Отзывы

• gamedeal user

  Nov 20, 2021

  Conquest of Elysium 5 is the next iteration of the past CoE games with more content, and with nearly the same (pixel art) graphics that were used in Civilization 2. They have gotten a little better over the years, but not much. If you played CoE4, there are three new factions, new modding tools, and new "Planes" within each map to conquer. The biggest difference for me from the previous version was not just that there was more to conquer though, it is that the "more" that exists is also now much more accessible. More on this below: First of all, while the game does have some depth to it, what the game really excels at is it's breadth. It has an enormous number of units, spells, items, summons, events... and even worlds. Each individual faction has a decent bit of depth, as in most cases you slowly but steadily build up or tech up towards your ultimate spells, units or class features, but it is the fact that you can do this in a different way over and over and over again with all of the very different playing factions that gives it a breadth of gameplay unlike many other games. With 24 playable factions that are all very different, and an additional three secret factions, with 6 different time periods (which changes the map), and with at least 10 different Planes (with sub-planes within these) to explore and conquer on a single map, you only get the same game if you choose to play the exact same settings. Furthermore, in CoE5, planes are now much more accessible than previous versions thanks to items being more common, in particular, scrolls that allow you to access other planes. Speaking of the Planes that can be conquered, I usually play a game to win. Once I reach a point where I am reasonably certain I am going to win, I will stop and start a new game. In this game, however, I found myself leaving an opponent alive just so I could go on to explore and conquer some of the wonderful (and extremely dangerous) otherworldly planes. Care to conquer Hell? Go for it. Would you like to fight Gods of the Underworld? Sure, why not. How about venturing off the edge of the world and ending up with your best commander lost and insane in the Void? I mean, who wouldn't want to try that at least once? And it goes on and on. Further still, even if you don't venture to other realms, dangerous end-game events such as the insane fisherman unleashing the void, the ultimate Armageddon, the Inferno invasion, and others some of which you can personally (and accidentally) cause, also spice up a game that you thought you'd already won. AI difficulty can also be set anywhere from fairly easy to essentially impossibly difficult, but even at the easiest settings you can still easily fail in any given game by simply being overrun by the leaderless independent armies that completely envelope the land and aggressively assault at any opportunity. Finally, if you have any interest in modding, but don't have a ton of programming experience, the game comes with a nice modding guide and only requires a basic text editor such as notepad to get started, and the modding community is also very friendly and happy to help if you run into trouble. As such, the replayability, which could already last you easily hundreds of hours, is essentially endless. In short, if you want value for your dollar in terms of graphics, I'd have to say you'll probably need to look elsewhere, as I suspect the pixel art won't quite satisfy. However, if you are looking for a solid turn-based strategy with a broad range of interesting choices, this game should satisfy for a long, long time.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 3, 2022

  >be playing modded CoE 5 >playing necromancer >instead of killing villagers and raising them as undead, I build villages >zombies don't pay taxes >build up that sweet tax base >demonologist makes hell portal >begin building up armies of heavy infantryman backed up by cannon fodder undead >the hell portal starts spawning armies of demons >demons wipe out other major faction >heroes start spawning en masse in my villages >relocate one to a guard tower, forget about him >couple turns later he kills a demon >vewynoice >build a grand army to kill demons >heroes stand next to undead giants and enslaved spirits guard the flanks of heavy infantryman >my demi-lich character leads them from behind, blasting map wide attacks >we overrun the demons and slaughter dozens of small disorganized armies >we get closer and closer to the hell portal >armies get larger, stranger and more powerful demons, and more armies of human sinners than demons >sinners have garbage morale and always run >then we meet the Bloodsworn >elite heavy infantry human units, granted regeneration and superior strengths >they're backed up by the demonologist who made the hell portal, and his cadre of wizards >what followed was one of the most enjoyable and brutal battles I've ever had the pleasure of seeingin a video game >hundreds of units died en masse >the demonologist was crushed by a farm hand turned hero and an undead collosus, whom both were slain by the wizard cadre shortly after >those same wizards died to the demi lich casting a map wide attack spell, safely on the other side of the map >he too was promptly slain >he would resurrect later, only to be immediately crushed and slain permanently >the hell portal was destroyed, and their leader was dead >the game switched to the perspective of my last commander, a death knight far, far away >I watched the demon remnants attack each other Haven't opened up that save again and I don't plan to. I like to think that death knight would go on to protect these last humans, kept safe in distant lands, and one day after the last demon died, those humans could take the world back. >be me, Arch Necromancer Osteroth the Old >wizened old necromancer, ruler of an undead empire that spans a quarter of the map >one problem, I was deaf >deaf was an actual debuff, and it could be serious >being old was bad enough, so any debuff was a notable hinderance >thus I sought the unholy grail that every necromancer sought, lichedom >only by becoming a liche could I heal my deafness and listen to asmr again >close to my grand ritual of ascension >could wait longer and achieve it, or I could take the city of Midria to speed it up >well defended but could grant me many useful resources >decide to take the city >then a hell portal opens >before my forces can move in, the city's defenders are cut down by hell's denizens >wait a turn and feel awkward >the hell faction leaves the city to attack some villagers >take the city a turn after >cure my deafness via lichedom >then watch my best commander and his entire army cease to exist after entering a fairy ring mfw Good game.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 26, 2022

