![]() ![]() With dragons, flying galleons, siege machines and hundreds of new opponents to face, Elven Legacy promises to provide players with hours of compelling turn-based strategic gameplay. Each unit and hero character possesses their very own special abilities too, which can be developed through gaining experience points in true RPG style. There’s heaps of interesting stuff including 16 multiplayer missions for 2-4 players, unlockable bonuses and perks for achieving a gold rating on each stage, loads of different unit types and the ability to play as humans in a completely separate campaign. Essentially more of the same, polished to a gleaming shine and focused on a new race to boot, Elven Legacy should satisfy all but the most malcontent goblin-fancier. Players who loved Fantasy Wars will clearly eat up Elven Legacy with a big, hand-carved, wooden spoon. Having trouble on the harder modes or finding it too easy? Just dial the challenge up or down accordingly. At the beginning of each level you set your own difficulty level making it possible to play each individual mission at your own level of skill. The types of units you choose and their morale can also be hugely influential factors in determining the ebb and flow of combat, but there are a whole host of different tactical methods and combinations for you to experiment with during each of the 19 single-player campaign missions. Learning the best place to deploy your units on the map can be pivotal and when you’re restricted to only one unit per hexagonal cell, it pays to take a steady, considered approach towards preparation. Graphically crisp and clean, Elven Legacy’s verdant landscapes can also have a significant effect upon battle. Elven Legacy retains the same accessibility as its predecessor, dispensing with the accompanying reams of text and numbers you’d normally associate with this kind of game. There are a number of allied units that you’ll encounter during missions including heroes, scouts, archers, cavalry and melee units. Doing so also grants defence bonuses as well as a boost to your numbers. Capturing towns and cities is another important element that helps in rapidly building yourself an army, recruiting followers as you pass through various settlements. The AI has been vastly improved for starters putting a far greater emphasis on tactics and winning battles through your own careful strategic planning rather than sheer strength in numbers. While the two games look superficially almost identical, there are a number of new features and subtle refinements beneath the surface. Originally inspired by Fantasy General, Elven Legacy is a direct sequel to Fantasy Wars and as such continues within the fantasy world of Illis, utilising the same sort of aesthetic and HUD. Heroes like these are your most valuable units. The hex-based grid was something that came from Fantasy General, the inspiration for both Fantasy Wars and Elven Legacy. However given the success and playability of the first game, that’s no bad thing. Our hands-on with the game showed that Elven Legacy is very much in the same mould as its predecessor – so much so that given a cursory glance, you could be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the same game. Built with clarity and function in mind, Elven Legacy’s sense of scale can be initially quite jarring with your units towering above castle barracks and city walls, but it soon makes sense once you realise that you’re always given the best possible view of your surroundings. Elven Legacy’s maps are divided into a network of conjoined hexagonal spaces, which limit your movements to six directions as you make your way to the various areas of interest dotted around the environment. However there’s already enough of a faithful following of strategy gamers who will be wringing their hands in anticipation for Elven Legacy’s arrival that it can’t possibly fail to ignite interest. Whether it will enjoy the same kind of success really depends on how many new players take to the grid-based movement and traditional fantasy setting. Already a hit in its native Russia, Elven Legacy is a hex-based strategy game that its creator hopes will have the same commercial impact here in the UK and the surrounding European territories.
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