Eador: Masters of the Broken World

 PC
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 222 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 135 out of 222
  2. Mixed: 42 out of 222
  3. Negative: 45 out of 222

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  1. apokalipto
    Aug 19, 2023
    8
    Very good game. I enjoyed playing this game a lot. I strongly recommend this.
  2. Tomicsavo
    Feb 4, 2020
    2
    Too slow, it did not caught me. -------------------------------------------
  3. NightGeisha
    Jan 2, 2019
    4
    Eador is a game that I had difficulty in characterizing. It is a mixture of Civilization or Age of Wonders, both in mechanics and visuals, on a map with classic turn-based combat elements.
    The story is simple, several mixed ideias of fantasy, mythical creatures and magic that fit together in a interesting way.
    Mechanically simple, anyone familiar with strategy games will be at ease. But    Eador is a game that I had difficulty in characterizing. It is a mixture of Civilization or Age of Wonders, both in mechanics and visuals, on a map with classic turn-based combat elements.
    The story is simple, several mixed ideias of fantasy, mythical creatures and magic that fit together in a interesting way.
    Mechanically simple, anyone familiar with strategy games will be at ease. But despite being at ease, you will not have an "easy" task, the IA is challenging and strong. Although this becomes a "plus" the game has a big "minus", which is the fact that it is so repetitive.

    Personally I did not like it but I'm not saying that the game is bad. Simply the references I have in games of the genre are very good (like Civilization or Age of Wonders that I mentioned before) and this game, for me, did not come close to the others in so many ways.    … Expand
  4. Voyou
    Apr 2, 2018
    4
    The bad, but only some examples:

    - Lame gameplay : explore by repeatedly sitting on the same tile and reading text. - Dumb combat : High initiative gives you the advantage of placing your troops in plain view of your invisible enemies. - Dumb combat : Either move, attack or cast a spell in a turn. No combo. And since my scout is the only unit of value in my team, it's just him    The bad, but only some examples:

    - Lame gameplay : explore by repeatedly sitting on the same tile and reading text.

    - Dumb combat : High initiative gives you the advantage of placing your troops in plain view of your invisible enemies.

    - Dumb combat : Either move, attack or cast a spell in a turn. No combo. And since my scout is the only unit of value in my team, it's just him shoot, nobody else move.

    - Lame gameplay : Useless weak-ass recruited troops, as hinted above.

    - Rotten skills : Why can my scout spend his gold to poison water when facing harmless enemies, but is never offered so when it could be useful ?

    - Interfacial mess : Don't pack my 20 stats in a compact grid. Let them breathe. Let me find quickly the only 2 I care about, and with half as many clicks.

    - Interfacial mess : What's the point of a zoom that only works from x0.99 to x1.01 ? Why can't I see clearly the terrain and my troops ? Give me some comfort, zooterkins !

    The good:

    - The genre, which is why I play King's Bounty.    … Expand
  5. RagingPoet
    Nov 7, 2017
    8
    I've played Eador: Masters of the Broken World way after it's release for 100+ hours and didn't encounter any bugs at all. So if you are reading reviews for the game now, you can ignore all the rants about game-crashing bugs, they were fixed long time ago.
  6. night4
    May 21, 2017
    4
    All saved games spontaneously corrupted after the first 2 hours of play. I've never had this happen to me before in 30 years of PC gaming.

    It's a shame, because I think I could have gotten into it too, but if it's this buggy of a mess, nope.
  7. theirrelephants
    Sep 6, 2016
    8
    Possibly because I picked up this game in 2016 instead of 2013, but unlike the other reviewers I have had ZERO problems with bugs. Maybe they've all been fixed by now? Regardless, this is a good turn based strategy game.

    My complain is that the initial surface complexity is just that - surface complexity. Perhaps I'm spoiled for overly long tech trees after playing sword of the stars    Possibly because I picked up this game in 2016 instead of 2013, but unlike the other reviewers I have had ZERO problems with bugs. Maybe they've all been fixed by now? Regardless, this is a good turn based strategy game.

    My complain is that the initial surface complexity is just that - surface complexity. Perhaps I'm spoiled for overly long tech trees after playing sword of the stars 1 and Master of Orion 2 lately, but it seems like the building progression merely looks complicated until you dive into it for an hour or two. Like Fallen Enchantress from Stardock, there seem to be a lot of options, but only a few real choices.

    Don't let that minor gripe dissuade you, however, Eador is still an excellent turn based strategy game with unique mechanics that deserve to be pursued to their fullest. The way they use heroes and armies was refreshingly unique. If you're a fan of turn based games, you'll probably enjoy Eador. I know I did.    … Expand
  8. briefer
    Mar 1, 2016
    9
    For all the fans of Heroes I - III, Age of Wonders and similar titles. Not recommended for casuals and CoD kids, they will cry loud on the learning curve and difficulty
  9. SoulBrother
    Apr 17, 2015
    3
    couldn't finish the game ,, very slow turn , cheating AI , you have to conquer shards to unlock buildings , the core story don't make sense and uninteresting , very repetitive ,,, i liked it the fist 3 hours ,, then just fell out of it ,,, won't recommend it to anyone
  10. Lhetre
    Jan 19, 2015
    1
    Grinding and repetitive game play, plenty of mechanics destined to slow down the pace - units recover one health point per turn, you may build one building all over your empire per turn, cost of new units is preposterous, maintenance cost doesn't allow you to have units healing while you fight with fresh units.
    No glitches but slowdowns at every single mouse click.
    Do you want to suffer    Grinding and repetitive game play, plenty of mechanics destined to slow down the pace - units recover one health point per turn, you may build one building all over your empire per turn, cost of new units is preposterous, maintenance cost doesn't allow you to have units healing while you fight with fresh units.
    No glitches but slowdowns at every single mouse click.
    Do you want to suffer ? This game is made for you.    … Expand
  11. Buccelus
    Sep 18, 2014
    7
    Eador is a very nice game overall, especially for the low price. As some guys before already mentioned, Eador has this "one more turn"-need and can provide tons of fun, but only if you are willing to invest a ton of time. It`s not a game for people who are new to this genre and it is not the right game for people having trouble to handle frustration. You will experience games in which youEador is a very nice game overall, especially for the low price. As some guys before already mentioned, Eador has this "one more turn"-need and can provide tons of fun, but only if you are willing to invest a ton of time. It`s not a game for people who are new to this genre and it is not the right game for people having trouble to handle frustration. You will experience games in which you chose the wrong strategy, the wrong hero to summon first and you might have to load an old save. 4+ hours going down the drain is not unusual.
    I would give the game a 9/10 for pure playing fun, but lately a lot of bugs and save game problems were patched into the game along with the first dlc. Also the dlc is a huge improvement in terms of end game content but makes it even harder to rise and make your baby steps. Why? Because every little army of minor goblins now has a hard mage, a supporter and a ranged unit. Even for me with 180h knowledge of the game this appeared as a problem and I needed a lot of time to solve this problem going along with draining my old strategy.
    Because of the "so so"-dlc and the bugs I decrease the grade from 9 to 7.    … Expand
  12. sourdust
    Sep 11, 2014
    0
    This is a great game ... if only it worked. The turn-based strategy is deep and engaging, and I found myself with a strong "one more turn" reflex. The campaign is long and immersive, and despite some interface clunkiness, it's visually appealing. The resource scarcity makes you think very carefully about every move, every build, and every combat. You really feel the loss of any unit.This is a great game ... if only it worked. The turn-based strategy is deep and engaging, and I found myself with a strong "one more turn" reflex. The campaign is long and immersive, and despite some interface clunkiness, it's visually appealing. The resource scarcity makes you think very carefully about every move, every build, and every combat. You really feel the loss of any unit.

    Now for the bad news: the fatal glitches in the game have made it unplayable for me, with a variety of crashes occurring on average every three turns. And the more I play into the campaign, the more frequent the crashes seem to be. I've given up playing for now, and am frustrated by the total lack of response to bug postings on the Snowbird Forum. I don't expect perfection from a small indie developer, but I do expect some stability, especially so long after initial release. If this was a working game, I'd give it an 8 or 9. As it is, don't buy it...    … Expand
  13. Dunadd
    Jun 17, 2014
    4
    Eador has some very nice features and the potential to be a really great game, but it is just so slow to play and so lacking in variety after a while, that it ends up being less fun to play than games like Heroes of Might and Magic, which it is a kind of offshoot of.

    First the good things about Eador. There are effectively 12 different hero types in the game. The basic three are mage,    Eador has some very nice features and the potential to be a really great game, but it is just so slow to play and so lacking in variety after a while, that it ends up being less fun to play than games like Heroes of Might and Magic, which it is a kind of offshoot of.