  It's a really old-school style of game, from the era before everything was designed according to a formula, when games were designed by nerds with a lot of passion and not a lot of business sense. It's a roguelike strategy game, with a massive world, where everything is randomly generated, and where you can, at any time, decide to stop fighting your war against the other players, and go explore hell, conquer it and become a dark god. There is no gameplay reason to do this instead of focusing on victory against the other players, but you can do it. Everything is ridiculously polished, and you can click on literally any rock and find easter eggs, often in the form of humorous flavor text. I can't quite put my finger on what I like about this game so much, it's graphics are bad, the core gameplay is probably not as good as Dominions (from the same developers), but it has a "I don't know what" that I really love about it.
• gamedeal user

  May 4, 2022

  I cant tell if the developers are passionate or lazy. COE5 is a top-down turn-based 4x strategy game with a very 1990's vintage RPG feel to it. Here are some pros and cons: [b]Pros:[/b] [u]Large Class Variety[/u] -Each class has its own unit roster, spells, and commanders. The way each class produces units is fundamentally different, thematic, and interesting. The strengths and weaknesses of each class make them feel truly unique, something which mainstream games are generally afraid to do. [u]Multiple Planes[/u] -There are many planes of existence that you can take your people to. Each one is like the material plane but with some twists. Theres one plane that prevents disease, and is populated by animals. Theres one that is populated by wandering undead. Theres one that is full of angels, etc. Some classes have meaningful interactions with the planes, such as the Necromancers being able to use Hades as a sort of underground tunnel or secondary territory. [u]Lightweight[/u] -This game runs well (except when fog appears). I ran this on a pretty bad laptop with no issues. [u]Funny Writing[/u] -The lore / unit descriptions are generally... poorly written. But poorly written in an endearing way. I think this adds a lot of charm and reinforces the grassroots feel of the game. [u]Automatic & Enjoyable Battling[/u] -Im going to be honest, I've gotten tired of optimizing my unit's movement, spell usage, targeting, etc. in traditional strategy games. Its nice to have a game in which all battles are automatically fought, and its fun watching 2 armies of hundreds of troops run at each other, arrows and spells flying in every direction. [u]Magical Items[/u] -Magical items can be obtained and taken from enemies. The items are pretty basic, but its better than nothing. It needs a lot of expansion but generally the items make the game better. [b]Cons:[/b] [u]UI[/u] -You can probably tell from the store screenshots, but this game does not care for user experience, quality of life, or polish. Any time you encounter a UI element, it will be strictly serviceable, and never anything more. The UI is exclusively there to allow you to play the game, not to make your experience better. Tooltips are confusing and fail to clarify gameplay mechanics. There is a lack of a standardized dictionary. The game uses multiple words to describe the same mechanics, buildings, units, or spells. -Main menus are missing a basic "back" button. If you start naming your character but realize you need to change something from the game settings, you have to alt f4. If you start a multiplayer game but need to change one of the settings, you have to alt f4. -There is no easy way to manage magic items. You have to click on the commander, click on the unit in that commander's army that has the magic item, click on the item, and then click on the unit in the army that you want to transfer the item to. -The "No Sound" button on sound settings doesnt work. [u]Controls[/u] -There is no hotkey mapping or rebinding. The default hotkeys are unintuitive and go against the industry standard in many ways. Right click selects units and left click moves them (this should be the opposite). End turn is Y, not spacebar/enter. Main menu is F10, not escape. The controls, like the rest of the game, is janky jank jank. [u]AI[/u] -The AI is bad. It is unintelligent. Even by this genre's low standards for AI, this game has stupid AI. The AI does not leave a garrison in its cities. They will sally their full army