God-like Masters struggle on the remains of devastated Eador floating amid the sky. Everyone wants to reconstruct the world broken by the Cataclysm, but everyone has their own notion of how the new world should appear. The final choice will be made by the person with the most authority.
Eador is a turn-based strategy game set in a classic fantasy realm that has been ripped to bits. We’ll discover everything that defines the genre – traditional races like dwarves, elves, and goblins, magic, and conflicts for provincial control. The player’s aim isn’t to slay the dragon and capture the princess, but we don’t deviate too far from that notion. In the campaign, we take on the role of one of the titular Masters, attempting to rebuild the wrecked planet. The others are our adversaries during individual Eador shard conquests and discussion companions while we wander in space between invasions. Each of them falls into a stereotype, such as a good wizard or a power-hungry tyrant, and does not stray far from it. As a result, debates with Masters are uninteresting.
The primary difference between the campaign and individual skirmishes is the availability of structures in the stronghold – in individual scenarios, we have access to practically all buildings from the start. Each captured shard in the campaign contains numerous new structures and earns a specific amount of energy, allowing us to purchase various initial perks before fighting the next one. In individual scenarios, we travel to the surface of one of the fractured world’s shards, where several or perhaps a dozen other rulers, like us, compete for dominance over, well, a piece of the planet’s crust floating in space. To defeat the enemy, we must take his citadel, which we can only achieve by breaking through hundreds of provinces controlled by neutral troops. We can forcefully conquer each area. We can purchase some of those held by ambitious races such as nomads or free humans. Others want us to assist them in combating bandits, ogres, or poison-spitting snails. Interestingly, the creatures that afflict our future citizens are frequently found on the opposite end of the continent a shard, but no one seems to mind.
There were also heroes, strong people whose main skill was commanding armies from province to province. The unfortunate troops are unable to move even half a step without their assistance. Importantly, the hero commands individual troops rather than massive armies; at most, our general will bring fifteen men to the combat. The heroes also have various additional abilities, such as casting spells, doing heavy damage to opposing troops, or enhancing the efficacy of their subordinates, although movement and exploration remain their most important abilities. There are several possibilities for investigation. At first, each hero can only command a tiny force, and his battle talents do not amaze anyone. As a result, he must seek out a few inferior opponents who will allow him to accumulate experience. The provinces next to our stronghold do not always have a suitably weak garrison, but each province remains unexplored to some extent, generally fairly substantial, and in unknown places there are monster lairs and piles of riches. Another advantage of researching provinces is that as the kingdom grows, each of its districts will have more citizens who do not wish to reside in undiscovered and perhaps hazardous places. As a result, each district must be visited on occasion by a hero who will make certain to uncover a few more warm nooks where the province’s friendly lizard people would live. Exploration, like transportation between provinces, is relatively sluggish, requiring dozens of rounds to reach the enemy’s citadel. Hundreds of times. To ensure that this period does not linger too long, the makers have planned a slew of random occurrences that will ensure that our kingdom will not be calm and tranquil for even a second. When a few peasants don’t like our administration, they gather to protest in a recently built inn in the province. We may choose whether to hang the peasants promoting defeatism, ignore them, or burn down the tavern where they are seated. Another time, our mansion will be visited by a party of archaeologists anxious to investigate the Ancient Ruins, which, as befits a fantasy realm, outnumber residents in our kingdom. Monsters may lurk in the ruins, but courageous archaeologists might also unearth unprotected treasures – whether they obtain permission to excavate is up to us.
There is no single proper solution for any of the events. Everything is chosen by a random number generator, and more often than not, the results will influence the entire province, regardless of which option we believe is correct. To avoid banishment, a dreadful demonologist will conjure the offspring of chaos, while zombies liberated from the crypts will slaughter the people. Fortunately, we can mitigate the impact – troops guarding the province can safeguard the populace from evil powers, and the Extravagance ritual conducted over the district may effectively alleviate its residents’ unhappiness. Combat is the most crucial aspect of Eador. We conquer provinces, explore ruins, and combat with other heroes with the support of heroes. Battlefields are made up of hexes and, more crucially, many types of terrain. It determines unit mobility, as well as their durability and combat efficiency. As a result, the initial placement of soldiers, as well as their moves during the combat, can have a substantial influence on the eventual outcome. It is critical to exit the combat without suffering any losses. Not only do the heroes earn experience, but so do all of their subordinate troops. Veterans are more valuable than money in Eador because the statistics system was built such that even a single more point of attack or defense would be noticed on the battlefield. When it comes to the clarity of individual features, Eador, a big and complicated game, falls short. Spell and special talent explanations are hidden deep in the menu. Because features are given using icons, comparing units is challenging. Individual combat terrains are too similar to one another, making soldier deployment problematic. These and other issues make the title a little confusing. Eador has seven difficulty levels, with the third being the most challenging. Even in the simplest setup, the adversary seeks to attack the most susceptible troops, such as archers or healers, and as the difficulty grows, he gets more and more aggressive, making capturing the first shards in the campaign rather tough.
In addition, the game is riddled with problems. In order to keep the release schedule, the developers skipped the testing process. Some issues are minor: the soundtrack does not always change to “combat” during skirmishes, and we can read the mission descriptions from the start of the campaign. Others have an impact on the game’s progression and occasionally compel us to restart the scenario – heroes become trapped while going through the province, and the fight screen does not disappear once the battle is done.
Eador is a production that readily compares to the genre’s most essential games – it’s long enough to keep you riveted to the screen for several hours. The sights are enhanced by fairy-tale imagery and attention to detail. The game has several issues, some of which will most likely be addressed in future versions. Others are the product of ill-conceived solutions and will remain in the game indefinitely.