    First the good things about Eador. There are effectively 12 different hero types in the game. The basic three are mage, warrior and scout, but each type can choose to remain its own class on reaching level 10 or choose from 3 alternative sub-classes, which include hybrid classes that also have their own unique abilities which they get at levels 10 and 20.

    Second your heroes can not only conquer provinces and fight enemy heroes, but also explore provinces they control, finding locations with neutral creatures and warbands who they can fight for experience, treasure and loot. There are a wide variety of creature types and magical and non magical items which they can get this way.

    Third there is quite a large variety of unit types you can recruit, including non-human ones if you get alliances with other races through quests, or if you get spells to raise undead or demons or magical constructs like golems or gargoyles.

    Unfortunately the game is very slow. This is first because groups of neutral creatures that you have to fight to conquer neutral provinces become stronger and stronger the further from your capital province you get, meaning you have to build up a lot of hero experience, items and units before you can even get to fight the AI controlled enemy heroes and armies - and they similarly can't get to you quickly.

    Second it's because buildings cost too much gold to build - and you need too many buildings to build each new building - with the total cost of building tier three buildings being so huge it'll usually take over 100 turns, while to get the highest tier buildings takes hundreds.

    Third it's because while getting the buildings and money to recruit units is very expensive you can also get province guards in the game. This in itself is not a bad idea. The player and the AI can recruit province guards - at the most basic militia with pitch forks - to defend their provinces. The problem is that you (and the AI) can recruit and pay ridiculously strong province guards sometimes for a small fraction of the costs of recruiting and paying an army with the same units. This means that as soon as you get to a large 'shard' (basically map) the last or last two AI players have often recruited one of these overpowered, under-price province guards to defend their capital - and you then simply cannot defeat it without getting a third, or sometimes top, tier mage guild and third or top tier units too. And this means hundreds of turns of exploring and levelling and gold gathering to finish the map.

    If you like exploring and building up a bit to let the AI get stronger heroes and armies before fighting it this becomes ten times worse as the AI will then have powerful province guards in every single province by the time you fight it. This reduces the speed of the game to even more of a crawl.

    Building up to fight neutrals and province guards is simply dull compared to fighting enemy armies - and mind-numbingly slow with it.

    Now for the lack of variety. There are various AI enemies - 'masters' - who each have their own portrait, appearance and nature. Some are supposedly lords of the undead who hate and wish to destroy all living things. Others are human demigods. Others are demons - and so on. Some are good, some evil, some neutral. So far, so good.

    Unfortunately every single one of them recruits exactly the same unit and province guard types - mostly humans - and use the same spells too. The demon lord rarely if ever has a single demon (unless by random chance that he got a summon demon scroll as a drop). The undead master just has humans and doesn't summon undead any more frequently than any other master does. Good alignment wizard masters recruit evil province guards - and their heroes summon undead and demons as much as evil masters' heroes do.

    The only difference with the demon master is that he can sometimes get an 'Army of Chaos' province guard of demons. So when he tells you his demon hordes are coming for you it's pretty underwhelming when its actually some humans almost identical to your own army. Ditto for the dragon master.

    So fighting each AI enemy is much the same as fighting every other one, destroying the atmosphere and reducing variety.

    After playing a lot of both Eador and Heroes VI, Heroes VI is better paced, more exciting and offers more variety. It's a lot more fun struggling to defeat enemy heroes and armies in Heroes than grinding away at earning enough gold to be able to beat a province guard in Eador.    … Expand
  14. s1eepy
    May 29, 2014
    9
    Concept
    This game deserves attention from anyone who thinks the two words "wizard" and "chess" sound great in any sort of combination. Eador is a great many things. I can not give it anything less than a 9 when i consider the genre as a whole and look at every other game has tried to do with the genre in the past. It has the expansiveness and structure of HOMM, it has more depth than the    Concept
    This game deserves attention from anyone who thinks the two words "wizard" and "chess" sound great in any sort of combination. Eador is a great many things. I can not give it anything less than a 9 when i consider the genre as a whole and look at every other game has tried to do with the genre in the past. It has the expansiveness and structure of HOMM, it has more depth than the Civ games, units as cleverly designed as the King's Bounty series, and put together as well as the most ingenious board games out there. The developers obviously are avid fans of the genre who decided to take some of the best elements from the best TBS out there, streamline all of them for turn duration considerations. Conceptually: Eador is the new gold standard by which i will have no choice but to compare all future encounters with titles in the same genre to.

    in short: Eador raises the bar. and not just a little bit.

    now that i've gushed about the game on paper. i'll get into how it handles on the road; in a more general fashion.

    Graphics - might as well start here.
    first; if you're looking to be impressed and wowed with visuals: go play a trippleA title. this is a thinking man's game not a popcorn flick. with that said: everything is clearly defined; there's no confusion as to what anything is. nothing looks out of place or cheesy. it's going to age pretty well. from that basis: i can't hold much of anything back from it's score here. a few more spell effects wouldn't hurt, but that's it.

    Audio
    Again, one of those things that isn't the point of the game. As with the visuals; everything fits. nothing feels out of place. the soundtrack is well thought out enough not to put you to sleep with tedium. it's enjoyable to listen to on your opponent's turns, but it's not going to jump out and demand your attention. I see that sort of ambient quality as being a positive here. The game is about considering your next move, and it considerately frees up any attention it can to keep you doing just that.

    Stability
    Admittedly; there were a number of bugs and non-functioning multiplayer. . . initially. However, since the latest patch: full scale multiplayer is working, and i have not run into a single bug after around 175 hours of play. if i were writing this months ago: the game would have suffered in it's scoring here. The developers are dedicated to making this game what they wanted it to be. Icebird is a small studio and if were to expect the speed of an army of 100 programmers out of a studio this size: i'd just be an impatient ass-hat. The only important part is that their commitment is genuine. Optimization issues have been resolves, crashes fixed, connectivity problems solved, etc. It's all good now. 6 months ago? that's a little bit of different a story.

    User Interface
    Two words: learning curve. Eador might benefit from a help pop-up that labels everything, but there are mouseovers. Once you've taken the time to figure out where everything is: it works. There's no confusion. You have access to everything from anywhere. Eador just has a lot of bits and pieces and it takes a little bit of time to see what they all are. I can't fault a game for having an extensive UI when the game it's self actually is extensive and requires it. That's like getting mad because the rulebook looks too thick.

    In summation
    King's Bounty with multiplayer/HOMM with more depth and faster turns. Sure to impress fans of the genre.    … Expand
  15. krazy85
    May 21, 2014
    4
    I never do this but please do not waste money on this game. The original (eador:genesis) has no bugs and the exact same gameplay and storyline without the graphical polish. Eador:Masters is worse in every way compared to the original. I picked it up on a steam sale after the latest round of patches and still encountering game stopping bugs nearly every 10-20 turns. I guess that's whyI never do this but please do not waste money on this game. The original (eador:genesis) has no bugs and the exact same gameplay and storyline without the graphical polish. Eador:Masters is worse in every way compared to the original. I picked it up on a steam sale after the latest round of patches and still encountering game stopping bugs nearly every 10-20 turns. I guess that's why they included save games in this iteration. It's just unfortunate because I do enjoy it but hate trying only to be disappointed by bugs. I'm rating below 5 not only because of bugs, but because almost nothing new was added to this version or done to relieve the repetitive gameplay… Expand
  16. sirkel
    May 14, 2014
    6
    If you like micro management then this is your game. The game is also somewhat buggy right now after the last patch the music isn't playing correctly, the auto battle is somewhat buggy as well. Graphics are ok, a bit hard to see the troops in the battle screen as they tend to blend into the landscape. I prefer Age of Wonders over this game, AoW overall is more polished and without so muchIf you like micro management then this is your game. The game is also somewhat buggy right now after the last patch the music isn't playing correctly, the auto battle is somewhat buggy as well. Graphics are ok, a bit hard to see the troops in the battle screen as they tend to blend into the landscape. I prefer Age of Wonders over this game, AoW overall is more polished and without so much micro management.… Expand
  17. eblackthorn
    Apr 30, 2014
    3
    This game looks like it has potential, but an unintuitive menu system and some very aggravating bugs make it fall short. I wish I hadn't spent the $5 it cost to buy this on sale :(
  18. Crimson
    Apr 15, 2014
    1
    Boring, buggy, unbalanced, and slow as hell. This game can be summed up with one word, tedious. So much to click on for so little effect. Watching paint dry is more interesting.
  19. ericcoutinho
    Mar 8, 2014
    6
    Technically, Eador is bad, but it's a good game and worth to be bought on sale.
    A lot of working still missing, but overall is a good and relatively addictive game. Feels to me like a board game, the strategy doesn't seem to have so much depth, but i'm just beginning to playing, to really knows it.
    If you will gonna play it, you have to know it will be a long way on a tutorial    Technically, Eador is bad, but it's a good game and worth to be bought on sale.
    A lot of working still missing, but overall is a good and relatively addictive game. Feels to me like a board game, the strategy doesn't seem to have so much depth, but i'm just beginning to playing, to really knows it.

