Etherlords Hands-On

Most of the features regarding the spells and enchantments do not differ from those I've pointed out in our recent preview. An assortment of spells can be exploited throughout the game. A player needs to ascertain the functions and the outcome of every enchantment so that he may carefully calculate his next move. Once he masters the effects of all of the spells, he will then have a greater chance of defeating the enemy. It is also possible to summon several units simultaneously, which will make a heavy blow on the opposing hero-unit (especially, if those units have the ability to attack immediately after they are summoned). A crucial thing, which the player must also look after during battle is the limit of his mana. Almost all of the hero-characters have certain spells that allow the increase of mana points, thus making their attacks longer and deadlier. Your mana points usually range somewhere around 2. As your characters evolve, they receive more of these points and will also expand their capacity for spells - which means they'll gain a wider variety of enchantments to cast. However, some of the opposing creatures may have the capability of reducing the choice of enchantments your hero-character has access to (per move). So, as you can see a player has quite a lot of things to think about prior to the combat as well as during it. In a few words, the whole spell-system works perfectly.

Though I did have a hard time defeating most of the units I've encountered; I've found it was difficult to endure against units who had the skill to disenchant some of my spells. This was a little annoying at first, but once I've fully understood the importance of pre-planning and the basic concept of the game (which necessitates that you outsmart your opponents by predicting their moves). It is probably clear to all of you, up to this point, that battle tactics are generated through spells and resource manipulation. An example if you will: the enemy casts a spell, but it doesn't have the intended effect upon you because you've managed to secure an instant disenchantment (this can, of course, be vice-versa).

Furthermore, you'll have the option of sending any of your hero-characters to attack the enemy castle, at any time during the game. Usually, your foes will be prepared for such a scheme and they will arrange their defenses quite well. One of the offered possibilities in protection of your castle is to cast certain shield spells enchantments that will toughen the castle's defense.

Maybe the most useful aspect of Ehterlords, which makes it different from games like Heroes of Might and Magic, is that players can modify their spell-menu and therefore widen the collection enchantments. Gathering runes throughout the map is also an additional benefit. The most important thing for a player to know is which set of spells and incantations he wishes to use. Besides that, searching for resources and collecting 'ether' is definitely the essential part of this game. Resources are often exploited for spell purposes and enchantments (buying ruins and that sort of thing); or they can also be utilized for building forts. These forts can be created an any given time, provided that you have enough resources. They are created as a substitution for hero-characters, who will dwell in the fort as long as you do not remove it.

Bearing in mind all of the impressions we've gathered from Etherlords, it is only fair to stress that we didn't find any slip-ups or errors worth mentioning. Well, possibly the fact that we didn't get a chance to try out the diplomacy option. Nonetheless, everything else works great from the combat mode and spell casting, to the appealing visuals and appropriate music tracks. Come to think of it, the tracks represent an exceptional part of the games atmosphere - an ingredient the game just couldn't work without. It provides a mixture of electronic and modern ambiental sounds followed by strong glamorous moments of high-quality symphonic-orchestra kind of music swelling in the background.

After obsessively playing Evil Islands, we're extremely looking forward to the final version of Etherlords. It is during autumn 2001 that we expect the game to arrive, by which time we hope that the developers (Nival Interactive) will polish the top and send this baby to the shelves worldwide.