Kickstarter, despite all its popularity, is still not rich in projects from developers from the countries of the former USSR. The number of applications authored by our compatriots can be counted on one hand, and only a few have achieved success. One of these lucky ones is the Belarusian studio Aterdux Entertainment. Most likely, this name will not mean anything to most readers, but the developers are not new to creating video games and have some experience – in 2004 they released a turn-based strategy Discord Times. "Times of Strife" Although they didn’t bring their authors wild popularity and huge sales, they left behind pretty good reviews.
Legends of Eisenwald, according to the developers themselves, nothing more than a creative rethinking of the same strategy ten years ago. We are not spoiled with original TBS now; Perhaps this is why the project of a little-known team was able to not only raise the required amount on Kickstarter, but also get the green light on Steam Greenlight.
Bye Aterdux Entertainment is in full swing preparing its brainchild for release, we decided to take a closer look at "Legends of Eisenwald", Fortunately, the game is available in Early Access on Steam.
Legend, but not that one
At first glance it seems that Legends of Eisenwald – tracing paper with King’s Bounty. Familiar with "The Legend of the Knight" from Katauri Interactive immediately recognize the same “simulator of a knight errant”: our hero, at the head of a small army, travels around the map, completes tasks, from time to time meets with friends and foes, visits villages, castles and other interesting places, of which there are plenty. In the tavern you can hear the latest gossip, in the monastery you can restore strength and heal soldiers after another battle, and in a fortress or settlement there will always be those who want to join our hero’s detachment.
The battles, as you probably guessed, are also turn-based (unlike adventures on the map, where everything is in real time with an active pause), heroes that grow in levels and use a variety of equipment, there are also three – Knight, Baroness and Mystic. Looks like another remake King’s Bounty? But no.
It’s all in the https://casinobetmgm.co.uk/bonus/ little things – the main idea may not be original, but many small differences from the already standard concept ultimately form a certain “critical mass”, thanks to which "Legends of Eisenwald" cannot be called blind imitation of eminent representatives of the genre.
As usual, the economic component of the game is very conditional – the only resource, gold, is spent on purchasing equipment and paying salaries to soldiers. You won’t be able to rebuild cities and castles – the main thing here is adventure, not creating your own empire.
The lion’s share of these adventures occurs in battles, during which the main character does not hover as an invisible spirit over the battlefield, striking right and left with magic arrows – he is the same fighter as all the other members of the squad. The detachment, by the way, is very small, there will be no armies of many thousands – you can take a maximum of a dozen comrades with you. But each character, even if it’s just some peasant with a pitchfork, has the opportunity to try on any piece of equipment that suits him (whether it’s a weapon, armor or an amulet), which in such games is usually only available to heroes. In general, ordinary soldiers require no less attention than their commander – everyone must be adequately dressed and armed if you want to train a recruit into a professional soldier. I don’t want to lose my “pumped up” players at all, especially considering the fact that they gain experience quite slowly.
NPCs are not on the map waiting to meet us. They live their own lives, sometimes you have to try hard to find the right character who has gone somewhere.
The fights look quite extraordinary. As already mentioned, there are no large-scale battles with hundreds and thousands of fighters, the maximum is small skirmishes of two dozen warriors. Each “unit” has its own role in the battle – “tanks” stand in the front rows and take the brunt of the attack, riflemen are hiding behind them, and support “units” are in the rear. In order not to tire the player with long battles typical for TBS, most of which consist of characters moving around the battlefield, the developers used a trick: each soldier must perform an action on his turn – for example, hit an enemy or help a wounded man. There is no order to simply stand on a certain cell, so you have to think through every move. As it soon turns out, the ability to “keep in line” is much more important than having one or two strong fighters in the squad.
And there is no magic here. More precisely, not in the sense to which we are all accustomed from hundreds of fantasy games. No one throws “fireballs” into crowds of opponents, turns enemies into stone, and allies into invulnerable death machines. There are sorcerers and healers who cast various healing and crippling spells, but no more. Everything is within the framework of medieval ideas about magic, without extremes.
The special charm of the game is the quests. There are many of them, for every taste, and they are made with soul. It’s immediately noticeable that the authors are clearly partial to “old-school” RPGs – here, too, no one leads the hero by the hand, indicating what and how to do, often the goal of the task is not even marked on the map. You have to read the dialogues, remember the names of characters and geographical names, independently find solutions to the problems facing the hero – just like in the good old days.
Thanks to the original combat system, the importance of each move increases significantly, and the battles themselves become somewhat similar to chess games.
The player sees the player from afar
In general, the plot and development of the world here are pleasing. So far, neither supermen in shining armor saving the world from destruction, nor other sugary-epic nonsense inherent in modern fantasy have been seen. The Middle Ages as it is, with its completely mundane and understandable problems, which the main character will have to solve. This is not surprising, given the fact that a significant part of the development team are old-school roleplayers who are well versed in the chosen setting and know what to give to those who are waiting for the release of their creation.
Externally, the game tries to look realistic. For example, the armor is really steel plates, and not a mishmash of huge shoulder pads and spikes, which are completely useless on real armor. Castles or cities are also drawn without unnecessary fantasies in this case. After a thoroughly fabulous King’s Bounty "Legends of Eisenwald" they even look a little harsh. What did you want – the real Middle Ages, here you can immediately feel it. However, judging by the conversations of some characters, the authors of the quests are not averse to making jokes – anyone who visited the cemetery during the training mission will understand me.
The external design of the interface matches medieval engravings, and is by no means done at an amateur level and in every possible way emphasizes the chosen realistic style. But there are still big problems with the convenience of this very interface. It cannot be called friendly and intuitive; it lacks information content, especially in battle. It is not yet clear whether this is due to the fact that this is far from the final version or the game’s authors are simply not strong in this aspect of development. Nevertheless Aterdux Entertainment is aware of this problem and promises to work hard to improve the interface. It doesn’t hurt to improve the overall level of the picture; the animations of the characters in battle look especially unattractive. But the music is simply magical.
The beta version is still only a small part of the campaign, but there is enough content – for example, the main character begins to be overwhelmed with quests from the very beginning.
Despite the fact that this is still a beta version, the impressions from the work of Belarusian developers are so far purely positive. The release should show us a classic and hardcore – in a good way – mixture of strategy and RPG, which are currently in short supply. At the same time, it cannot be guaranteed that "Legends of Eisenwald" fate will not befall "Eadora": also created by enthusiasts, this game, despite all its merits, remained “widely known in narrow circles”, although, undoubtedly, it deserved much more.