    If you will gonna play it, you have to know it will be a long way on a tutorial playthrough, and although it's necessary, this stage seems to be more buggy and/or bad managed. In fact the game really begins when this tutorial ends.    … Expand
  20. El_Jairo
    Feb 5, 2014
    9
    I do like this game as I have enjoyed playing HoMM, Disciples II and this games even takes this genre to the next level: you have more options on how you attack each level and what strategy you will take.
    I have played over 300 hours and this is why it isn't perfect: the overall campaign is really long and the game doesn't support cloud saves.
    Also the fact that you have to restart from    I do like this game as I have enjoyed playing HoMM, Disciples II and this games even takes this genre to the next level: you have more options on how you attack each level and what strategy you will take.
    I have played over 300 hours and this is why it isn't perfect: the overall campaign is really long and the game doesn't support cloud saves.
    Also the fact that you have to restart from square one in each shard tends to get a little frustrating because you have to rethink you tactical game plan.
    All in all the typical: "just-one-more-turn" game, it's addictive and really sucks you in to planning how to conquer the shard and developing you provinces.    … Expand
  21. emerssso
    Jan 11, 2014
    8
    Complaints about bugs from the release are largely dealt with by the developers at this point, bringing up the correct rating for Eador:MotBM significantly. This is a sophisticated title with many play levels which are intricately woven together. Mechanics are thoughtfully combined to create an enjoyable title with a great "one more turn" feeling.

    The world-building is great.    Complaints about bugs from the release are largely dealt with by the developers at this point, bringing up the correct rating for Eador:MotBM significantly. This is a sophisticated title with many play levels which are intricately woven together. Mechanics are thoughtfully combined to create an enjoyable title with a great "one more turn" feeling.

    The world-building is great. Characters in the masterfully composed procedurally generated campaign glow with personality, and there is a ton of great text to be read (if one cares for that sort of thing). The universe is well fleshed out, and seems designed to perfectly house the core game themes. After being burnt out on fantasy worlds for so long, Eador is like a glass of water.

    My only complaints are the significant memory access errors and a few other bugs that stop the game at random intervals. These only seem to pop up once every ten hours or so, and are typically solved with a restart, but are jarring nontheless. Don't disable autosave! However, frequent dev attention suggests that these too will soon be fixed.    … Expand
  22. arudresa
    Dec 23, 2013
    8
    Mix of civilization and heroes. you build, hire heroes, rise armies and fight enemies on maps named shards. Would've loved to see more playable races/army units and a bit more diversity in gameplay.
  23. Devwar
    Dec 9, 2013
    10
    Love this game. Lots of depth and it keeps me coming back for more. It does a ton of things and does them well. I find this game better than other similar games such as HOMM. I do not understand the negative reviews, this game is awesome!
  24. demondred79
    Dec 2, 2013
    5
    I just can't do it. I'm a turn based player through and through, from board games, to CIV, to whatever...and this just doesn't cut it. I never ran into the bugs that people reported, so I'm thinking most of this is patched up, but I am leaving because it's boring. There is absolutely zero "just one more turn" feeling to this game whatsoever. "Exploring" has no intrigue unless you likeI just can't do it. I'm a turn based player through and through, from board games, to CIV, to whatever...and this just doesn't cut it. I never ran into the bugs that people reported, so I'm thinking most of this is patched up, but I am leaving because it's boring. There is absolutely zero "just one more turn" feeling to this game whatsoever. "Exploring" has no intrigue unless you like sitting in a hex square and exploring that tile 50 times only to find tons of encounters you can't defeat and have to retreat from. When you do actually fight battles, after a few hours you'll be hitting the F10 button to autocomplete the battle so you can try and understand where they have actually buried the fun factor of this game. This game is just pretty graphics with a dull, bland, boring, repetitive core and a UI that needs to be tweaked a bit more. I had some pretty harsh criticism of Fallen Enchantress, but it's an utterly superior game to this oddball.… Expand
  25. eymrich
    Nov 27, 2013
    6
    Turn based game, it feels a bit like a combination of civilization 3 and heroes of might and magic 3. But has a lot of his own, very unique features. I have to say it's a game you etheir totally dislike or love, without any half way. Only when you stop playing it you don't really feel like you want to play it again.
    Every damn game takes too long in my opinion, sometimes it takes ages to    Turn based game, it feels a bit like a combination of civilization 3 and heroes of might and magic 3. But has a lot of his own, very unique features. I have to say it's a game you etheir totally dislike or love, without any half way. Only when you stop playing it you don't really feel like you want to play it again.
    Every damn game takes too long in my opinion, sometimes it takes ages to finish a game and start another.

    On the bright side: It's a huge game. You have tons of different units, lots of spells, classes and combinations of them. Music and graphic, for this game type, is ok.

    On the dark side: A single game takes every 10 hours of gameplay, and the campain is like 20-30 missions if you don't really know what you are doin. Sometimes it takes a lot to load, and had some crash too.

    So, if you *think* by looking around this is a game you may like buy it. I have over 140 hours of play and that's worth it!
    But if you see anything you may not like around don't, it's risky.    … Expand
  26. Andrew_Paterson
    Nov 14, 2013
    6
    Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a 6 verging on a 7. The biggest issue (and it's a pretty big one) is that it's immensely tedious. Both because there are so many shards to capture with no significant difference in gameplay between each shard. And because whilst playing the strategic game the strategy is always the same. Bunker down whilst leveling your hero and building theEador: Masters of the Broken World is a 6 verging on a 7. The biggest issue (and it's a pretty big one) is that it's immensely tedious. Both because there are so many shards to capture with no significant difference in gameplay between each shard. And because whilst playing the strategic game the strategy is always the same. Bunker down whilst leveling your hero and building the minimum infrastructure and then rush out and hope you don't hit a random set-back.

    Do I recommended this? It's up to you. You'll already know if you like this style of game or not whilst it's no Age of Wonders it's not horrible either just tedious.    … Expand
  27. McWaffles
    Nov 10, 2013
    10
    You know, this really is a unique, interesting game.
    I mean Fallen Enchantress can off when compared.
    Bug free, and...more. My one issue is that the archers sounds tend not to be in sync with their animations, isn't bothersome enough to make me give it a lower score, I mean it is an indie group that made it. Look, I'd like to go indepth but that would drag on, it's honestly one of    You know, this really is a unique, interesting game.
    I mean Fallen Enchantress can off when compared.
    Bug free, and...more.
    My one issue is that the archers sounds tend not to be in sync with their animations, isn't bothersome enough to make me give it a lower score, I mean it is an indie group that made it.

    Look, I'd like to go indepth but that would drag on, it's honestly one of those games you have to try and then determine for yourself. I know I like it, that's for sure!    … Expand
  28. koboldofthesea
    Oct 20, 2013
    9
    I've never been a huge fan of the unit disparities in these games. Some spells/units seem to be useless while others while others seem to be necessary/godly. But I'd only deduct one point from my experience for this since pretty much every american homm/rpg has this issue. I like the single unit approach over stackable, but the real under-appreciated part of this rpg is its dialogue. SomeI've never been a huge fan of the unit disparities in these games. Some spells/units seem to be useless while others while others seem to be necessary/godly. But I'd only deduct one point from my experience for this since pretty much every american homm/rpg has this issue. I like the single unit approach over stackable, but the real under-appreciated part of this rpg is its dialogue. Some parts are VERY well written. I especially like the gremlin's nonchalant responses.… Expand
  29. BenJackson
    Oct 13, 2013
    9
    Now you know what I love about this game? Everything. This is a very perfect fantasy type game if you want a fantasy setting for one, not to mention it's also strategy if that is your thing. But one thing I love about this game is the story and the level of detail. Now, the story truly is non-linear as mentioned on the official site, you can make it however you want, it gives you perfectNow you know what I love about this game? Everything. This is a very perfect fantasy type game if you want a fantasy setting for one, not to mention it's also strategy if that is your thing. But one thing I love about this game is the story and the level of detail. Now, the story truly is non-linear as mentioned on the official site, you can make it however you want, it gives you perfect control over your own character and how you want to flesh out your "Master." Btw, your character and others you meet are all named Masters, to clear that up. Now, the level of detail is incredible, talking with your companion and even analyzing the history of units opens up a lot trove of detail that really helps with the immersion. Moving on, the combat and exploration is also a feature of noting. When it comes to exploration you can not just explore the world map, but explore your own provinces, find treasures, people to fight, you name it. It's like finding treasure within itself! Plus at the start of your turn you may get random events, which can branch out in a number of ways, I can't pin down an example but it's really great. Combat is nice too, on the strategic map you get strategy, terrain choices such as swamps, hills, forests will all affect your hero and units, enemy archers aren't so tough when you or your units are int he forest, but they are deadly if you are in the swamps, likewise, hills give archers more range, it gives you great advantages over the terrain from which you can plan, nice level of control.

