Elemental – War of Magic from Stardock comes out for the PC this week and we had a chance to see the game up close and personal. Elemental is a PC strategy fantasy game based in a magical world with a vast number of creatures and races. It is extremely detailed with a landscape and characters so extensive that it could fill a book (in fact a book titled Elemental: Destiny’s Embers – published by Random House will coincide with the release). Elemental is also turned-based so that means you can pace your units and make plans to explore the land or fight baddies in a controlled and meticulous way.
Some things that stood out during our demo – phrases like ‘sandbox mode’ where you create your characters and environment and the ‘campaign story’ which will take you all over the terrain. There is also a community aspect of the game which involves new technology developed by Stardock called ‘Impulse Reactor‘ which is an in-game skin interface. The player may choose to battle and conquer or make treaties to advance in the game. Elemental is for the HARDCORE strategist gamer – this would be a difficult title for casual gamers to latch onto.
The graphics of Elemental stand out – in fact we inquired about using the game to replicate a ‘machinima-like’ animation. It turns out this is a complete possibility and within minutes we were able to fly a camera through a scene of two dragon’s interacting in the middle of the village. The developers at Stardock admit they didn’t develop the game for this reason but we’re always on the look-out for other ways to make games even more fun!
Check out more from Elemental – War of Magic from Stardock here:
http://www.elementalgame.com
