Разработчик: Nival
Описание
“Демиурги” – это великолепное сочетание пошаговой стратегии и коллекционной карточной игры. Инновационные игровые механики, которые впервые появились здесь, легли в основу большинства современных игр этого жанра.
Ключевые особенности
- 4 расы магических существ, каждая со своими, не похожими на другие землями, архитектурой, заклинаниями и боевой тактикой;
- 2 военные кампании на стороне двух союзных рас;
- Более 300 заклинаний, включающих колдовство, заклятия, вызов магических существ и ритуалы;
- Более 10 игровых уровней, связанных единой сценарной линией;
- 64 героя четырех рас; параметры, специальные умения и выбранные навыки героев растут с их уровнем;
- Индивидуальный стиль боя для каждого героя с помощью собственного набора заклинаний;
- Сочетание магической боевой системы, основанной на принципах настольных карточных игр и стратегического управления ресурсами;
- Полностью трехмерный пошаговый бой с неограниченным множеством тактических решений.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, russian
Системные требования
Windows
- ОС: Windows
- Процессор: Pentium II 266 MHz
- Оперативная память: 64 MB ОЗУ
- DirectX: версии 7.0
- Место на диске: 1500 MB
- ОС: Windows
- Процессор: Pentium II 450 MHz
- Оперативная память: 128 MB ОЗУ
- DirectX: версии 7.0
- Место на диске: 1500 MB
Отзывы пользователей
HoMM meets MTG. It's pretty novel and if you like both of those things you'll like this game.
A few misc things since this game has little documentation;
There's a steam guide by mat that was able to get it running on W10 for me, with minimal crashing (the game autosaves after every turn so CTD only sets you back 5 minutes at most)
There's no progression in the campaign, It's basically a series of "puzzle" maps.
Half of the vitality campaign are timed missions, You can't stop and smell the roses you have to gun it for the enemy castles in those missions.
Bring a backup hero with your main hero and have him grab the resources so your main can keep moving.
Most of the enemies you face are rushdown decks, Having a few cheap walls will really help deal with them.
In the mission "Avaiks Nest" Take the bottom path, You don't need to fight the guys guarding the right, Their stupidly OP and you'll have to save/load abuse to get good RNG to kill them if you try that way.
You can press space to skip most battle animations, It really speeds up the game.
played three times. one fight and game froze completely, had to restart pc.
Seems like a fun game. It's old though and has quite a few bugs. Hero specialisation doesn't work, during campaigns, you can't upgrade your deck (it's a deck-building game). Even though there are places to get more spells for your deck, and it does indeed show in your hero's character page that their deck is now different. Entering into combat still gives you the standard starter deck, which makes progress almost impossible and rather uninteresting.
I also couldn't launch the game from Steam. Had to open the folder and launch the .exe. I think I have 3-4 hours of game-time at this point.
I get that it's an old game and all that, but a patch to make it playable on Steam isn't too much to expect when the company decides to put it up on said platform.
I would've loved to play this more, but it's just not working properly, so I can't.
Game crashes within 5 minutes from start up, i have tried all of the proposed fixes with absolutely no change to the crashes. It is an older game, but that's not an excuse to sale a non functional product. I'm a big fan of retro strategy games, but buying this one was a complete waste of time and money.
Update 01.04.2021
With all the help from different reviews, I got the game working again.
The card combat system in this game is surprisingly entertaining and efficient. There are many different cards and deck construction possibilities.
Campaign takes a while (and some dedication). But there are also many preconstructed decks available, which let you duel against the (not completely stupid) ai right away. You can also cunstruct decks without having to unlock cards.
The game is awesome, and long ago I played it a lot. Yet now I have Windows 10, and on Windows 10 this games constantly freezes, so it's impossible to play. If you have Windows 10, then there is just no point in buying this jewel of turn-based card-based combat.
I would love a remake, though.
Great game i played it years back on (old) CD's (for Windows Xp) so glad Dev's put it on Steam and made it work on win 7+.
If it crashes for you try using this guide made by "s-4" and it should work fine (like mine).
Open (Edit) the file "Run.cmd" in the root directory of the game and write the word "rem" before the line "set __COMPAT_LAYER=WIN2000".
Must have: "rem set __COMPAT_LAYER=WIN2000".
And save your changes.
Windows 7 SP1 x64
Steam will count your playtime with this fix, only "downside" of this may be that after you end playing... Etherlords.exe will still be running (it don't do much, just stays there) but can be closed with Task Manager.
Hope it helps, have fun playing this incredibly amazing game :D
(Please disregard my low 'time played' - I play the game without using Steam :) )
Most of the negative reviews here are due to the game crashing after a few minutes if run directly from Steam. Its a shame, though, since this doesn't tell anything about the qualities of the game, and since the problem can easily be avoided (just run the game directly from the exe-file. Default folder is Steam\Steamapps\common\Etherlords\Etherlords.exe - see Darkclaw3050's review) instead of from Steam.