    Now, the game is not perfect, but it's borderline on that, the user interface is confusing at first, and it will take some time getting used too, but hey! There are no game breaking bugs, so no worries. My one gripe though is that during battle, sounds are always out of sync, but it is not a big deal. Plus, Eador is still being updated, it's constantly being worked on now, so whatever issues there are now, will be patched.

    Aside from that, no issues really. It really is worth the cash, and the time investment if you are willing, also, character depth, every character you meet is very well fleshed out, and depending on your choices and how you make your story, you may admire or despise who you meet and learn of. And if you want it, Eador also has multiplayer.

    Overall, Eador is not perfect, but it is magnificent, short review end note, but hey, it really is magnificent!    … Expand
  30. CaptainChaos
    Oct 12, 2013
    4
    I have withdrawn my support from this game. I have over 400 hours in this game. I have had many wonderful communications with the developers, and I rarely have seen such customer support or heart. The game is beautiful and despite its "repetitiveness" I can't stop playing. It is beautiful and challenging in a way I almost never see in other similar games, even the Civ series. However,I have withdrawn my support from this game. I have over 400 hours in this game. I have had many wonderful communications with the developers, and I rarely have seen such customer support or heart. The game is beautiful and despite its "repetitiveness" I can't stop playing. It is beautiful and challenging in a way I almost never see in other similar games, even the Civ series. However, I cannot finish the campaign properly because my Shard just freezes and crashes. Over and over again, it has been one thing or another. And, finally, I have reached my limit.

    This game has had more bugs than any other game I ever have played COMBINED. Given my penchant for Bethesda games, that says a lot. It saddens me very deeply to write this. I know the devs, will say, no wait, send us your save game, we will try and fix it, but it's too late. I'm sick and tired of this. I have enough frustration in my life without constantly fighting this game and acting as a Beta Tester. I do appreciate their help and their personal support. For that I will be forever grateful. But for now, I am too tired in the real world to deal with needless issues in this virtual one. In six months, perhaps I will give the game another try, but for now I must recommend people stay away from this radioactive rubble. Sorry.    … Expand
  31. tech-noir
    Sep 5, 2013
    5
    Sadly, this game has a lot of potential, but it's nearly unplayable instead. Even though there are many difficulty levels to choose from, they are totally worthless. The AI is completely broken as it will not give the player a chance to play, not even on the beginner difficulty level.
  32. Reikes
    Aug 29, 2013
    9
    I have played about 80-90 hours over 3 different periods of play. First I thought it was just a really weird version King's Bounty, but after forcing myself to give it a shot, it turned out to be a pretty awesome game with a mix between tactics-style fighting, strategic thought (at a game level), and a story (at the campaign level).

    I have not had any issues with bugs and the game is    I have played about 80-90 hours over 3 different periods of play. First I thought it was just a really weird version King's Bounty, but after forcing myself to give it a shot, it turned out to be a pretty awesome game with a mix between tactics-style fighting, strategic thought (at a game level), and a story (at the campaign level).

    I have not had any issues with bugs and the game is generally interesting. I did not play the earlier versions, but this version continues to draw me back in.    … Expand
  33. 5hassay
    Aug 1, 2013
    7
    Note that I'm not too far into the game. My first impression on launching the game were "meh". I have to mention that the cinematic was so nice except for the horribly noticeable narrator voice that was very cheesy. In general, for the most part, the game sounds and looks beautiful. Graphics are very customizable as well as gameplay. However, the game seems to have poor FPS issues, whichNote that I'm not too far into the game. My first impression on launching the game were "meh". I have to mention that the cinematic was so nice except for the horribly noticeable narrator voice that was very cheesy. In general, for the most part, the game sounds and looks beautiful. Graphics are very customizable as well as gameplay. However, the game seems to have poor FPS issues, which is quiet noticeable. The game comes with a fairly handy in-game tutorial option. The game isn't always obvious though. The gameplay is fairly slow, that is performing actions and watching the characters perform instructed actions in battle. The game is quiet difficult. I have it on the lowest difficulty setting and I'm having trouble. Note that the first "map" in the game isn't fully featured (I guess for learning curve), but after that the game becomes more complex and interesting. There seems to be a nice little story to accompany the game. I feel like the game needs to be more obvious in certain aspects, and maybe have difficulty options that are less difficult. As a beginner I am finding myself just walking back and forth re-capturing lost land to enemies while my amount of money, necessary to do almost anything, oh so slowly increases. The game has some pretty cool RPG elements, and I enjoy the loot collecting. The structure building system is also pretty cool. Very disappointing though that there is only one model for each class--equipping different armour or weapons does not change how the character looks. Squads are only modifiable through level and level-up skill choices. It seems every layout used for battles uses the same environment (green plains) with randomized qualities (hills, trees, lakes), which is kind of bland, except for there always being a single, small building or something at one end indicating what kind of environment it is. For example, entering a mage tower results in being on a green plain field with one hexagon containing a small tower.… Expand
  34. Cords
    Jul 23, 2013
    10
    This game is complex, and hard, even on beginner. The complexity and difficulty are what makes this game shine. They could have dumbed it down a bit, and made it more accessible to more people, but shame on them if they had done so. If you are prepared to put the time into learning this game then you will be well rewarded. If you are not the patient type, this game will make you wantThis game is complex, and hard, even on beginner. The complexity and difficulty are what makes this game shine. They could have dumbed it down a bit, and made it more accessible to more people, but shame on them if they had done so. If you are prepared to put the time into learning this game then you will be well rewarded. If you are not the patient type, this game will make you want to toss your monitor out the window! I think this game beats other games in it's genre hands down (Kings Bounty, HOMM, and Fallen Enchantress). Once you get to the 20-30 hour mark, beginner will actually start to become too easy, assuming you learn from your mistakes. The game is very well balanced, although you may not say that early on, as the AI will trounce you if you make too many mistakes. Every gold piece counts, and you must choose your hero carefully based on resources on the current shard you are playing on. I have easily sunk over 200 hours into this game, and am far from tired or bored from playing it. The Dev's are very committed. I have emailed them save game files twice from bugs that I have discovered, and they responded back, thanked me for my save game, and included it in the next patch. This game has had over a dozen patches since release, something you NEVER see from some of the larger game developers. I had to wait months for patches for Civ V and Xcom. Some system configurations had trouble running this game early on, so make sure your system is within the recommended specs. I noticed a lot of people having problems with this game had older machines, your machine will probably choke and die if is not well within the specs. This is for me one of the best games in its genre to come out in the last 25 years. Have been playing games like this since MOM and probably before, this one has me totally hooked!… Expand
  35. JoeB666
    Jul 16, 2013
    9
    *The metacritic score is out-of-date*, because, in three months the studio has eliminated 175 bugs/game issues from the game.

    Almost no reviewers update their reviews, post-release. And few games are updated (much), post-release. This game is an exception. The profoundly long list of issues addressed by the developer in the three months since the game has been released can be found    *The metacritic score is out-of-date*, because, in three months the studio has eliminated 175 bugs/game issues from the game.

    Almost no reviewers update their reviews, post-release. And few games are updated (much), post-release. This game is an exception.

    The profoundly long list of issues addressed by the developer in the three months since the game has been released can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/news/?feed=steam_updates&appids=232050 (or search the Steam site for "Eador", and click "view update history" on the right-hand side of the game's page).

    How do I know that 175 bugs were fixed? I pasted the list of bug fixes into Word. It was over 200 lines in length. I eliminated those lines that weren't bug fixes. Each remaining line of text was a bug fix, and there were about 175 remaining lines.

    Should the game have been released without said bugs? Perhaps. (Although, in the Studio's defense,
    it can be extremely difficult to eliminate bugs without widespread bug testing and user testing, for technical reasons.) *But,* the developer has shown extreme dedication in eliminating said bugs. They deserve kudos for that fact. I don't believe the decision to eliminate the bugs was made by some bean counter--sadly, I'm not sure you could easily make the case to such a person that it's in the studio's self-interest to patch a released product. But the studio decided to, anyway.

