- Are you looking for a different kind of RTS?
- Do you prefer casually balanced games?
- Would you like a deep and intriguing story?

Then prepare to read a wall of text and dozens of tiny boxes as you try to figure out exactly what is going on around here.

This is the kind of game where you either pick the right faction or become increasingly frustrated at why your forces keep losing.

Prepare your lasso as you wrangle rocks in this island-hopping strategy game set in real time.

Where It Shines

This game is about islands. You start on your own little island with just your castle, and maybe some buildings. The lands are varied and well detailed that you can easily tell the biomes apart. Each faction has their own respective biome and will incur penalties for settling in any other biome.

Settlements in your kingdom consist of houses, farms, mines, and various production halls for hero classes or upgrades. Structure design varies by faction. Humans are your typical medieval design. Dark elves have that evil vibe going on where they look like the forces of Sauron. The dwarves are the typical machine obsessed, rock-dwelling type. The wild elves are apparently native American.

Settlements have very cohesive designs. From the humans’ white walls, and blocky towers to the dark elves’ claw-like spires and thorn-covered architecture, the dwarves’ buildings surrounded by crystals and a factory-like aesthetic to the wild elves living in tents and gardens, it is easy to distinguish between factions.

The game has an abundance of small details. From building construction, like towers shooting up, buildings folding out, adding on, or growing bigger, construction and upgrading is an enjoyment to watch. Even smaller details like idle animations make for an interesting watch. Units can be seen training on dummies, drinking by a keg and even dancing around a fire.

Gameplay consists of building a settlement and expanding to nearby islands for more resources and space. You can move islands, including your own, by using spells. You can anchor islands in place by using bridges to connect them. Islands connected by bridges to your castle’s island can be built on without needing to build nearby first. You can also connect to other islands using teleporters, but you can’t build through them.

Characters have free will. You do not control them directly. Most of the time, characters will generally mill about town, or at a camp, but some will venture out in search of treasure. They are fairly good about avoiding fights unless they think they can win. They also have enough brains to retreat when injured.

One of the best features of the game is the pause button. During single player, it allows you to make any command, build, cast, recruit, or demolish whatever you need. You can even manage resources, buy skills or upgrade anything, as long as you have what’s needed. Of course, most of this doesn’t take effect until you unpause the game but you can queue up several actions at once.

The game simplifies your units into three classes: melee fighters, long range archers, and heavy damage casters. There is the possibility of finding creature nests for your characters to tame and ride. These flying creatures consist of ravens, eagles, and the occasional dragon. Each nest has around two creatures to tame. Dwarves don’t use creatures, they build airships, as many as they can afford.

Where It Sours

Progress in the game is slow. Normal speed is too slow. Even if you set the speed higher, the game reverts to normal speed every time an enemy attacks your town. Gaining resources is affected by reputation, population and biome with low reputation slowing both resource and population growth. Biomes different from your faction biome slow down production as well. Changing an island’s biome requires a very slow casting spell performed by a caster unit, not just yourself.

The story is all-text and no dialogue. When you start a campaign, you are presented with a wall of text, no cutscene. During the game, all communication relating to the story appears in a small text box at bottom right, no voice over. If you don’t pay attention to the box while playing, you may miss what is happening, story wise. The end of each quest is usually several minutes of text box after text box. The campaign ending is another wall of text. There is no attempt to attract attention to story.

The units are all free willed, meaning you have no direct control over them. In this game, it leaves much to be desired. Pathfinding on floating islands is decent but could be better. Units may path find through an enemy camp if it is the shortest path, and keep trying to even after finding the enemy. At least they know enough to retreat when they get hurt. Raiding, basically giving an attack order to an island, doesn’t prioritize the most dangerous buildings first, like guard towers or unit recruiters. Your forces will repeatedly retreat due to guard towers hammering them while they target a farm. Units will also not repel invaders unless they are already attacking one of your buildings.

Flying is all but mandatory. Being on floating islands connected by bridges or teleporters means the most direct path to a target is a straight line but to do so, you need flying units. These units rarely venture out to explore the map and if you post an order to go somewhere, they will go straight there, even if it goes over the enemy. If that happens, they will most likely not make it back as they are less likely to retreat if they have a destination they are trying to get to. The only way to move your army to the enemy quickly is to have them all on flying units. Islands connected by bridges funnel troops, flying is needed to cross most of map. The main problem is needing to find nests, and what type of nests are found. Having limited, weak, flying units is a big disadvantage for most factions. Dwarves can build airships without needing to find nests which give them a huge advantage on most maps.

Game balance is also a problem. Certain factions straight up just have better buildings or units. Skill tree unlocks tend to have static priority or importance. Some skills are always taken well before others. Most defense comes from guard towers due to being on an island and towers having longer range than any unit. Another problem is that you need money to make most orders like declare an attack or open a chest. Units rarely go after enemies or take over sites without orders.

Where It’s Surpassed

This game is similar, but fails in comparison, to the game Majesty.

Majesty is known for giving its units free will. Each type of unit, there were over a dozen classes, had their own personality and motivations. While varied, units still had a predictable behavior that could be utilized or worked around. They didn’t just sit in camp waiting for orders. They knew how to buy and equip weapons and items for adventure as well as how, and who, to pair with to form groups. Having memorable voice lines was also a plus.

The story was also more fleshed out. You were told who you were, what you were doing and what happens after, all told through narration and some animated pictures. It also made sure to draw your attention to the story when it needed you to know something.

Conclusion

While I do recommend the game if you are looking for a different kind of RTS, I would like to say that you shouldn’t go expecting too much from this game.

It is more casual than most RTS games. Difficulty level seems to affect resource management more than enemy aggression or tactics.

The story is more read-only text than engaging. Controls are fairly simple. The pause button is overpowered and the faction imbalance is noticeable but not terrible.