Eador: Masters of the Broken World Review
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Unfortunately, Eador: MotBW does have some regressions next to the original game. The user interface is the biggest one. While Eador: Genesis did not have the greatest UI ever, it was completely functional. Eador: MotBW replaces a lot of the easy-to-reach buttons with context-sensitive and mouse gesture-style overlays, which can be a bit of a pain to get to appear reliably. There are also a few strange conventions here and there, like the way you have to queue up buildings for construction in the Stronghold interface. It's nothing you won't get used to with time, but the cumbersome UI can definitely slow down an already slow-paced game. The biggest single problem with Eador: MotBW, unfortunately, is one I've avoided talking about this whole time because the core game is so good, and that's the bugs. The simple fact is that Eador: MotBW was not complete when it was pushed out the door. I understand this was because of a contract signed with Valve in order to get the game put onto the Steam digital distribution platform, and I can understand why the developers wouldn't want to give up that kind of exposure and sales for the game; however it doesn't change the fact that Masters of the Broken World is simply kind of broken.
During the course of my two weeks reviewing the game, I encountered a wide variety of problems. These ranged from things like uncovering enemy heroes which had insanely high stats for their levels, making them unkillable death machines, to unwinnable Shards thanks to buggy terrain features keeping me permanently separated from the enemy's Stronghold, to karma - one of the biggest campaign features - not carrying over to the Astral Plane, to arena battles I could watch in on but not quit out of our skip, and which went on literally forever due to the combatants healing more damage than they could deal, to increasingly long turn times for AI characters as each Shard went on (taking 2-3 minutes per turn on some of the bigger ones), to simply seeing the AI give up entirely after a certain point and not even trying to fight back against my assault. In fact, as of this writing I am still not sure if the AI cheats or not, and if so, how much - for all I know it's intentional, or a bug.
It is worth pointing out that Snowbird Games have been working very hard to get the game back up to speed. They have issued at least six patches since I began to review the game upon release, and these have fixed a number of critical bugs as well as usability features. I have very rarely seen so many effective updates issued in such a relatively short period of time, so I do have to give credit to the developers for standing by their game. But, the fact remains that it clearly was an unfinished product, and that's not something that's acceptable in my mind, without full disclosure being given to those spending their money in the first place.
Conclusion
If you are in any way a fan of strategy-RPG games, ranging from Heroes of Might & Magic to Age of Wonders, or even if you enjoy turn-based strategy games such as Civilization, then I think Eador: Masters of the Broken World is just about the perfect game for you. While it is slower-paced than some of these games, and the initial difficulty level is fairly high, the amount of depth in all aspects of the game makes it a contender for one of the most interesting and fun strategy games or RPGs that I have played. The game's creator originally made Eador: Genesis as a love letter to his favorite games, and he really did succeed at making a game that combines some of the best aspects of all of them together.
However, the fact of the matter is that the game is still very buggy. It's getting better with every patch the developers release, and I have a feeling in a few months I'll be able to wholeheartedly recommend the game - but as of now, you'll have to make a decision as to whether it is worth putting up with some major bugs and glitches, some of them literally game-breaking, in order to have fun. At only $20 USD, Eador: MotBW is very affordable, and that might be the tipping point for you - but it's also worth considering that the original Eador: Genesis is nearly the same game, lacking only a few additions, balance tweaks, and of course, the updated graphics. It simply might be the better buy for you if you don't mind searching the Internet for fixes on how to get it running smoothly on your new quad-core system.
At the end of the day, Eador: Masters of the Broken World stands as a strong and highly enjoyable strategy-RPG which can easily go toe-to-toe with the best in the genre, provided you are not opposed to spending a large number of hours getting familiar with the game. With lots of replay value, an extensive campaign with multiple endings, and some very well balanced and challenging combat and strategy, Eador is the best of many worlds. It's just a shame it released in the state it did, and I can only recommend the game right now for those who have faith the bugs will be squashed in the coming months, or those who simply don't mind putting up with them.