    Both this game and Snowbird Game Studios deserve your support.    … Expand
  36. evild4ve
    Jul 15, 2013
    8
    Taking a critical appraisal, this is a better successor to Heroes of Might and Magic III than the official sequels. It's not without its flaws, which I'll list a few of, but the "solidness" and balance of the game more than make up for them.

    Whether its due to patches or having a top-end CPU and graphics card, I haven't had any of the problems with bugginess or slowdown that others have    Taking a critical appraisal, this is a better successor to Heroes of Might and Magic III than the official sequels. It's not without its flaws, which I'll list a few of, but the "solidness" and balance of the game more than make up for them.

    Whether its due to patches or having a top-end CPU and graphics card, I haven't had any of the problems with bugginess or slowdown that others have mentioned. As with a lot of games like this it feels like if I played it solidly for 12 hours it would probably crash, but the impressive implementation of auto-save means there probably wouldn't be too much of a problem if it it.

    The fantasy setting is workmanlike not embellished like Disciples, or entirely superfluous like Fantasy General or Warlock:master of the arcane. The units on the battlefield behave 'just right' and seem to be quite carefully balanced so that even after 10+ hours of obsessively harvesting every experience point and magic on a map (which in this game isn't remotely necessary, to its credit), there will still be encounters that are challenging.

    Exploration is cleverly compacted so that each individual map tile has loads of encounters inside it, which are found by exploring on the spot. This avoids the common problem of getting wiped out by a strategic-level rush while your hero was off doing a quest far away from the capital city they should have been defending.

    The combat is so similar to HOMM3 that they should be paying royalties for it. You can't build up huge stacks of 1,000 skeletons, there is no "Defend" command, no "Retreat" option, and no bonuses (as far as I can tell) for surrounding or flanking enemies, or "zones of control". I was surprised I didn't miss these things much and I think it's probably because there is a bigger random element to the combat and multiple counterattacks. If an imp squares up to a spearman, it isn't predictable which will live and the advantage goes to the side that best distributes counterattack damage between its units.

    The hero units seem very similar I haven't tried them all, but they are tide-turners rather than single-handed army wiper-outers. Although there are only 4 classes, there is a fair bit of specialization between them, and their perks are subtler than HOMM3 no adding +1 damage to every archer in the army type stuff (yet, afaik).

    One big negative for me was the realization that the game didn't involve a 4D strategic layer like Empire of the Fading Suns there aren't payoffs between fighting a war on one shard and building up defences on another. The shards are more like the successive progression from mission to mission (e.g. Dawn of War II) different routes to suit different playstyles.

    Special mention goes to the people who painstakingly wrote very literal descriptions of each type of unit along the lines of "A dragon is a big, flying reptile that breathes fire and lives along time". Personally I preferred that to the tendency of these games to give everything a backstory and put their own spin on every unit. In Eador, a dragon is a dragon, an elf is an elf, and a giant slug is a giant slug.

    The tutorial is a totally different (and inferior) experience to the actual game. City building is routine stuff with a bit of ability to optimize territories for different resources, but no microscopic focus.

    There is a random event system like in Castles, or Galactic Civilizations do you send local adventurers to kill the spiders, or the town guard, or do you send the adventurers to kill the spiders and then the town guard to kill the adventurers and steal all their equipment causing some other unforeseen consequence to pop up 50 turns later.

    Overall I think they spent a huge amount of time on the game balance and it pays off the encounters match the territories they happen in, the units have the right relative strengths, the improvements from levelling them up make the right amount of difference, no one spell, item or creature makes an army unbeatable, and numerical advantages can be made up for with creature tiering and vice-versa. Probably the work of several people with degrees in writing wargames and a long playtesting process, which might have happened on a pen and paper hex-grid between two beardy dungeons & dragons fans, with funny shaped dice, over the course of the last 20 years before they made a PC version.

    They deserve some of your money.    … Expand
  37. Hornybull
    Jul 14, 2013
    0
    The game suffers from many bugs, they've also managed to rip off "Warlock master of the arcane" quit nicely without any law suits. The idea of having multiple islands is good, but overall there isn't much originality. They also ban all negative reviews from steam.

    As I say to any company that bans negative reviews in public places... DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! The mere fact that they ban    The game suffers from many bugs, they've also managed to rip off "Warlock master of the arcane" quit nicely without any law suits. The idea of having multiple islands is good, but overall there isn't much originality. They also ban all negative reviews from steam.

    As I say to any company that bans negative reviews in public places... DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! The mere fact that they ban negative reviews instead of coming back and saying that they improved the game merely shows that they only care about making money from it.    … Expand
  38. Kimril
    Jun 30, 2013
    9
    All strategy fans will enjoy this game, so much to do, so much depth. Yes it had an iffy, buggy release but so does every game, the devs are committed to patching it and we've already had around 12 patches fixing things and adding content.

    I really enjoy the game and I think everybody who enjoys strategy should get it!
  39. Mivo
    Jun 8, 2013
    9
    What an awesome game this is. Or could be. And hopefully will be!

    First off, when you read user reviews, look at the date. There have been weekly patches and much has been improved since the release, so if you see a negative review from April 2013, keep in mind that a lot of work has been done since. Eador: MotBW is a fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game that takes its inspiration    What an awesome game this is. Or could be. And hopefully will be!

    First off, when you read user reviews, look at the date. There have been weekly patches and much has been improved since the release, so if you see a negative review from April 2013, keep in mind that a lot of work has been done since.

    Eador: MotBW is a fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game that takes its inspiration from classics such as HoMM, Age of Wonders and, of course, Master of Magic. There are some elements from Civilization, too, but it is much more tactical than the Civ games and, in my opinion, undoubtedly richer.

    It is very complex, and clearly deeper than what we are normally fed these days. To give you a broad and incomplete overview:

    - Units are individuals (no stacking), have their own XP, and their own skills.
    - Terrain matters, so place your ranged units on mountains (auto-resolve is offered too).
    - Unit types have alignments that influence moral (think King's Bounty here).
    - Heroes have a custom spellbook and you can choose what spells go into it.
    - There are tactical and strategic spells (think Age of Wonders)
    - You can construct and upgrade a huge variety of functional buildings.
    - You can craft gear and find rare and even legendary loot.
    - Mercenaries are available, requiring upkeep, like most other units.
    - Random events and quests pop up, giving you additional tasks.
    - Each province (a hex on the strategic map) can be explored dozens of times and you will keep finding new lairs, caves and ruins,
    - Units level up and gain extra traits (chosen by the player).
    - Heroes have classes and can be fully equipped with items.
    - Distance matter: the farther away from home you are, the stronger the enemies.
    - And so much more.

    The game is hard, and the learning curve is steep, but the tutorial does help and the game is easier to get into than others that leave you confused as what to do next. There is a campaign, custom games (random maps) and multiplayer, as well as Steam achievements. You'll struggle even on the lowest difficulty setting, but as you learn you'll improve and the tough-as-nails AI will continuously challenge you and keep you engaged.

    If the developers keep working on this game and continue to polish it, then this will be a milestone. The game has everything that a genre classic is made of, and it's super inexpensive, as well. Give this a try, you won't be disappointed. (But do bring patient and the willingness to learn the game!)    … Expand
  40. thvaz
    Jun 2, 2013
    9
    It is turn based (both the strategic map and the battles, an interesting campaign, has random events, a deep building and item system...what more could I want?
    Well, a game that wasn't unplayable for me at release, but now (two months later?) I didn't found any game breaking bug, the game runs and plays fine. Its fails aren't that many as I had a lot of fun with Eador already.
  41. abraxes
    May 26, 2013
    10
    If you like depth and strategic challenge, buy this game. Period. There hasn't been a game like it since Heroes III, and the developer has been on it when it comes to responding to the community's feedback. This game deserves a look; more like it would sure be nice in this Call of Duty age.
  42. Cordsmith
    May 18, 2013
    9
    This is a complex game, not for those with zero patience. Be prepared to learn from your mistakes, and to spend scores of hours figuring out this game. However the reward for patience is an excellent game, with a committed developer (7 patches in two weeks). You must make sure that your system is in the recommended spec range (why do people complain when they have crappy computers, andThis is a complex game, not for those with zero patience. Be prepared to learn from your mistakes, and to spend scores of hours figuring out this game. However the reward for patience is an excellent game, with a committed developer (7 patches in two weeks). You must make sure that your system is in the recommended spec range (why do people complain when they have crappy computers, and try to play newer games).

