This game constantly crashes my PC and takes me to the blue screen of death. I've disabled GeForce overlay, updated drivers, uninstalled/reinstalled, etc. but nothing has stopped the crashes. I can't play more than 5-10 minutes in the opening house before the game crashes. Not worth the time to try to fix. Controls are clunky. This game doesn't seem special or fun.
Although this game pales in comparison to genre standards like "Starcraft," "Warcraft," and "Age of Empires," the story campaign is worth a playthrough. Note: this game should be played at 640x480, 32 bit, 144 hertz resolution. You will follow the conquests and conflicts of five mystical kingdoms, each with their own unique strengths and flavor in a rich fantasy setting: the stalwart, artillery-focused Aramon, the ferocious jungle hordes of Zhon, the horrifying undead and magic-wielding armies of Taros, the seafaring armadas of Veruna, and the technologically advanced, science-based Creon. On some missions, you even get to play with Monarchs, extremely powerful units and the leaders of these factions. The campaign spans 73 missions (48 in the base game and 25 in the expansion) and includes a rich story with fun cutscenes and narrations. Unlike other RTS games, the player character will shift factions between levels rather than playing as a single faction over many levels in row, so you feel connected to the victories and frustrations of each kingdom. What makes this game fun is that the primary resource used to build structures and units is mana, and it's in an unlimited supply. Players build special structures on mana sites called lodestones or mana refinery to extract mana. The more lodestones you have, the more units you can have and the faster they are built. Because mana is unlimited, you can raise massive armies. A lot of the levels last several hours and feature intense battles won through strategy and attrition, which I personally like. Be warned that this game is not for the faint of heart. While the game starts out easy enough, the difficultly gets harder and harder, especially in the expansion. There are some truly nail-biting, stressful levels that will test your endurance and fortitude. If you're up for a challenge, this game is for you. This game lacks some polish and balance, but it's still very fun.
