Eador. Genesis - an old-school Russian TBS/RPG

[MrFlibble]

This December Eador. Genesis, a remarkable Russian* indie fantasy turn-based strategy/role-playing game, had been finally translated into English (the game was initially released in 2009) and is available from GOG.com.

Eador is made in a distinct old-school style and adheres to the best in the turn-based strategy and role-playing game traditions, improving on the ideas from such classic titles as Warlords, Master of Magic, Dominions, Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might and Magic, as well as Sid Meier's Civilization and Master of Orion. Despite its immediately familiar visuals, the game is neither a straightforward clone nor a simple mixture of any of those, but an independent, unique game, envisioned and designed by its author and project leader, Alexey Bokulev.

What makes Eador stand out is the complexity of the game world: it is meticulously thought out to the tiniest detail, and everything is important. The depth of the world isn't just for show, as it gives players a great degree of freedom in their actions, producing near-infinite variety of playing situations and possible solutions. Players are encouraged to develop their own style and ways of playing as they build up their armies, run the economy and manage politics, make alliances and acquire new technologies. There is absolutely no railroading on the part of the game whatsoever. Want to maintain a powerful army comprising entirely of ranged units? You can do that. Want to become a powerful necromancer? Sure thing. You wish to become a goody-good lawful leader who is allied with Elves or Dryads? That is also possible.

In Eador, it's easy to grasp the basics but you'll spend quite some time learning the intricacies of the game, some of which are not immediately obvious. Thankfully the game has a very friendly and extensive tutorial that allows to learn playing essentials without having to suffer from naturally occurring beginner's mistakes.

Combat is quite an important aspect in Eador but it's not the only thing that matters. You'll also need to manage your provinces, expand your influence by means of diplomacy or good reputation, and deal with a huge variety of unique events that occur in your kingdom from time to time. Every decision matters as it affects the player's reputation and moral alignment.

The mainstay of gameplay are heroes, who can be guided to become whatever a player desires. There are four basic classes (Warrior, Ranger, Commander and Mage), each with lots of unique skills and abilities, and the ability to multi-class once they had levelled up enough times, opening numerous paths of development. Each class serves its own purpose - thus a Ranger, for example, excels at diplomacy and province exploration, while a Commander can field the most number of units in his party at any time. Regular units also level up and can gain additional abilities as they grow in skill. Not all units and technologies are available from the start, as there is no fixed tech tree; some units can only be acquired by making alliances or visiting special locations.

Eador has too many features to be listed in their entirety without the list becoming an expansive strategy guide for the game. Much fun is in discovering them on your own. There's a Russian language demo available from the official site (I don't know if there is an English demo). There is also a screenshot gallery.

* Alexey Bokulev lives in Ukraine but the original release of the game is in Russian and Russian is his native language.

[MrFlibble]

Here's a bunch of reviews of the English version:

Eador – Genesis: How deep is the deep end? (Hardcore Casual, Dec 11, 2012)
First Look: Eador: Genesis (Dragonchasers, Dec 15, 2012)
Eador: Genesis Impressions (Out of Eight PC Game Reviews, Dec 16, 2012)
Review of Eador: Genesis (HalfBeard's HUD, Jan 25, 2013)
THOUGHTS: EADOR GENESIS (The Scientific Gamer, Jan 28, 2013)
Eador: Genesis Review (CPUGamer, Jan 29, 2013)
PC Game Review of Eador: Genesis (GrogHeads, Feb 20, 2013)
Eador: Genesis impressions: Master of Might, Magic, and the Just One More Turn Syndrome (Matchsticks for my Eyes, Mar 17, 2013)
Eador Genesis (The Daily Star, Mar 28, 2013)

[dosraider]

That looks swell, more than swell even !!!!!

Watched the trailer on GOG, my my, suppose you'll have to dig in that game pretty deep to learn all the ropes.....
Wish I had enough time, really wish I had.

Ah well, another one on my huge pile of shame ...????

[MrFlibble]

suppose you'll have to dig in that game pretty deep to learn all the ropes.....

Well, I can tell you that the tutorial is really quite forgiving (haven't gotten around to get and play the full version myself, only played the demo v1.04 so far). I had to adjust a bit when I started the actual campaign, but that did not require too much of an effort (you have to manage several heroes in the campaign scenarios, while you're only limited to one in the tutorial). But you have to be very active in levelling your heroes, because the AI wastes no time to expand and build up strength too.

The game can and will eat up quite some time, and the "just one more turn" syndrome is there all right, but it's still worth giving a try. There is always a variety of in-game events that keep it from becoming repetitive.

BTW, the official forums have some tips and tactics in English (not as detailed as the Russian guide though).

[Edit] There's also detailed documentation of the game's mechanics (in English) available.

[MrFlibble]

Eador: Genesis is free for a limited time from GOG.com:
https://www.gog.com/game/eador_genesis

[Quadko]

I was excited about that one and bought it a long time ago, but never ended up playing it. Now it's free. Stack of shame strikes again!

But still looks like a sweet game.

[MrFlibble]

Well, it won't be free forever (although I hope it will become truly liberated one day). Maybe it's just time for you to play? So far I have only played the demo, and it's already awesome fun. There are nearly endless possibilities of how you can play and what you get, there's a great deal of roguelike-ness going on in the game.