out in search of battles. This means you can just ninja steal their main base just by waiting for them to leave. Park your army outside of any enemy citadel, and just wait for them to leave. -Consistently, the AI will die on turn 1, 2, or 3, because they leave their first city undefended. A random pack of wolves, cavemen, snakes, etc. will wander into the abandoned city and the AI will lose the game. This has happened in 100% of my games. -Changing the game difficulty does not change AI behaviour, it only gives them resource bonuses (game difficulty = give the AI cheats). This is the laziest method of implementing game difficulty, and it is not interesting. -The AI does not explore very much. If you are not spotted by an AI, they will not attack you. Generally, the AI is not aggressive. They will not attack your main city unless the stars align. Their battle win/lose calculations are just too conservative. They will never take any risks. [u]Balance[/u] -One of the inevitable drawbacks of having unique factions is that there is gameplay imbalance. Consider the Pale Ones, who have no reliable source of magic damage, and miss 20% of all attacks, versus the Illusionists, who have ethereal units (75% dodge rate for physical damage (multiplicative stacking not additive)). Pale Ones have an 85% miss chance versus illusions. The result is that Pale Ones are hard countered by Illusionists. Some factions, simply put, counter other factions. In my opinion, however, this is an OK tradeoff for having truly unique factions. -Some factions are bad. Some are overpowered. On one end you have Necromancers, whose lords are powerful spellcasters, powerful fighters, immortal, have consistent and free unit production, are immune to charm, confusion, and poison. On the other hand, you have the hobbits, who have 2 hitpoints, cost 50 gold to recruit 15 (goblins cost 50 gold to recruit 20), have commanders that die immediately, and generally have no real advantages over other factions. -In addition to competitive faction imbalance, there are also just some awful choices made regarding unit balance. For instance, the Barbarian commander has 13 HP, No armor, and constantly charges from the front lines. They never survive, and rarely deal damage. Necromancers have a level 2 spell that deals 1-999 damage. Most units do not have more than 200 health. So this spell has a 80% chance of one-shotting whatever it hits, with no drawbacks, and a range of 6 (maybe 8? I dont remember.) There is a lot of random cheese in this game that, while novel / funny at first, might make the game frustrating. [u]Missing Basic Mechanics[/u] -There are many basic mechanics that feel missing from the game. For instance, in the vanilla game, there is no way to regrow forests as a Dryad. Forests are essential to their faction, without forests they cannot produce units. Meanwhile, burning a forest takes only 1 action point, causing permanent damage to this faction. Also, there doesnt appear to be a way to put out a fire? If none of your units can equip a magic item, the item is discarded. There is no way to store magic items. [u]Exclusively Aggressive[/u] -This game has no diplomacy and very little building. Building infrastructure is simply not what this game is designed for. Diplomacy does not exist, so there is no way to make alliances or betrayals. The result is that the only viable playstyle is aggression. If you do not aggressively take territory, you will have less resources. If you have less resources, your army is smaller. In other games, such as Civ, there is a large emphasis put on improving your territories and tiles, allowing for both intensive and expansive playstyles. In this game, the only viable strategy is aggressive snowballing, expansion, and conquering (The game is called Conquer Elysium, after all). In my opinion this is a negative, as many people enjoy a more building/turtling oriented playstyle. Summary: I cant tell if this game is made by passionate or lazy developers. On one hand, developers who make this kind of game, one which throws out graphics, fluff, and polish, must care the most about the gameplay itself, the mechanics, the world, the classes, etc. There is a certain purity to this. On the other hand, there are a lot of basic quality of life, mechanical, and user experience issues that leave a lot to be desired. The fact that this is the 5th iteration of the series scares me. I would price this at $15.
• Pagoda