Etherlords is a somewhat old, but, imho, fine game - the combination of (Heroes of Might and Magic-style) strategy and deck building/card game is excellent, so if you like just one of those concepts, try out this game! Also, it is cheap :)(especially when on sale - I got my copy for less than $2)
(Btw, when playing it can be useful to adjust the view of the strategic map, using ctrl+num pad to rotate the map so its direction matches the direction of the minimap)
I always liked Nival Interactive games as they weren't perfect, but at least they tried to do something new. Mix some genres that never got mixed before. It deserves respect, in my opinion.
Etherlords is actually one of my least favourite of all the games created by the studio.
Still, it doesn't mean it's a bad game.
Etherlords was quite an original mix back in the days: taking inspiration from Heroes of Might and Magic and Magic: The Gathering.
You get most of the familiar HoMM mechanics: castles, heroes, resources, buildings. But the battles are actually magical duels performed by playing the cards in your deck.
The battles can be very intriguing and, on harder difficulty levels, very challenging. You need to plan ahead and keep concentration.
Everything seems fine so far, but the problem is that I'm personally not a big fan of collectible card games. Therefore I couldn't enjoy this games very much.
Still, if you enjoy games such as Hand of Fate, and are not off-putted by aged graphics, you should give this game a try.
Yes, I don't recommend it despite completing one of the campaigns (vitals), here is the pros and cons, if you can live with the cons go ahead and buy it, doesnt cost the world.
+ unique races with their individual card lineups
+ there is a learning curve to appreciate
+ I had no problems running it (on my old computer in admin mode)
+ challenging varied enemies
+ 50h playtime if you do both campaigns I'd say
+ it felt a bit like offline Hearthstone with 3D battles, the age shows tho
- even if you turn off all the gimmick closeups etc, battles take their time
- can take some hours until all the mechanics are clear (the castle stuff was/is irritating all the way)
- the AI seems to cheat a bit in the leveling and spell availability department
- the whole overworld game for ressources and discovery is increasingly annoying
- the multiplayer part of the game is dead, but probably was great in its heyday,
you are left wondering what alot of the castle abilities are good for
- the campaign win conditions tend to be either too easy or confusing (you have to use a castle ability for one of them), usually once you got your hero up to speed its over
- the last campaign mission / boss is a bitch (I only did him with vitals, maybe the other 3 races have an easier time to find a working setup), left a bitter taste, due to having to use an extremely niche bordering on exploiting lineup to win it (on hard, which is the 3rd highest of 5 difficulty options)
Steam version of the game wasn't updated for modern systems.
So, at first, I wasn't able to play it without freezing all the time.
Found a solution in guide section. You need to find the file called "Run" and delete the line "set_COMPAT_LAYER=WIN2000", save changes.
After that I managed to run the game properly.
Though comperded to Etherlords 2, this one has lots of flaws.
1) You have to start from scretch in every new mission.
You can't export and develop your Hero like in Etherlords 2 and many other strategies.
2) Weak RPG-element. I had hoped to see at least some dialogues between the missions.
The existing text at the beginning of every map is just a load of ambiguous pompous rubbish.
3) In my book, the idea with castles was actually a bad one.
So overeall I can't recommend this game.
Doesn't work on Windows 10 (freezing screen in game)!!!! Pretty sad :(
Now I've started Etherlords 2, seems to work pretty good on Win10.
Etherlords is a strategy defense combined with a neat and challenging card game combat hailing from Nival Interactive, a small Russian development team that will take on the formidable feat of developing Heroes of Might and Magic V, eventually later on. As a side note, alongside its quite improved sequel Etherlords II, the game holds a special place for me; meaning many frustrating hours of deck building and combat practice during 2001-2004. I was about to shed tears of joy when I first managed to beat this one!
In the world of Ether, there comes a time when the way to the Temple of Time is finally open. The old legend states that whoever holds dominion over the Temple shall rule the power of Ether, the substance of all magic and creation. Four distinct nations of the realm: druidic Vitals, aloof Kinets, fierce Chaots and decaying Synthets all begin a race towards the Temple to challenge the master of the world: the White Lord. Only one shall succeed and overcome the challenges of becoming the next White Lord. As the saying goes: "The Ether enslaves the ones who obey it, and destroys the ones who do not".
I suspect that neither European nor American market are familiar with this challenging and enjoyable series, so I'll try to make a resume for the game dynamics. In its essence, Etherlords is a strategy game which presents the player an isometric map with a capital city, resources to gather and monsters to challenge. With each combat your hero overcomes, he/she levels up to unlock a selection of abilities. You have to make sure that you protect your base and gather needed resources to wage war at the same time. Here, we basically have a Heroes of Might and Magic alternative.
The combat itself on the other hand, is a variation of Magic the Gathering card game where your hero and the enemy faces each other, with monsters to summon and spells to alter the battlefield. Here is where things get complicated: you will be collecting the spells throughout the strategy map and you will have a limited number of spells that your deck may hold any given time. For each spell acquired, you will also need the appropriate resources which determines how many times that spell can be cast. Thus, you have to establish a careful balance between the game's strategy and card game elements. Easier said than done, this restriction quickly becomes tricky to handle. When you decide to change one card, you can easily find yourself travelling to the other side of the map, while an enemy hero silently marches towards your capital.
