Etherlords 2

Old gem that needs no introduction and always a whole lot of fun

This game catches a lot of comparisons to HoMM and MtG, but I think both comparisons are ultimately superficial. You control a hero that goes around a map, levels up, and fights wild monsters and other heroes. The map *looks* a lot like HoMM, and it did actually borrow many of the same concepts (including artifacts, and a very similar leveling system). The problem is that it lacks the core element that makes HoMM fun in the first place: strategy. Every single battle is its own self-contained unit; at no point do you ever have to worry about the effects of attrition or replenishing your forces. And so that means there are no actual decisions to be made in the map: you move around it, you fight everything. There are no opportunity costs to be weighed; you just keep on grinding. The map portion is really just poorly-designed interface to find the next battle. (And it is *very* poorly designed. The camera is always locked on your hero, and you can't zoom out very far, which makes it very hard to plan out movement, etc.) As for the battles themselves, the dueling system is very similar to MtG (down to power/toughness, flying, first strike, etc.), but the game is much shallower. There are no instant spells, and most of the things the game adds function entirely randomly. For example, the "regeneration" mechanic will save a creature from death one out of every six times. But when card or hero abilities function so inconsistently, you simply can't strategize around them. More often, they just prolong a battle your opponent is already destined to lose. Which brings me to the second problem: This is kind of like MtG, if every opponent played lifegain or draw-go control with no win conditions. If you have the right deck, many battles are simply un-loseable, but they do take *forever*. The terrible animations that you can't turn off don't help. Oh, and one last thing: The writing is absolutely terrible. So you have an unfun game with an uninteresting plot. Why bother?

Great game, but setup doesnt work for me :/

If you must know why I rate this game terrible then find my reivew for the first etherlords game, I simply can not bother retyping it here for etherlords 2 as only thing etherlords 2 has going for it is the jump in graphics from 2001 game to this one in 2004 is expected to look better. That is where it stops, purely as the very first mission I could see the underlining issues of the first one is still inbuilt to the 2nd one, honestly think the 1st one was way better from both graphics and especially the map, the map in the new one is just pure terrible and less interesting way less. Again purely unbalanced AI, just simply not wasting my time on it, learnt that lesson from really giving the 1st game a decent try. Pure rubbish.

WORST game ever. AI ignores rules, your cards and spells don't work properly, no support, and in general a miserable excuse for a game. Don't waste your money, your time or your effort. Watch paint dry instead, it's more rewarding and far more predictable.