Elemental, War of Magic review

So, finally got settled down to play some more of Elemental, and I can give a quick review of this game. For those of you who may remember it, this game strikes me as an updated version of Master of Magic. You build cities, expand their influence (like Civilization) and construct various buildings inside of them to increase production of units, money and other resources. You get hero units, which are special units that level and can learn new skills and use various weapons/armor, plus be customized to handle certain combat situations better then others.

Now, first off, I'm going to fully admit this game had, and still has me, confused about a few certain aspects of itself. I'm playing through the campaign mode, and it looks like it restricts certain aspects of the game, such as spells, research of new technologies, and claiming of crystals. Crystals grant you increases in types of damage done by certain spells, and I believe they perform other functions as well, but as of yet I am unsure as to their full usage. Construction of buildings also seems weird. The locations of cities they give you in the campaign world seem limited in their scope of size they allow you to reach. They do not give you enough food producing locations to be able to increase the total size of your cities by that much. It also took me awhile to find out how to actually cast spells, as there is no menu or button for them, you must know to click on the mana icon on your characters sheet to access your spell list.

I'd like to return to this review at a later date, as I want to give this game a fair shake.. My initial foray into the game does show some promise, but a more in-depth play through is required to really get into the meat of the game. My initial response is that it looks like it's an overall good game, it needs a bit more polish in the UI department, as the spell issue is just one of the many things I've run into (a cap on total units without any indication of such was also found by accident). So, sorry for being somewhat of a short post, but it's been a busy weekend, and the next few days may also be busy. I'll post something on Tuesday, even if it's just minor thoughts.