Etherlords

In a world of magic, demons and a powerful force known as ether, war is all that matters, as four races go head-to-head against each other for thousands of years. The ultimate goal of the war is for one of the leaders to transcend physical form and turn into a powerful creature that's able to fully control ether and master the force in all of its forms.

Etherlords is a TBS that blends a few curious elements in order to come up with a distinct flavor of strategy, such as turn-based tactics, a Heroes-style world map and trading cards. However, despite the high risks that usually come with such a combination, the game actually manages to hit all the right spots and make sense from start to finish, as well as make the mechanics work quite well.

The background story revolves around the previously mentioned force know as ether, which comes in four flavors: synthesis, chaos, vitality and motion. Naturally, the four races have each chosen to master one type of ether and they are named after their respective talents, such as Synthets or Kinets. The purpose of the campaign is for you to become the legendary creature that can wield the power of all ether, known as the White Lord. In order to achieve this, you can use any of the available races and just defeat everyone along the way.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, everything takes place in turns and things get a bit more complicated once you start a battle, since the cards enter the equation as well. In short, you have to build a deck over the course of the game and use the cards to cast spells, as well as summon units. As you advance further in the game, you find and unlock more and more powerful cards, which require more power to be used in battle.

While the graphics engine shows its age a bit, that doesn't mean it has become unplayable over the years, since you can still enjoy it just as much on a new computer, as long as you get past the compatibility problems. Other than that, a lot of work went into the artwork and the landscapes, which means that there's always something nice to look at.

In the end, one flaw that might make Etherlords a bit hard to swallow is the rather high difficulty level, even if the tutorial is there to get you through the basics. The combination of genres can be overwhelming, though, and the fighting system a bit disorienting for newbies.