    The more time you put into this game, the more you understand that it is perfectly balanced. Every gold counts, every hit point. Your decisions on what to build will certainly affect your early game, thus an entire shard. Graphics are excellent (with a machine that can handle it). Be prepared to sink 100+ hours into learning how to master this game on expert (no bonus) difficulty. Good stuff all around. A point off for some leftover annoying bugs (all of which have a work around, and are fairly minor).    … Expand
  43. deadsanta
    May 8, 2013
    5
    This has the makings of a great strategy game, in the classic 4x turn-based tradition, with strong RPG elements. Unfortunately, the game studio, an indie group from Russia, is having problems getting its final product to work, even after launch. The studio is patching 1-2x a week, which is great, but still significant numbers of users are unable to play through the campaign, which isThis has the makings of a great strategy game, in the classic 4x turn-based tradition, with strong RPG elements. Unfortunately, the game studio, an indie group from Russia, is having problems getting its final product to work, even after launch. The studio is patching 1-2x a week, which is great, but still significant numbers of users are unable to play through the campaign, which is incredibly long. The frustration of having a 20+ hour game get corrupted is just not measurable, strongly advise a pass on this one until bug issues are fixed, at the current rate, I'd check back around mid-june.… Expand
  44. GrumpyGringo
    May 5, 2013
    1
    Utterly disappointing.

    I was so excited when I picked up this game as a rather enthusiastic fan of HoMM. The turn based RPG genre is a genre I enjoy very much and this had looked like the game I had been waiting for. Sadly I was horrible mistaken. Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a completely unpolished, CPU hogging, buggy unplayable mess. This game has no concept of unit    Utterly disappointing.

    I was so excited when I picked up this game as a rather enthusiastic fan of HoMM. The turn based RPG genre is a genre I enjoy very much and this had looked like the game I had been waiting for. Sadly I was horrible mistaken.

    Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a completely unpolished, CPU hogging, buggy unplayable mess. This game has no concept of unit balance or difficulty scaling. The game plays slowly, painfully slow. Sometimes turns could last over 5-6 minutes when playing games against a small cohort of AI enemy players. The music and sound effects are glitchy and spotty sometimes playing during the proper animations and sometimes no music or sound happens at all. To make matters even worse, the interface....oh sweet Buddha the interface is awful. To crawl through this games interface is like trying to traverse a swamp in a wheel chair that has one wheel already jammed and refuses to roll along. It's hideously bad.

    The turn based tactical combat is extremely annoying. Range units dominate the battle and leaves very little room for melee builds due to their extremely slow movement pace. Want to win every battle ever? Spam crossbowman and a few sword units and you will win almost every battle against the AI. The in-game economy is hard to understand and muddled by the horrific interface. And worst of all the interface lags sometimes for no reason what so ever!

    It's disgusting that the developers released this game in it's current state. It's clearly not ready. I felt as if the entire time I played through this game I was playing a beta version. This is not and should not be considered a final release (even though they have patched the damn thing already several times!).

    The only place where this game belongs is in my garbage can.    … Expand
  45. MrDeath
    May 2, 2013
    3
    As echoed not just in these reviews, but on the games main forum, this is a game that was rushed out the door. The why does not matter so much as the result.

    A game in which the computer can take territories from you which you can't retake because your armies get stuck in a loop "Traveling to" that territory. A game in which you use a mind control spell which permanently replaces    As echoed not just in these reviews, but on the games main forum, this is a game that was rushed out the door. The why does not matter so much as the result.

    A game in which the computer can take territories from you which you can't retake because your armies get stuck in a loop "Traveling to" that territory.

    A game in which you use a mind control spell which permanently replaces your hero with a worthless unit that now crashes in each battle. A change you would not realize until you enter into main battle with this hero which depending on how many heroes and battles you encounter in-between could mean hours worth of play lost.

    A game in which you are plagued by hero.warrior.name3 texts, a broken morality system which does not account for your supposed important morality decisions, hero quests with no ending, random events that kill your hero on accident, and a myriad of other hair-pulling bugs.

    Plain and simply a frustrating punishment devised to look entertaining only to continuously let you down despite every attempt to like it.

    If you are some sort of sheeple capable of green-rating a "game" for which you just paid $20 or more to be let down, you are the reason EA and these other jokers can charge people for day 1 DLC. To rate this game above a 5 (at most) is to simply admit that you have the self-esteem of a pile of steaming crap.

    Perhaps in comparison with the other recently released game of which we are now paying $60 for (or $80 for that lovely extra day 1 DLC), you may say this game was a 6 or 7. But if you are a gamer that remembers the reason for playing game -which is to have fun- then you will find significantly better games out there than this one for the same price or cheaper. The game, as it is, deserves a glorious 3 in my humble opinon. Maybe in a few months, when the game SHOULD have been released, that score could be upped to a 4 or 5. But nothing more.

    The story is not compelling enough, characters not interesting enough, game mechanics broken and unbalanced, game play repetitive but required to advance in story, questing broken, flavor text broken, spells broken, units broken. It is a Broken World, as the game states.
    I can hear the game makers laughing now at their own oh so clever pun right now.

    Maybe they will release the expansion soon. Eador: Pay Us To Fix This World.
    Every green rating on here will hand their money over with a smile on their face.    … Expand
  46. dustyogd
    Apr 30, 2013
    3
    I just could not get into the game, The graphics look really good in the game but there are some bugs like when ending your turn it take forever for the AI to do its turn and. combat just seemed really boring to they could have done better with that. Theirs lots of thing they could have done better with in this game manly the combat. P.S Multiplayer is not working last time i tryed.
  47. NichG
    Apr 29, 2013
    8
    Eador makes for a nice quick strategy game experience in its shard mechanic, while its campaign structure allows progress to be gradually made as one moves from shard to shard. One can play a quick 1 hour session conquering a Tiny shard or can go for a much larger conquest when more time is available, but either way this advances the player's overall agenda due to the campaign mode. ThisEador makes for a nice quick strategy game experience in its shard mechanic, while its campaign structure allows progress to be gradually made as one moves from shard to shard. One can play a quick 1 hour session conquering a Tiny shard or can go for a much larger conquest when more time is available, but either way this advances the player's overall agenda due to the campaign mode. This brings me to something that Eador has that is missing from most other games of its genre there is a plot to be discovered amidst the strategic conquest. At first this is just dialogues with your advisor or your opponents in between shard conquests, but there are indications that it goes deeper as you conquer shards you occasionally find things that you can ask your advisor about, leading to a feeling of searching for and discovering secrets that makes for a much deeper game and creates a feel of continuity between the separate conquests. I have a feeling it goes beyond this, as new mechanics keep opening up even after 10+ conquests, and I'm looking forward to that.

    The downsides: though I've enjoyed probably 20-30 hours of play so far, it feels like the gameplay is going to get repetitive before I uncover the game's secrets. Since each shard starts you from scratch, you tend to learn a sequence of buildings and actions that pretty much work. Certain options seem much stronger than others, to the point where once you figure them out you don't have a strong incentive to explore the other options deeply. Because you can level your heroes more or less arbitrarily, but your buildings are limited until you unlock higher tiers you may very well decide that Warriors are the way to go before you ever get the buildings that let Wizards achieve their potential.

