It isn't meant to be played this way and the support for it will likely be minimal

too disillusioned to continue

from Elemental Forums

I bought Elemental the day it came out for my girlfriend and I to play together. At launch, along with everyone else, we found a game that was incomplete and, surprisingly, had a company trying desperately to fix it so that it could reach a legitimate retail-worthy condition as soon as possible. The Stardock folks have been trying like hell, too, and we all have to give them credit for that despite the game being put out in the condition we received it. In any event, I asked her if she wanted to play Elemental tonight...and she laughed. She laughed!

In the end we settled down to play Fallout 3, me on the PC and her on the PS3, but the whole Elemental thing has been in the back of my head the whole time. Elemental, for all intents and purposes, still isn't retail-worthy, however close to being so it is and will be in likely less than a month. Players have also been told that this game wasn't really intended to be multi-player or function as a multi-player game, it is intended as a single-player sandbox despite the advertisement on the box and the 'Arena' tab here. This seems to me to create a sense of community where the members are too disconnected from each other because the game is intended to be played in a way that doesn't engage multiple players, it simply offers some support and God be with you. I have not attempted the multi-player mode just yet and don't know how well it functions, and while it may function at least fairly I am rather concerned about how well it will be supported.

All things considered, I think that Elemental is going to be one of those games that sit on my shelf and remind me that I not only should not buy into the hype but I also shouldn't have to wait for a game to be in a truly playable condition or to find out that the company who made the game ultimately lied about what the game was and what you could do. This game can be something special, I honestly believe that, but I don't think that I will ever come to play it.

4,119 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Try Age of Wonders Shadow Magic and come back to this game in in a couple of months.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Can't say anything to that. I too have stopped playing Elemental at the moment. Just remember to check back in 6 months, you could have a big surprise...

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Black-Knight, reply 1
Try Age of Wonders Shadow Magic and come back to this game in in a couple of months.

Oh, I absolutely LOVED the Age of Wonders series. I think you are referring to the expansion to the second game and I did not have the chance to play that. I'd purchase them from Impulse after seeing them go up, but when only the first game was offered for sale and the AoW site said they were all up I contacted Impulse support to see what was up. I received less than acceptable support to my detailed question, so I won't go that route. If I can find my old AoW and AoW2 discs you can bet that I'll give it a try again, though.

I've read the new Dev Journal entry about multiplayer here and, again, I just don't get the impression that it will get the support that it needs. When we consider that Stardock came out with the Gamers' Bill of Rights and this game seems like it is not going to support one of the, arguably, integral advertised features...I feel like I've really been lied to. I've played the game a bit after getting some confidence from one of Brad's posts (the drama cleansing thread) but my mind has been changed. I don't think this company is a bad one, it's better by far than most out there, but how long are we going to have to wait for the game to be truly as it should have been when it was released? This game isn't something like a MMORPG where we can expect some real hiccups at launch and some core game mechanics to change, it's simply not that complex, large or been around long enough to say that changing core game mechanics makes sense.

No, Stardock really lied to everyone with this game and as much as I want to lower my expectations and give it a shot...I just don't know if I can do it. I don't think I can and like divuu80 said below, 'just remember to check back in 6 months.' Sweet Jesus, I bought the game at release, I shouldn't have to check back in 6 months to find the game in a surprisingly playable state. Capitalism gone terribly wrong for the win, Stardock?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

blah blah blah, there are about 50 other posts saying the same thing...got your attention, now see ya. Christ need attention much?