Others say...

"Thumbs up! (way up)"
This is the best turn-based game I've played in a long time. I originally bought it to play until Heroes of Might and Magic 4 came out. Now I'm starting to fear I won't enjoy HOMM4 after having played this. The battle tatics are much better than any other game I've ever played.

"Magic the Gathering meets Heroes of MM and AOW"
This is one of the few games this year that have kept me up until 3 AM just to play another turn. It is a near perfect union of heavyly Magic The Gathering inspired card play with fantastic 3D animated turn-based battles and Heroes 0f Might and Magic-inspired strategic campaign play. There are lots of creatures, spells, resources, and hero advancement with improving stats and skills. After you play a few scenarios or have fought about a dozen battles you will discover the subtle strategies involves in deck balance, exploiting your hero's strengths, and resource management (some of the high level spells are very expensive to cast). If you like MTG-type card games and love HOMM or AOW you will be in fantasy heaven!

"Etherlords is MOM, HOMM, AOW, amd MTG all in one!"
Etherlords is Master of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Wonders and Magic: The Gathering all in one!

This is a near-perfect game.

You start out the campaign as a member of either the Chaot/Sythet alliance or the Vital/Kinet alliance.

The game begins with 1 or 2 heroes under your control, whose "decks" of spells are cantrips (Free, low-level spells) that will remain available throughout the game. The hero's job is to explore the game map, meet objectives, fight enemy and random creatures, level up, find more powerful card shops, aquire artifacts, and destroy enemy castles. All this is accomplished in a turn-based movement environment familiar to most AOE and HOMM fans.

The hero will have certain inherent (aparrently random) "specializations" that often are creature or spell-specific. Also, when leveling up, the hero can aquire other attributes to boost abilities. The hero's deck remains at 15 cards thoughout the game. The deck is enhanced and improved by purchasing common, uncommon, rare, and unique cards from various locations on the game map.

A new twist on the card collecting game aspect is the use of components to cast any spell above cantrip level of power. This means that the hero must keep purchasing components to power most spells or they will revert to the cantrip they replaced, until more components are purchased (Don't be dismayed, the cost of components is not very high, and it simply adds a bit of resource management to the game...ie: if you want to stack your deck with super-powerful spells, you will need to conserve your components well). This is often the reason for going out of the way to aquire resource producing buildings.

Even the moderate-level heroes are very fun to play, as the combinations of spells, hero abilities, and opponents' strategies are very innovative. A high-level hero is a blast!

The only flaw in the game is the pre-set distribution of cantrips, the basic "deck" for each race is unchangable, meaning if you want more cantrip creatures, enchantments, etc... you cannot get them. You have complete freedom with all other spell levels though, subject to the 15-card limit.

Game graphics are much more than I expected, and add a lot to early enjoyment. I had to de-select some animations though, to speed up gameplay and avoid repetition.

All in all, this is one of the best, most fun games I have played since Age of Wonders, and that is high praise indeed!