Stardock has announced they are working on a new standalone expansion, called Legendary Heroes, for their recent fantasy strategy title, Fallen Enchantress.
Back in October, I reviewed Fallen Enchantress, and aside from a few small issues, really liked what it had to offer. Legendary Heroes is poised to enhance that experience with some completely new additions as well as refinements to their existing gameplay. Here is a brief summary of the features they’ve announced thus far, from the official announcement:
Legendary Heroes features:
- New champion progression system
- Improved tactical combat
- Dozens of new spells, abilities and equipment
- 10 New monster classes
- Gigantic new map size
- Legendary Heroes scenario
Digging a bit deeper, in a lengthy post from Derek Paxton, also known as Kael, I was able to extract the following planned features:
- Champions acquired through fame rather than randomly on the map. New types of champions, including non-humanoid, are also included
- Champion traits are now selected from a trait tree, rather than a random list, offering new options, more control, and more diversity
- New monsters, spells, and abilities, including new faction special abilities to further differentiate the factions
- Enhanced tactical combat. New combat options that will make even groups of spearmen and militia more useful and exciting to use then in the past
- Removal of Influence and Faction Prestige mechanics
- Insertion of Fame and Unrest penalty mechanics
Legendary Heroes scenario
Stardock’s current plan is to release Legendary Heroes as a standalone expansion, which will include Fallen Enchantress, for $39.99 in April of this year. Owners of Fallen Enchantress, however, can upgrade for just $19.99. Furthermore, individuals who purchased Elemental: War of Magic from Stardock prior to November 2010 will receive a free copy of this expansion.
The beta is scheduled to begin in March. It is important to note that, unlike Fallen Enchantress, Stardock has also announced that Legendary Heroes will be integrated with Steam and will require the use of Steam, regardless of where you purchase it.
Overall, I’m very interested to see how these features are going to turn out and will be following up with a full review sometime after release.
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This looks very exciting. Was considering giving FE another go soon, but I think I’ll wait for this. This looks to fix what I thought was missing from FE. Here’s hoping that I’m not disappointed.
I love the new look, too. Fantastic update!
Age Of Wonders 3. Who the hell cares of FE LOL.
http://www.ageofwonders.com/aow3live/
This is soooooo cool! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I love the AoW series. The best 4x fantasy game series ever. As I’ve said before on Spacesector, I had hoped that FE would be the AoW killer, and although FE was mostly good, it is definitely missing something that AoW always had. Also, it’s nice to see a new game coming out that isn’t associated with Kickstarter. lol
Having said that, I’ve not given up on FE. I was a bit disappointed in the FE campaign (or scenario, as you said Keith), and hopefully this expansion will flesh out the story a bit more. Also, in fairness to FE, I think it has the best custom faction generator I’ve ever seen in a game.
Ha, I knew an Age of Wonders 3 announcement was coming within the next week or so.
I was a fan of the prior versions, so I am excited about this announcement. I read through the details provided on their site, and watched the video as well. I’m not seeing a ton of details yet at this point though. Before we get too excited, we have to remember that sequels aren’t always better than their predecessors. If that were the case, Master of Orion 3 and Sword of the Stars 2 would be the best in their respective series, and I’d say that the majority opinion is that they are not.
On the plus side, both Age of Wonders and Fallen Enchantress are going to be competing in the fantasy 4x genre, and I am hopefully that this forces both sides to focus and innovate. Fallen Enchantress is not a game I see giving up easily, and I think Legendary Heroes is going to end up improving things quite a bit. Time will tell though.
Yeah, Age of Wonders 1, 2, and Shadow Magic were great, but I can’t see competition being a bad thing. Honestly, as much as I like those three games, I think that FE has the *potential* to be a better game, what with all the customization and all…
We’ll see what AOW 3 brings to the table, but my money is on FE in the long run.
Another thing, too, is that if FE started actually adopting some true “high fantasy”, i.e. some twists on traditional fantasy races, etc., then I really think that the true 4X nature of FE will beat out AOW.
Again, we’ll see how it all shakes out. I’m definitely interested in seeing them both out in the wild.
Great point Devildog. The lack of high fantasy elements is an issue a lot of people have had with the Elemental/Fallen Enchantress series from the start. I felt like Fallen Enchantress took some good steps in the right direction when they added creatures like Juggernauts and Golems into the mix. I have a feeling Legendary Heroes, with the already announced banshees and increased emphasis on summons and necromancy, is going to take them even further into the realm of fantasy.