  Nov 28, 2022

  Old school 4x fantasy game with lots of replayability
• deynarde

  Dec 2, 2022

  pog
• Donut

  Jan 1, 2023

  Played my first game against easy computer opponents, spawned in two turns away from what I thought was an unoccupied city square, got my main army eaten by a giant invisible death worm, and my home base destroyed by an illusionist who put all my troops to sleep, rendering them unable to fight back. Played my second game, managed to figure out enough of the game to survive more than two turns, never met half the computer opponents before they got destroyed, expanded a bit, actually did reasonably well sending my roman legion guys into different battles against horse archers, dwarf mining colonies and cave salamander expeditions. Made it far enough south that I finally had some nice land that didn't freeze every ten turns, was doing a reasonable job of warding off some large ants... Got an event in the end-game which had an interesting interaction with these ants. Thought it was unwinnable, had to completely change strategy, abandoned three-quarters of my would-be empire and just tried to survive. Did so, won the game in the end; thought I'd done a bad job of keeping my own former territories in a recoverable state, until the end screen when I saw the rest of the map. This game is ridiculous. It's brilliant. It doesn't just look like a weird niche '90s game, it actually plays like one. I bought this on sale, because I wasn't sure about it; 12 hours in after one day of owning it, because I couldn't sleep, because I wanted to see how long I could survive on that second run? Seems pretty good value for money so far. I should probably give a summary of mechanics here, just so people can judge that - It's a... sort of a strategy game, sort of what you might call a fantasy adventure. You're moving around competing with other players to capture tiles on a grid-based randomly-generated board, and your armies go into battle whenever they meet a hostile group. You don't control the battles - at all, deciding troop composition notwithstanding - and sometimes your troops will do very questionable or even outright harmful things - but so will everyone else's, so it's not unfair in that regard (That is to say - you don't have the ability to micro-manage spellcasters like in, say, Dominions; therefore you also don't need to do so in order to play effectively). The board itself also doesn't really want to be controlled; not only are there independent armies, there are also a variety of non-playable factions already present on the map (which ones exist depend on an 'era' setting, which can be randomised as well) which you might (will) end up in conflict with. None of them are a joke; some of them are substantially less of a joke than others. This means that, while the game is competitive, it's got more of the feel of Talisman or something like that - the players are all competing with each other, but the game systems aren't going to hand anyone a free win just for showing up, either. The victory condition is 'be the last surviving player to control a citadel on Elysium', and the survival part of that comes into play long before you've met other player factions. Makes it really fun, though - to borrow internet multiplayer terms, it's a PvP game where if you ignore the PvE side of things, the environment will wander in and mulch you. Which makes it feel a good bit more like you're playing in a fantastical world than a chunk of fantasy games out there. Also, since its core shared mechanic across all factions is tile control, and the tiles are part of a randomly generated map - it's hugely random. I love this, but the unpredictability does bear mentioning.
• Vortigern

  Apr 7, 2023

  Don't judge a book by its cover. Using simple graphics allows CoE to have a complicated and intricate system under the hood that will surprise you. Although it looks like a strategy game, CoE prioritises flavour over fairness between the many factions. From a competitive standpoint that might sound like a negative, but in my opinion it is what makes the game shine. CoE exists halfway between a competitive death match and a fantasy world simulation. Games run in small worlds might play out like any match of Age of Empires, but gigantic custom worlds might result in epic campaigns and quests. For me CoE strikes a similar cord to Dwarf Fortress, where the abundance of unecessary details and attention to things that other developers wouldn't dedicate time to allows you as a player to read between the lines and see entire narratives that aren't explicitly there.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2023

  Super fast, in depth Heroes of Might and Magic style game. Way better though, much more difficult due to the extreme randomness of the game. Imagine HoMM mixed with a roguelike. Nothing else like it. 10/10
• A Bear

  Jul 10, 2023

  The dwarfs are weird fucking ant-people and as someone with many hundreds of hours in Total War: Warhammer and Deep Rock Galactic this offends my sensibilities greatly. However if you like easy to learn, epic scale, turn-based strategy this game will probably be fun for you.