting pictures of each unit in the battle (friends and foes alike) will show the order in which a unit can move and/or attack. Certain equipment and spells hold the power to give you more initiative (which means your character will be shoved forward in line). This brings another tactical dimension to the battles and it could mean a certain victory or a terrible failure.
The only real problem that you’ll encounter is that battles can repeat themselves. What I mean with that is the following. When you just fought some enemies (let’s say: 3 spiders), it’s very possible that another fight with 3 spiders will turn out exactly the same. You and your comrades will be standing on exactly the same spots and this also counts for the spiders. As a result, you’ll probably just end up copying the exact same method you used some while ago. This causes some fights to feel rather tedious instead of exciting but this annoyance occurs especially when fighting weak opponents.
The Sovereign and Champions in your possession all have a skill tree, much looking like those in RPG-games. Through earning experience, you’ll able to choose a class for each character (for example: Defender, Mage, Assassin,…) and pick the upgrades you deem necessary to create a well-balanced, ass-kicking Legendary Hero. To get more Champions join your cause, you’ll have to earn Fame points. Acquiring these points is quite simple by completing quests and finding treasure chests which are scattered across the map.
Conclusion
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is a fine addition to the strategy genre. Although you will not be playing this for the intense storylines or the overwhelming graphics, the quest to destroy the enemy’s kingdoms will keep you busy for a fair amount of time. The battles can become repetitive, especially against weaker opponents at the beginning of the game, but the satisfaction you get after defeating that one “Epic” enemy that was luring around in your neighborhood or bringing down a Sovereign of an opposing faction gives you the feeling that all that grinding was just worth it. As there are 10 Sovereigns to choose from with each their personal background story, diverse abilities and being part of different factions, there’s enough reason for a player to go through the game several times.
This is the perfect example of one of those games where you just want to slay one more monster or find one more treasure chest before forcing yourself to quit the game, meaning it can become really, really addictive. It’s been quite some time since a game got me playing for several hours straight without losing my attention.
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