Eador Genesis Demo

[haphazard1]

Masters of the Broken World is very similar to Genesis, but uses an updated graphics engine and interface. The game play is pretty much the same, thus naufragar's point about the wikis being usable for either game.

I have to agree about the campaign -- I started with it, and it is overly long and does not give you enough guidance about what improvements and units are actually important to aim for. You also end up effectively starting over again and again, with only tiny changes in what gets unlocked for each new world (shards, as the game calls them -- each shard is a piece of the now-broken world that was shattered by past conflict). There is some overall story and unlockable stuff connecting the different worlds, as you slowly gain power and influence from having taken control of the previous shards. But with hindsight I agree with Naufragar that it is better to begin with non-campaign games and learn how everything works. The campaign adds only a very small amount on top of the basic 'battle to take control of a single world' game play that is the core of Eador.

Speaking of Wesnoth, that'd be a pretty good game for an SG or similar.  I played through the primary (longest) campaign a number of years ago but haven't tried any of the other campaigns.

It has been quite a while, but we did have some Wesnoth SG play here at RB. It was a lot of fun. It should still be in the forums somewhere. It has been a long while since I played Wesnoth, and I have forgotten a lot, but it did work quite well with the SG format.

The additional campaigns are a lot of fun, and are definitely worth trying. Several of them are very similar in feel to the initial campaign, while others are very different with additional races and units, special goals that have to be met, etc. Some are significantly more challenging than the initial campaign, starting the player in a deep hole that you have to work your way out of across multiple maps.

[NobleHelium]

Should I buy the remake then, Masters of the Broken World? Does it have a regular save system, or still the reversion thing?

[haphazard1]

Broken World is probably easier to get into, as the interface is more modern than Genesis with tool tips, context info, summary screens for your provinces, etc. Broken World has a "regular" save system, including auto saves if desired (check the settings and options).

It is a fun game, and is worth checking out. Have fun!

[NobleHelium]

Have you experienced any of the crashing issues reported in the Steam reviews? I don't mind the occasional crash but the game needs to be playable.

[haphazard1]

I have not had any issues with crashes in Broken World. Some people have apparently had trouble -- I have read the reviews. But I have not had any problems at all, over quite a lot of games.

[naufragar]

Noble, if you end up buying Broken World, I'd be interested in how you find it. I don't have any real experience with HoMM, so stuff that blows my mind in Eador might be copying that.

[haphazard1]

Re: HOMM -- I have not played the most recent games, but have a LOT of time with the earlier ones (2 and 3, mostly, a bit of 4). There are some similar elements, such as a main map which shifts to a hex battle space with armies being led by heroes who gain experience and skills, equip weapons and items, cast spells, etc. The early HOMM games focus more on capturing towns as centers of income and production. There are no provinces as such, with local populations to manage relations or pacify; territory does contain lots of locations that can be captured for resources and bonus stuff. I find the "feel" of Eador quite different than HOMM, despite the similar elements in some areas.

I see a lot of influence in Eador of games like the classic Master of Magic or some of the early Age of Wonders games. As with HOMM, there are plenty of differences despite some common game elements.

All this Eador discussion has me itching to fire up a fresh game. Maybe I will post a few screenshots if things go well.

[Commodore]

Honestly, of all the HoMM games this looks the most like King's Bounty.

[NobleHelium]

I have not had any issues with crashes in Broken World. Some people have apparently had trouble -- I have read the reviews. But I have not had any problems at all, over quite a lot of games.

Okay, that's good to hear.

Noble, if you end up buying Broken World, I'd be interested in how you find it. I don't have any real experience with HoMM, so stuff that blows my mind in Eador might be copying that.

Maybe you should just try playing HoMM! Most people love HoMM 3's gameplay but HoMM 4's campaigns were extremely good IMO. (I particularly liked the Order and Chaos campaigns.) The gameplay in 4 is a bit different than the previous games so many people didn't like it. But it's probably actually closer to Eador in that respect - the main change in 4 is that heroes became targetable units on the combat field, which led to a new archetype that you mentioned in your Eador report where you can have a powerful lone warrior hero solo can entire army. But HoMM 3 is pretty much the prototypical HoMM gameplay. You can get it from GOG - do NOT buy the HD version from Steam which doesn't have the expansions.

HoMM 5 and after had a new developer after Ubisoft took over the IP following the bankruptcy of New World Computing. The gameplay gets back closer to 3 compared to 4, but the games aren't great due to various issues like poor design, writing and voice acting.

[haphazard1]

Here are a couple (not in chronological order) screenshots from a game of Masters of the Broken World, so you can get an idea of what the game looks like compared to the Genesis shots from Naufragar. (I hope the shots are viewable; my previous image hosting solution appears to have joined the choir invisible and become an ex-parrot since the last time I posted images a couple years back. )

The main map, with my hero moving from the Crab Shore province on the left (which has a boat yard) across the water to Whitestone province:



The beginning of a battle with some brigands -- I have deployed my forces in the bottom corner to start out of range of the enemy bowman, whose ranged attack makes him much scarier than the rest:



Rewards from a battle, including a useful bow for my scout:



Building an initial structure at my stronghold:



My hero, considering hiring a mercenary spearman for his army of cardboard cut outs. On the right half I have an unlocked slot for a tier 2 unit, but I have none available yet. You are very weak at the beginning of a typical game, and it takes a while to get some basic infrastructure built.