    On a technical level: game turns can get slow when the AI has two or more heroes going around doing stuff. There are a number of bugs right now that can be very disruptive, though the per-turn auto-save helps ameliorate some of the pain of a crash. Generally I've found that its possible to work around all of the bugs in play except for a crash pinned to a random event that requires you to go back a few turns to re-seed the random number generator. Hopefully this will be fixed soon since there have already been a number of patches in the week since release.    … Expand
  48. mitra76
    Apr 28, 2013
    10
    The game is very complex and gift hours of intense gameplay. I have experimented no bugs and major problem and the developers released 2 patch in a single week for correctimprove the game. For every bug reporter probably there will be hundred of people which play without problems. In the gameplay you have a full mix of strategy,RPG,management game style
  49. Esquire
    Apr 27, 2013
    10
    Exciting game, just a couple of bugs which should get fixed with the next patch, impressive overall. Those who like the genre will definitely enjoy the gameplay.
  50. baslack
    Apr 27, 2013
    3
    Pretty, but broken game. Eador had the look of a good turn based title, a genre I'm a fan of as an old timer. Unfortunately, its looks are better than its game play. Its equipment interface is clunky, its tutorial vague and unhelpful, its combat difficulty prompts wholly inaccurate. It is unnecessarily plodding in its conquest, making the player skip turn after turn to get their armyPretty, but broken game. Eador had the look of a good turn based title, a genre I'm a fan of as an old timer. Unfortunately, its looks are better than its game play. Its equipment interface is clunky, its tutorial vague and unhelpful, its combat difficulty prompts wholly inaccurate. It is unnecessarily plodding in its conquest, making the player skip turn after turn to get their army anywhere. Don't get me started on its sieges. They are sieges... long, drawn out affairs where nothing much happens. Stability wise, haven't seen the problems some folks have mentioned, but game wise, I'm simply not having fun. For a TBS game to not have hooked me in the first several hours of play is not a good sign. If Steam offered a refund, I'd take them up on it.… Expand
  51. Abaleth
    Apr 27, 2013
    9
    Although slightly glitchy, I found the game perfectly playable. I've played Armored Princess, and a number of other indie strategy games, and there's something about this which just makes me love it. I do have a bit of an issue with the balance, lawful troops just rule so hard in the early game that it seems pointless to use anything else, also sometimes if your hero gets the wrong statsAlthough slightly glitchy, I found the game perfectly playable. I've played Armored Princess, and a number of other indie strategy games, and there's something about this which just makes me love it. I do have a bit of an issue with the balance, lawful troops just rule so hard in the early game that it seems pointless to use anything else, also sometimes if your hero gets the wrong stats on levelling you're just screwed. However, I'm still really enjoying it, been playing for about 30 hours and far from bored.… Expand
  52. MadBarbarian
    Apr 27, 2013
    1
    It is remake of Eador:Genesis.
    Gameplay is truly awesome.
    But quality of game sucks. It is full of bugs. You can't turn in some quests, game frequently crashes and freezes. Do not buy it until they make it playable.
  53. Scritty
    Apr 26, 2013
    1
    Quite badly bugged. Slows down (this is with 4x 4.6 Ghz Processor, SSD hard drive, 16 gigs of RAM and GFX Titan GFX card) The game is no where near as deep as they would have think, the logic is quite poor and it crashes from time to time. $4.99 it might be ok, but for $20, there are far better games about. FE and HOMMVI (and a host of other games) are all better, and can be had for theQuite badly bugged. Slows down (this is with 4x 4.6 Ghz Processor, SSD hard drive, 16 gigs of RAM and GFX Titan GFX card) The game is no where near as deep as they would have think, the logic is quite poor and it crashes from time to time. $4.99 it might be ok, but for $20, there are far better games about. FE and HOMMVI (and a host of other games) are all better, and can be had for the same price or less if you hunt or wait a little.… Expand
  54. klauskjensen
    Apr 25, 2013
    9
    This is a great little gem for anyone who likes HoMM, King's Bounty, Crusader Kings etc. kind of games. There's a lot of depth to the gameplay mechanics and the graphics, music and atmosphere in the game is nice.

    I've played 7 hours into the game so far and have not experienced a single crash or freeze. The devs are comitted to making this game the best that it can be with regular    This is a great little gem for anyone who likes HoMM, King's Bounty, Crusader Kings etc. kind of games. There's a lot of depth to the gameplay mechanics and the graphics, music and atmosphere in the game is nice.

    I've played 7 hours into the game so far and have not experienced a single crash or freeze. The devs are comitted to making this game the best that it can be with regular patches so there's no reason not to dive into Eador. I'm happy that I bought the game.    … Expand
  55. Dhelio
    Apr 25, 2013
    6
    Good game, although not exceptional.

    Graphically pleasing, and not system intensive. Unit and building design is eye-catching, but with a deja-vu feeling to it, as the game tends to conform to the standard canons of fantasy races. Gameplay is entetaining enough to keep you glued to the monitor for many hours. However, there is an amount of bugs and balancing issues to resolve, as the    Good game, although not exceptional.

    Graphically pleasing, and not system intensive. Unit and building design is eye-catching, but with a deja-vu feeling to it, as the game tends to conform to the standard canons of fantasy races.

    Gameplay is entetaining enough to keep you glued to the monitor for many hours. However, there is an amount of bugs and balancing issues to resolve, as the initial phase for every game (the initial conquest of the neighbouring lands) is really too much slowed down by the lack of money. Also, it is almost impossible to recruit more than 3 heroes per game, which reflects on the possibility to explore, conquer or even questing, making the game pace much more slower than it should. On one hand it could be considered as a more relaxing experience, as the player as time to ponder every variable in the mix, but on the other hand the game just feels too static at times, when the player finds without money to pursue his crusade.

    Events try to make the game more dynamic, and sometimes they do. A special mention must go to the variety of the events: there are really many of them, each with multiple choices, which can lead to quests, moral choices, cities revolts and many others.

    Variety it's what really makes this game work. Units, buildings, magics, equipment and rpg skills and mechanics vary the game a lot, making it a most unique mix.

    However, the game feels really unfinished, in part for the balancing issues already mentioned, and in part for the bugs. Sometimes the cursor blocks, forcing you to return to a city screen or to exit game, or units won't go on an hex you point them (very rarely though), and other balancing issues, such as magic being too powerful already at the second level of research. Dare not challange a mage!    … Expand
  56. curvy2
    Apr 22, 2013
    9
    While playing Eador: Masters of the Broken World, several recurring thoughts kept running through my head. I wasn’t sure what to think, because as huge a Heroes of Might and Magic & Civilization fan I am, part of me thought I knew what to expect. Let me make this clear, Eador is a great game. Allow me to also make something else very clear; Eador is a massive game.

    I couldn’t believe    While playing Eador: Masters of the Broken World, several recurring thoughts kept running through my head. I wasn’t sure what to think, because as huge a Heroes of Might and Magic & Civilization fan I am, part of me thought I knew what to expect. Let me make this clear, Eador is a great game. Allow me to also make something else very clear; Eador is a massive game.

    I couldn’t believe the overall scope of the game. I don’t think I have ever personally played a game with such an immense gameplay experience. For those of you out there that are turn-based strategy fans that loved the days of having a single game of Heroes of Might and Magic last for 3 weeks because you chose the biggest map with 8 opposing heroes while playing it as a multiplayer hotseat with two of your best friends will certainly love Eador. There is no shortage of gameplay, that’s for damn sure    … Expand
  57. LD9000
    Apr 22, 2013
    8
    The game has a fantastic RPG system and is a very close recreation of Eador: Genesis. Better graphics make this game more appealing to the mainstream crowd. WIth that said, the game at release is very buggy. The developers appear to be patching it daily though, so in a couple weeks this game would be very worth purchasing. It is a masterpiece.
  58. Jasuke
    Apr 22, 2013
    5
    Right...
    One thing to note out of the gate is that I will be slightly biased as I love the grand strategies and this is one of such, BUT the problem with it currently is that you should not buy it...
    Yes I know it is not a bad game it is actually alright, but the bad optimization of the game makes it as bad as Krater was unplayable on the release date, and mind you I have a mid-high end    Right...
    One thing to note out of the gate is that I will be slightly biased as I love the grand strategies and this is one of such, BUT the problem with it currently is that you should not buy it...
    Yes I know it is not a bad game it is actually alright, but the bad optimization of the game makes it as bad as Krater was unplayable on the release date, and mind you I have a mid-high end pc, yet still the game runs like liquid poop at LOWEST setting, but remember when they give you option to change the resolution it is only a choice of how much of the screen you want to see... what I mean that game is set at a resolution and if you lower it (and you can) it will begin to crop the sections of the screen causing you to be unable to see sections of the different menus and other parts of the game, and the game will still run at like 10fps.
    This is why you need to wait till they fix the gpu usage for this game otherwise it will be impossible to enjoy in a long run.
    The game has potential and so keep an eye on it but till they fix many of the issues.
    The game this reminds me of a little is Sword of the Stars 2 which was released way far from being finished and still is rather bad, but this game is better and just need some good 'ol twaking    … Expand
  59. Hunkidori
    Apr 21, 2013
    7
    I'd like to be a master of the broken world but 'broken' describes much more than simply the game world. Frustratingly buggy at this point (though I found that by not rushing through the interface some bugs will be slightly less common). Please be aware of this before purchasing this game: you'll be force-quitting and loading auto-saves a lot.

    My rating of 7 is based on the fact that    I'd like to be a master of the broken world but 'broken' describes much more than simply the game world. Frustratingly buggy at this point (though I found that by not rushing through the interface some bugs will be slightly less common). Please be aware of this before purchasing this game: you'll be force-quitting and loading auto-saves a lot.

    My rating of 7 is based on the fact that the original Eador (Genesis) is VERY fun if you're into Fantasy TBSs and BROKEN World is almost 100% identical except for the graphics being 'better'. However, as a sacrifice, Broken World is quite slow prepare to stare at the screen for a minute or more after you complete each turn (on larger maps with just one enemy). Don't bother with some of the quests because you won't be able to complete them (i.e. alliance with the elves you'll be freeing elven maidens for days to no avail).

