Etherlords 2 Review

Etherlords 2 is a turn-based strategy game that has combat very similar to Magic: the Gathering and provides some rather addicting gameplay.

Combat

The main exploration map has rather good 3-d graphics comparable to those found in Warcraft 3, but it is in the actual battle screen where things really heat up. The combat in Etherlords 2 has your character pitted against your enemy but the twist is that you cannot directly attack each other, unless you have the right spells. Instead most of the turn-based battles are between the creatures you summon, such as lumbering treants, mech worms, giant wasps, and many others.

Spells

The variety of spells you can buy, find on fallen enemies, or receive for completing side quests is quite astounding and helps to keep things fresh. With each round of combat you receive greater amounts of ether, which you spend to cast spells, and this adds to the strategic element since you'll have to wait to caste your really powerful spells until later on in the match.

Ether

An additional element, which is quite nice, is the ether disturbance which causes both characters to take progressively greater amounts of damage each round as the match reaches later rounds. This added feature is very beneficial since it keeps matches from dragging on and opens another route for gameplay since you can try to just boost your health and wear your opponent down until the disturbance kills him.

Campaigns

With four campaigns and races to master there are hours of enjoyable gameplay to be found. With each campaign you'll follow through with only on hero, which makes gameplay very addictive since it really feels like you are building up a truly epic hero and there is more of an impetus to search out those side-missions since they will make your character stronger or add in special talents.

The only slight annoyance to the game is that you must manually go into your inventory and swap spells around into your active deck, but this is only a minor issue.

Conclusion - Great Turn-Based RPG

Overall, Etherlords 2 is a great game for fans of collectible card type games or just for someone looking for some great strategic turn-based action. At the very least try out the demo and play through a couple levels of a campaign to see if this the type of game for you.