Publisher: Snowbird Game Studios
Developer: Snowbird Game Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, 2 GHz Pentium/AMD 2000+ or better CPU, 512 MB RAM, GeForce 7300/Radeon 9200 or better graphics card, DirectX-compatible sound device, DirectX 9.0c, 2 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Back in 2010, Eador: Genesis was quietly released to Russian-language audiences. Developed almost exclusively by one man, Alexander Bokulev, it was a mashup of various strategy games into one pot of dreams. It took the best of games such as Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic and became something that would punch you in the face but leave you begging for more. It didn’t get much attention for many years because of its odd interface and the lack of an English translation. But now, Bokulev is back with a team and a budget. Eador: Masters of the Broken World isn’t just a prettier face, it’s an all-around better game.

As the title suggests, the world of Eador is a shattered one. Shards of the planet spin about the cosmos as various immortals try to piece together as much of it for themselves as they can, yourself included. The campaign consists of you leaping from shard to shard as you take out all the local leaders and bring the shards under your dominance. You start by selecting a mortal hero to do your bidding. From there, you travel about with your army, battling monsters and clearing out territory. Floating land masses are relatively small, but there’s a lot packed in there. Even city tiles can have lists of encounters you can do. Once you clear out a territory, you have the option to build things on it and garrison troops. Once the opposing heroes are defeated, you add the shard to your collection, granting you bonuses for future invasion. This ends up grafting a fantastic long-term strategy layer onto the whole experience.

Whenever you move to an occupied tile or go into a dungeon, you hop into turn-based combat. You place your troops on the hex map and move about, casting spells, attacking, counter-attacking and defending. Combat is made of many simple rules layered on top of each other. Certain tiles (such as forests) boost ranged defense, others (such as hills) increase melee attack. Each side takes a turn as units expend energy to move and attack, while your hero unit casts game-changing spells. Units gain persistent upgrades, so it can behoove you to keep your peons alive. These encounters can be very difficult, even right outside your capital, so you have to dive into dungeons and grind for a bit to outfit your army. If an encounter ever seems too trivial (or impossible), then you can either auto-resolve a given turn or skip to the end.

The first couple of hours feel pretty typical. They echo a lot of past games, especially Heroes of Might and Magic. Once you get past that, you realize there’s a ridiculous amount of depth, most of it coming from how the campaign is structured. Each mission is about conquering various floating land masses and adding them to your empire. Each new shard opens up new tech and buildings that you can take into future missions. The tech tree is complicated and serpentine enough to make a seasoned Civ vet squirm. That’s when you realize that there’s a new layer of depth here. For example, you unlock new unit types, which can lead to interesting situations. A hero with holy powers might not play well with those undead troops you just unlocked. Even if it’s not the ideal combination of forces, at times it’s your best option.

Masters of the Broken World makes some definite improvements on the original Eador game. Most of them are in the interface department. Too many menus are circular wheels, but in general, the interface is much more usable. At least all the buttons and symbols have tooltips. While the game is almost as difficult as before, the inclusion of a real save system means you can undo your mistakes (assuming you keep multiple saves).

Eador: Masters of the Broken World is comprised of so many layers within layers that it simply begs for an Inception joke. It’s a game that rewards you the more you put into it; it’s a love letter to the entire genre. Despite some initial bugs, the game’s made good progress. A few quick patches have fixed some serious performance issues and have added missing features (such as multiplayer) into the mix. Casual fans of the genre might not have the patience it requires, but it wasn’t made for them. If you’re among the joyful gamers afflicted with “just one more turn” syndrome, then Eador will gladly play into all your desires and tantalize your tactical mind that much longer.

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