Graphics are fairly outdated, but still charming enough in my opinion. The environment and character animations are colorful exaggerations that we are already familiar from Warcraft III or King's Bounty series. Camera settings are usually a bit distasteful, inconveniently choosing to focus on random figures, but hey! No one promised an A+ game. What we have here is an old, challenging strategy and card game that certainly doesn't hold hands with the player.
There is a truckload of negative reviews about the game out there, complaining about constant crashes or not being able to run the game at all on modern systems. These issues are long gone. The worst that you should be expecting is that you may have to run the game from the directory rather than the Steam shortcut which doesn't record playtime. Otherwise, it works fine. The campaign is fairly long - with two concurrently occurring separate scenarios. You can always run an independent strategy or dueling session too.
I strongly suggest giving Etherlords a chance if you either enjoy strategy or card games, or that you'd be curious about a successful combination of the two. Take it when you're feeling up for a challenge.
Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!
the game is a mixture of magic the gathering and heroes of might/magic. if you don't mind it being old then go for it. there are issues with the game startup/crashing. make sure to look in the discussions for fixes so you don't look like a fool saying it doesn't work.
Fun game; way, way, way too buggy. Crashes all the time despite my best attempts to run it with affinity 1.
A lot of the levels are either horribly overtuned or I am missing something. Getting past level 3 was a miracle.
Would recommend anyway, but the game crashes way too often and I just got tired of it.
I'd recommend this game and say yes grab up this classic jewel, but unfortunately the game freezes up and/or crashes literally every 3 minutes. Again this isn't saying the game itself is bad, if it were to actually run properly it would be awesome. The problem is it doesn't want to run to begin with.
A card battling RPG is a great idea for a game, but Etherlords doesn't fulfill that potential. Play Etherlords II instead as it's much more streamlined and enjoyable.
Whilst the card dueling portion of Etherlords is robust and enjoyable enough, the strategy/world map portion is simply not fit for purpose.
Producing hero units and casting global spells like a Heroes of Might & Magic game holds no weight when the ideal tactic is to simply eliminate the AI’s strongest hero and make a beeline for their temple.
As the game goes on you get the feeling that Nival lost faith in the strategy side of Etherlords and quietly downplayed its importance in favour of the superior card battle system.
The final battle of the campaign though is problematic as it pitches you in a duel against the sinister White Lord with a totally different hero and every spell in the game unlocked for deck preparation.
All of your hard work in building your own personal deck disappears at this point and it becomes a troubleshooting exercise instead of a grand finale to an epic adventure.
Read the full retrospective at my blog »
Several attempts to play Etherlords only ended in computer lockup. I use a Pavillion g7 with windows 8.1 and have only had one other (solved) issued with about 70 different games played thru Steam. The game just freezes and you can hear the sound sticking. Only Ctl/Alt/Del will get you out.
With that being said I bought the game bundled with Etherlords 2, which works fine and seems like a significantly better game than the original, which I was only able to play in tiny segments.
In summary, don't bother with Etherlords, but Etherlords 2 has so far been enjoyable for a follow the path and battle monsters with trading card deck, turn based battles. The battles are interesting due to strategic card play depending on luck of the draw cards.
I think I will get bored with this long before it ends, but Etherlords 2 is a well thought out game, despite it's predicessor.
This game is a good game IF it worked...... I have tried 2 different computers and the same result, unplayable......Constant crashes, freezes up. That was with windows 8 & 8.1. Personally you shouldn't release something if it does not work on ALL systems especially newer systems. Who wants to run an old school dinosaur, lol Not me. If the problems get fixed i may consider it again. But Definately Not Now. Apologies for being honest & thank you.
I hade problems, the game dropped me out after 5-10min playtime, but I find out that if you turn off sound and music volume, the game keeps working, about 10min later I switched sound and music back on and game keep on working without any crashes. Yes and this all happened on 7th Win
One of the old school classics.
Since the game was developed by Nival (Russian based), western market might not be familiar with the game.
However there are few points why you might be interested to play this game even though it has been 13 years since it was released:
- Game is Hard. No kidding, even normal difficulty will have you thinking over on what kind of strategy and builds you must use to win every campaing map.
- Game is played out on a strategic map (similar to HOMM) & tactical battles (collectible card game).
Some points to think before trying it out:
- Game is Hard. It is a double edged sword...when playing campaign, think of it like a puzzle game (remember HOMM campaigns with impossible odds, but when you knew a particular trick it became easy).
- Game runs on a locked 4:3 resolution.
- Game pace is rather slow (you can improve it by choosing various game options, but still)
However, I would recommend it to anyone born in 20th century. There is also a sequel which is nearly the same but improved (oh the times when sequels were actually good).
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Nival |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 15.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 77 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 33% положительных (57) |