Near Magic: Legends of Eisenwald previewed

Longtime PC gamers will likely be familiarized with the King’s Bounty or Disciples series; these featured a relatively uncommon mix of turn-based strategy with roleplaying elements. The genre itself is something of a niche, as even popular games easily fell into obscurity with the exception of King’s Bounty which has seen a resurgence in 2008.

To this day there is little thematic variation between games and series who share this style of gameplay. Players will be hard-pressed to find titles that are not firmly rooted in high fantasy. This is the first point where Legends of Eisenwald sets itself apart, taking instead a semi-realistic medieval setting. This does not mean magic and mystical creatures are absent, rather, it’s based on the concept of how the world would look if medieval superstitions were real. Moreover, mysticism takes a backseat to a world primarily driven by humans and political intrigues of the time.

Starting a new game, players may choose between the main campaign or two smaller scenarios with more hopefully being added in the future. A class for the main hero must also be selected, though the choices are limited to the standard warrior, rogue and mage paths.

As expected with this style of game, most of the action takes place in an overworld. Each map is littered with several hot spots ranging from towns and inns to monasteries, castles or quest-specific locations. Once visited you can draw rumors and information from the local tavern, recruit soldiers or hire mercenaries if any are available, purchase gear or even collect taxes if you control the region. CPU controlled factions pursue the same goals, though their stance towards you varies depending on your actions and dialogue choices. Often, players can engage in quests or basic diplomacy options to gain a possible ally or powerful new enemies.

Exploring the land provides a fulfilling and immersive experience as you learn old central-European folk tales, acquire optional quests or simply discover a village offering new gear and recruitable army units. This is accompanied by a haunting soundtrack which fits the theme while never overstaying its welcome.

Should negotiations fail, two opposing forces will engage on a tactical battlefield. Eisenwald refers to each faction as armies, however players groups are limited to 12 units, emphasizing tactics, gear and character levels over numbers. One of the most interesting features in Eisenwald is the concept behind the tactical turn-based combat. There are no movement orders and units can’t skip a turn, instead they must always perform a battle action which more often than not limits you to attacking an enemy or casting a spell. Melee units are also only allowed to fight their closest foe(s), meaning they can’t rush through the first line of defense to quickly put down a healing or archer.

While the concept itself is interesting, it also feels very restricting. More often than not, battles are decided by gear and levels rather than strategy. Storming a castle is dreadfully difficult in later stages as the attacking army will always suffer damage before the battle even begins. Each unit can level up and select branching paths of skills/classes, however they all seem to fall into melee brawler, archers and basic spell casters with little variation between them. Even magic seems fairly downplayed with most falling under the basic buffing, debuffing and healing support types.

I applaud the studio’s inventiveness in trying to maintain a believable use of magic within the folklore of the time, but it has the side effect of feeling limited due to a lack of overall variation. I also noticed a few balancing issues; mercenaries for example are overly expensive for the services offered. A single mercenary unit could cost up to four times the income of any town under player possession. Class progression is also painfully slow, each action grants one experience point but even a level one character can require up to two hundred battle actions just to level up.

Legends of Eisenwald offers an immersive and fulfilling sense of exploration which is further enhanced by its soothing soundtrack and a focus on medieval folklore, sadly it’s also marred by a restrictive combat and unbalanced system. The game is currently available through Steam Early Access, so it’s still possible all balancing issues will be addressed before release.