14 DAY TRIAL // Stardock has finally revealed that almost secret title they were alluding on in their report on upcoming titles. It's called Elemental: War of Magic and is set to arrive on the PC in February 2010. The development team is the one that created the Galactic Civilizations II games.
The title is set to be a turn based 4X game. The player will need to explore the land, expand his empire, exploit the resources of the land, then exterminate his opposition. The basic gameplay mechanics will be simple, but the game will have a lot of depth.
The world of Elemental was inhabited by Gods of immense power. They perished while battling each other, almost taking the entire world with them. The game itself takes place a few hundred years after the initial cataclysm, when individuals called “channelers” appeared in the world. They can use magic crystals left from the battle of the Gods in order to create magic which can bring life back to their devastated world. Some channelers will use their power for good, some for evil, so their interests are bound to clash.
One of the main ideas behind the game is that channelers, while having extreme magical power, need to spread it around in order to reach their goals. If you create a city, you need to expand a bit of power to make the land inhabitable, while recruiting a general to fight for you also needs a bit of the power of the main character you control. This means that the players will have to balance expansion and recruiting while maintaining a strong channeler.
Stardock is also trying to create a living, breathing world where cities grow organically in order to defend positions or to protect other cities. The company is also aiming to create a system which allows a player to take content from an online library, in a system similar to Spore.
Brad Wardell, the Chief Executive Officer of Stardock, said that “There's stuff in Civilization that we've taken; there's stuff from Master of Magic, Heroes of Might & Magic, Risk, Populous -- you name it. I have no shame when it comes to borrowing and being inspired by other games”.