    If they clean up some bugs, tweak the interface just a little and make the game run a little more quickly this game will be worth 20 dollars. Until then, just play Eador: Genesis if you need a fix.    … Expand
  60. Beakerthefrog
    Apr 21, 2013
    5
    Honestly, I'm not the kind of person to care a whole lot about graphical bugs, or even a messy interface. My biggest issue with the game is that it doesn't do anything that other strategy games haven't already done. You can't simply regurgitate the exact same game, slap some better graphics on it, and expect us to just accept it.

    This is a good game, but it isn't its own game. Anyone    Honestly, I'm not the kind of person to care a whole lot about graphical bugs, or even a messy interface. My biggest issue with the game is that it doesn't do anything that other strategy games haven't already done. You can't simply regurgitate the exact same game, slap some better graphics on it, and expect us to just accept it.

    This is a good game, but it isn't its own game. Anyone who is giving this positive reviews is really giving Eador: Genesis a positive review. Instead of releasing Eador: The Better Graphics, how about you actually increase the level of depth? Make the role-playing elements more interesting, and expand on the strategical aspects of the game. Is it going to make it more complicated? Yeah, probably, but we're playing turn-based strategy games. We like complicated.    … Expand
  61. jamezy
    Apr 21, 2013
    9
    This is a great game, lots of features and content, I don't normally go for this type of game but when I saw it on steam I was interested straight away. I haven't come across any bugs at all so far and therefore agree with retropunch that maybe the competition are being paid to say it. I feel the game is quite well finished, the graphics are great and the game style isn't as slow as IThis is a great game, lots of features and content, I don't normally go for this type of game but when I saw it on steam I was interested straight away. I haven't come across any bugs at all so far and therefore agree with retropunch that maybe the competition are being paid to say it. I feel the game is quite well finished, the graphics are great and the game style isn't as slow as I thought it would be. The reason I didn't give it a 10 is because I do agree the interface is complicated but like any game you need to get used to it that's all. Overall a fantastic game and for £14.99 you wont be disappointed.… Expand
  62. Retropunch
    Apr 21, 2013
    9
    This is a fantastic turn based game which easily rivals (and beats) fallen enchantress and the latest HOMMs. Where both of those games may have interesting aspects, one of the cornerstones of strategy games is the need for depth and size, which Eador definitely delivers.
    I have no idea where the extremely negative reviews are coming from and can only assume that they were either paid for    This is a fantastic turn based game which easily rivals (and beats) fallen enchantress and the latest HOMMs. Where both of those games may have interesting aspects, one of the cornerstones of strategy games is the need for depth and size, which Eador definitely delivers.
    I have no idea where the extremely negative reviews are coming from and can only assume that they were either paid for by the competition or that that the players have ridiculously high standards. I never experienced any of the problems the negative reviewers experienced. Although it does lack a bit of polish (mainly in terms of some graphical issues and very minor bugs) this is incredible for a $20 game, especially considering the huge size of the game (think days not hours!) and is much better than the horribly overpriced Fallen Enchantress/HOMM
    .
    The amount of building options and units is huge, especially combined with the random events and exploration the fights are very HOMM3 style, but with a lot more options and variety (such as terrain differences and more RPG style equipment and levelling). The writing is funny and interesting, and the graphics are very good with an interesting and competent enough AI to not get bored.

    My only reasons for not giving it a 10 is that it is slightly buggy in parts, but mostly it suffers from a slightly confusing interface design which takes a bit of getting used to/figuring out (although really not that much). The campaign was also obviously a bit of an afterthought, but it hardly ever a focus of such games so I can't mark it too negatively on that alone.

    Overall, well worth a buy!    … Expand
  63. soulburner
    Apr 21, 2013
    4
    Didn't like it. The graphics is quite nice (but not fantastic), but pooooorly optimized and the game works very very slow. Slower than Starcraft 2 and Bioshock Infinite.

    The user interface is very complex, The gameplay is very boring. Just click "explore" and fight with random monsters. The battle animations are very slow too (even on max speed). In general, the game seems to be    Didn't like it. The graphics is quite nice (but not fantastic), but pooooorly optimized and the game works very very slow. Slower than Starcraft 2 and Bioshock Infinite.

    The user interface is very complex,

    The gameplay is very boring. Just click "explore" and fight with random monsters. The battle animations are very slow too (even on max speed).

    In general, the game seems to be buggy and unfinished.    … Expand
  64. guinevere2
    Apr 21, 2013
    4
    Disappointing. This is just Eador: Genesis with a new 3D graphic, everything else stayed the same. The graphic itself is nice, but the game works choppy, new interface is messy and unresponsive, and unlike in the Genesis the turns on larger maps with many opponents take FOREVER for AI to finish.
    Make yourself a HUGE favor and go buy Eador:Genesis instead it is exactly the same game    Disappointing. This is just Eador: Genesis with a new 3D graphic, everything else stayed the same. The graphic itself is nice, but the game works choppy, new interface is messy and unresponsive, and unlike in the Genesis the turns on larger maps with many opponents take FOREVER for AI to finish.
    Make yourself a HUGE favor and go buy Eador:Genesis instead it is exactly the same game same concept, same mechanics, same units/spells/heroes etc. just less expensive and with the old school 2d-sprite graphics.    … Expand
  65. zanz
    Apr 20, 2013
    9
    A very good turn based strategy game, which is essentially identical to the previous Eador game, with the exception of the graphics. First of all, this isn't a $60 (no DLC included) HOMM title, neither is it a $40 overpriced Fallen Enchantress game... It is $20 and it has comparable amount of content to the other titles I mentioned. I had no technical issues whatsoever. Graphics are good,A very good turn based strategy game, which is essentially identical to the previous Eador game, with the exception of the graphics. First of all, this isn't a $60 (no DLC included) HOMM title, neither is it a $40 overpriced Fallen Enchantress game... It is $20 and it has comparable amount of content to the other titles I mentioned. I had no technical issues whatsoever. Graphics are good, without being amazing. Gameplay is deep, relatively challenging, but can get repetitive. This game can use a bit more content (like units, more terrain types, etc.) but, in all honesty, it already has enough. If it was more expensive I'd give it an average score, but for $20 this is a solid, 8.5 or 9 from me.… Expand
  66. everyonesgotone
    Apr 20, 2013
    4
    Nice idea, but very buggy. I had to force quit and restart from autosaves 3 times in the first hour because the game would get stuck during fights or wouldn't let me click "next turn". It's got some nice design ideas, but it isn't a finished game. Check back to see if the devs actually complete the game before buying.
  67. Xalon
    Apr 20, 2013
    3
    This game was released unfinished. There's considerable debate as to why, whether they were rushing to beat Fallen Enchantress and HoMM VI expansions, whether Steam made them do it, etc. But the game suffers immensely for it. Buyer Beware.

    Graphically the game does look good, however, extremely poorly coded and/or optimized, and FPS is all over the place even though there are few    This game was released unfinished. There's considerable debate as to why, whether they were rushing to beat Fallen Enchantress and HoMM VI expansions, whether Steam made them do it, etc. But the game suffers immensely for it. Buyer Beware.

    Graphically the game does look good, however, extremely poorly coded and/or optimized, and FPS is all over the place even though there are few instances, if any, in the game that should cause a modern video card to take notice. The UI is decent, though it could have been much better than it is, and in many ways it feels like a step back from Genesis.

    Content wise, a large amount of content was taken from Genesis. This game is NOT a sequel, it would be more accurate to call it a conversion of Genesis to 3D. In that regard, $20 seems extremely overpriced for this title. The game has considerable bugs that, while they didn't keep me from playing the game, they also were quite annoying, and would probably give a first time player quite a lot of grief. Multiplayer is also absent for some reason.

    My advice is to avoid this game until they fix it. The developers have given mixed signals as to whether that's going to happen or not, so only time will tell.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

92
#92 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
98
#98 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 19
  3. Negative: 2 out of 19
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Oct 8, 2013
    70
    A good strategic RPG, with some pretty ideas, but it lacks a clear interface and some design choices undermine the final result.
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  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 5, 2013
    84
    Eador: Masters of the Broken World combines features from several fantasy games into one very nice package. [Sept 2013]
  3. DarkStation
    Jun 27, 2013
    60
    Eador: Masters of the Broken World has a lot going for it, but it buries a lot of its strong points under layers of monotony and frustration. It is a tough, but not impossible, game to recommend. If you are a hard core PC turn-based strategy junkie, your options or rather limited.
    Read full review
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