Eador: Masters of the Broken World Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on May 8th, 2013

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The game was probably released a little early, before sufficient testing had been done, but it hasn't been shoved into the night and left shivering on the doorstep. Updates are already fixing some of the issues that players have noticed, including the animation speeds. Perhaps I've been lucky, but my complaints are to do with cosmetic factors rather than enjoyment-sapping bugs that others have experienced.

Far from being Heroes of Might and Magic with a floaty island gimmick, Eador is a cleverly designed strategy game that may be unfairly overlooked by those who aren't drawn in by its colourful fantasy style. It presents compelling random scenarios, chained together into a campaign of increasing complexity, and has managed to keep my interest after a couple of lengthy playthroughs. The limited space for construction in the city screen ensures that every decision carries a great deal of weight, rather than being a race to build the best of everything. There's still some grind, particularly at the beginning and end of a shard, but it's minimised and there are choices to make throughout rather than, as is too often the case in strategy games, simply resources to gather.

In a just world, Eador would receive plenty of attention and analysis, but the initial couple of hours, while not dull, do seem an awful lot like any other game with swords, sorcery and turn-based conquest. It's kind of like an onion then, all layered scratchy skin, eye-watering and sharp keep stripping back the segments though because get deep enough and it turns out the onion is actually a pomegranate, and the red, succulent jewels come spilling out. In short, beneath the layers Eador is an unexpectedly tasty game that is divided into many segments and you should eat it.

The interface can certainly use some work. Fans of the original will probably upset at having to pay USD $20 for nothing more than a HD remake although it's a vast improvement on the original, and a fairly decent, although not spectacular, effort as far as graphics are concerned.

You could easily burn away hundreds of hours among the many shards of MOTBW, if you can forgive the mistakes above. They certainly won't be the last errors to be corrected over the next few weeks. But underneath the cracked, ugly shell lies a rich, colourful and entertaining turn-based fantasy strategy that gamers should take the time to explore.

Eador: Masters of the Broken World alternates between extremes. It is complicated in one instance, and simple in the next. It seems generic at first, but then shows its uniqueness in setting and granular game mechanics. It's a game by strategy enthusiasts, for strategy enthusiasts. Once you look past the awkward, pimply exterior, a game of surprising interest looks back. Eador is distinctly Russian, and that makes it both endlessly fascinating and thoroughly confusing.

We simply can't get over how appropriate Eador'˜s subtitle is: this is a broken game on so many levels. To some degree, it's almost insulting to play the thing. It was buggy, choppy, unstable, and generally lacking any kind of true gameplay adeptness. There's a scant few saving graces. The management of one's province, and the decision making involved in that task, is rewarding thanks to some serious depth. Furthermore, the combat and all involved there isn't inherently flawed, just devoid of any kind of merit. But those merely capable mechanics aren't enough to save the game from it being a mess. The poor graphics and overall tedium that sets in from the mind numbing pace certainly don't do it any favors, either. I'll just say it because I'm sick of beating around the bush: don't buy it. Or do so only when you've run out of every conceivable option, and someone has a gun to your head demanding you purchase it. Until the bugs are ironed out, it's just not worth the headache.

Eador's problems are disappointing. This is a remake of Eador: Genesis, which is basically a one-man project from 2009 with primitive graphics and a simple-but-functional interface. The design is largely unchanged, but the small tweaks like faster progression through the campaign and unique rules for each shard are welcome. The improved presentation and small improvements to the gameplay are nearly overshadowed by technical problems, though. As encouraged as I am by the patches Snowbird has already released for Masters of the Broken World (it was much worse when it first launched), and as much as I adore the ideas it is built on, my recommendation has to come with serious caveats. Despite its often-disastrous implementation, Eador's design is worth your time a testament to its strength.

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