I’ve been playing fantasy games for a long time and do tend to get tired of playing elves, gnomes, and the other evil elves after awhile. Age of Wonders looks to be going in that typical direction with AoW3. I’d like to see some more imaginative creatures and races start appearing in these games, personally.
I like both franchises, but love still AoW much more. because of the sheer number of different units, because of the great tactical battle (city walls, skills and abilities which matters) and the different plains of the world.
I’m curious about the new (more tactical) battles (but i guess still no walls and gates), i hope the governor path will be finally usefull and able to level ub by staing in cities.
Keith,
actually goes AoW3 not the typical way. of course are gobos small. but not limited to the evil, with a theocrat as a leader will they have as well angel, evangelist, cursader etc kind of units.
PS: AoW3 is just great looking!
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-06-overlord-dev-bringing-age-of-wonders-back-this-year
;p
@Fimbul
Yes, I read the descriptions regarding the different hero classes as well as their plans to allow races to be played in non-stereotypical ways. I don’t disagree that this is an improvement, but to my point I’d rather see more unique races that aren’t featured in nearly every other fantasy game.
Tactical battles will be improved in Fallen Enchantress with this expansion, as will the enemy AI. I’d interested to see if they make any siege improvements, as I agree that AoW has them beat in that department. Unit variety could also use a bit more spice in Fallen Enchantress.
AoW3 does look great, no doubt about it. I am at the point in my gaming career where graphics, especially in a strategy game, are secondary at best, however. Game mechanics, AI, and how diverse and interesting the gameplay ends up being, those are the things I look for primarily now. I do have a nice graphics card and PC though, so I certainly enjoy nice 3D graphics, and I have to admit AoW3’s current screenshots are nice to look at.
@Keith
well i like FE and Stardock and i’m looking forward for LE, i just don’t like that it will be steam only. that’s disappointing because i don’t like steam so much and loved Stardock for their customer bill of rights.
well i’m an old school pc gamer, for me has the original X-Com still much more atmosphere than any newer attempt, aswell brings MoO2 grafik more life to game than most new ones. i play AoW now nearly since 10 years and they could even bring AoW3 with the same grafik, i would buy, but they have a really nice attempt which is looking great.
FE has an ok grafik, but i have to say i don’t like the humanoid models so much, it’s fantasy and you have heroes but the armors are looking so crappy and are always three numbers to big. i know, it’s a minor issue but i like to see my emperor/empress and heroes looking good and impressive and not so shabby. just my personal taste.
I care. Because this game has a lot of potential and i´m looking forward to the expansion ;)
AOW2 never really felt like a true 4x when I played it.The game was only worth playing in the campaign scenarios unless you played multi player.
I would have to disagree with you slightly Ash. I had a lot of fun with the AoW:SM sandbox scenario generator. The only thing negative I would say is that like a lot of turn-based 4x games, late game on large maps could get a bit tedious. I would say though that I’m with you all the way regarding the story-driven campaign. The AoW 2 campaign, especially, was brilliant. Not sure I’ve ever seen it done better in a turn-based game.
Anyway, back to Star Trek Online and my Klingon toon. ;)
AoW was not so extrem 4X but the feeling it gives is so great and the tactical battles are of the best i played! Sieging or defending towers or cities is sooo great and fun! this is what FE is still extremly missing.
AoW feels weird. I like the game but it feels kind of different. It seems so shallow and lifeless compared to fallen enchantress. I mean I love the overworld, underworld, and shadow realms but I just don’t feel the game kind of taking a hold of me and I don’t feel really immersed lore-wise.
I think that if they fix things and do things right in the sequel then it has the potential to be a classic Fantasy 4x. As for FE, I think it needs more time to mature and see how it goes. I think they kind of solved the issue that Civ IV was facing (Stacks of doom) and fixing it by limited stacks and limits by tech.
All in all I love both games and I hope some stuff from each game are in the other ones. One thing I really love in AoW that I wished it was in FE was the way how outpost becomes a city. But I think this wouldn’t happen because lore-wise, there are limited lands that are habitable in FE.
Standalone? Why does it have to be standalone? I want to boot the vanilla game up and just play the expansion through it!!! I know they are charging little for it compared to the base game but I am hoping they would add more to it than just a little bit. I mean I hate what they did with Sins Rebellion even though it was a great value for me being someone who bought it for the first time. I just feel sad for the people bought Sins.
Anyway I am happy that they announced an expansion and I praise them for what they did to make up for WoM. I haven’t seen a developer act this way to make up for what they did.
I am also happy to hear a lot of good things coming this year like AoW and Eador: MoTBW. Now I am knee deep in WW1 and WW2 grand strategy games and in the middle of Persona 4 Golden just to give my Vita an exercise. I wish I could clear out my schedule by the time these games and this expansion comes out. Worst (and best!!) part is I go back to uni this year, so it would greatly affect my play time.
I saw Brad’s response to you, Devildog, on their forums. It looks like FE is going to stick closely to its humanoid races at this point. I suppose I am okay with this, though I hope that they continue to expand and increase the relevance of the fantasy elements outside of the races themselves. Given the increase in summons available, and the potential for heroic creatures/monsters, I feel at this point that they are at least moving in that direction.
Diplomacy is also supposed to have some AI improvements, among other things. Brad did state he plans to add these into the main game as well for those without the expansion.
Regarding tactical battles, I found this comment from Brad Wardell interesting:
“On most maps, there is melee contact in the first turn. the units aren’t spending 2+ turns trying to run to each other. If you don’t want your archers massacred, you better have melee protectors for them. They’re not going to get 4+ turns of free shots at them. Without melee guards, they’ll be getting hits within a turn or two.”
I think this is going to be beneficial to the AI, as currently they can still be manipulated into letting you get the first shot in most of the time. I really hope they do a better job of letting me place my troops where I want to, so I can properly guard my archers/mages, as that was a complaint I had with Fallen Enchantress when I reviewed it.
The lack of high fantasy really hurts FE.
I play it and feel like all races and units are the same, limited special abilities and cosmetic differences.
Sure you can customize, but you can only cut an apple so many ways.
I want oranges.
Great analogy and use of fruit in a comment. :) I agree, Fallen Enchantress would benefit from more unit diversity in my opinion. There are those who like it the way it is though, and I believe Stardock, as a group, is one of them. They decided on a vision for the Fallen Enchantress series awhile back, and I think they are pretty set on sticking close to it based on comments I’ve read on their forums.
I do think and hope we are going to see a bigger emphasis on summons and some new hero types, so hopefully this will introduce a few more oranges into the mix.
I hope so too.
I think Master of Magic and Age of Wonders both used unit and race diversity well, the former strategically the latter tactically.
I am anticipating AoW3 highly.
Any chance you can get in there and do a preview Keith? Haha
A preview of Age of Wonders 3 is certainly a good possibility. Perhaps later this year, but we shall see. :)
While I appreciate freebies, but c’mon Stardock, I want to pay for your awesome game which is kinda hard when you just give it to me for free..
Seriously, I find it curious that they plan on giving away this expansion for free to the original elemental buyers. Fallen Enchantress I could understand as a clever business move, but with that, I considered the score (that is the compensation for a somewhat lackluster elemental release) to be settled, so I’m thrown a little off balance by this..
As somebody who pre-ordered Elemental: War of Magic (Deluxe Edition, still have my pewter dragon!) from the very beginning, I am very grateful to Brad for giving me FE and Legendary Heroes for free. I was so high on WoM during the beta, it was sorta fun but the “potential” of the game was always “right around the corner”.
I gave a 5-star rating on Amazon based on that potential, and then it all came crashing down at release. The fun wasn’t coming. I looked back on that Amazon review today and it appeared I was accused of being paid to review WoM or that I must’ve been a Stardock employee. I was just blinded by optimism (and my already invested $70… the game had to be a success because I had already spent the money)
Because I spent $70 on WoM, I have no trouble accepting FE and LH for free. Stardock is getting around to repaying my loyalty/investment 4 years later. Most other companies would’ve cut bait and I wouldn’t have had anything to show for it (*cough*Legends of Pegasus*cough*). Stardock has regained my trust and goodwill because of this. If they come out with a 2nd expansion for FE, I’ll probably buy it. I probably wouldn’t have if I had only gotten FE for free and not LH.
Still waiting on this beta to start, but Brad released an interesting video recently that I just now came across. It’s around 35 minutes of gameplay from the pre-beta of Legendary Heroes.
My thoughts so far:
Swarm mechanic looks nice. Not all units are attacking as the animation would indicate. Brad clarified swarming just reduces enemy defense.
The new level up system looks nice.
They have kept ranged units away from the melee action at battle start, even with the closer army placement.
Pioneer/city spam looks like it may be improved.
I did not see a way to place units at the start of battle. Still no control over where I place my units. Well, at least ranged units are far away.
No improvements to city automation. Would have liked to have seen AI governors to be honest. This isn’t an issue when you have a few, or maybe a half dozen, cities, but becomes a burden when you really start conquering (in FE anyway).