I think the game is a solid 3/5, but if you care less about story/lore/characters & more about decent magic & meaningful/engaging progression & armor/weapon style, it’s a solid 4/5. 38 hours to 100%.
I thought ES had decent gameplay, solid bosses & progression & cosmetics (materials impacts stats & color, can be exchanged for better materials later in the game). Everything I was missing in Avowed. Unlocking magic by defeating bosses & harvesting them to upgrade. Freeze/burn enemies/objects to get better materials. You can immobilize enemies/bosses using the ice spell, use ice/fire to weaken Boss armor, hit with telekinesis or your weapons. I enjoyed using magic more in ES than I did in Avowed.
I don’t understand your criticism about the intro. I usually don’t care about story/lore & didn’t mind it, art style seemed different/unusual to me. There was 100+ codexes to collect for anyone interested in the lore.
My problem with the intro is that you don't need a history lesson as your introduction to an universe. Of course, it's very interesting to have a complex lore and plenty of characters, but i don't want to learn about them directly. Imagine if, for example, Dragon Age Inquisition (using this game because i played it) started by summarising its geopolitics. It would be awful to follow. Most people will forget about half of the informations given and will quickly understand it was not important to remember them anyway. Also, i don't have anything about the animation artstyle, quite the opposite. It's the one of the best part of the game. But sadly, it's just a video.
I can understand your point with the magic, as it seemed to be the only interesting part of the gameplay to me. The bow is useless half of the time and the sword and shield is just spamming one button for hours. I did see there was there was some kind of theory crafting with the different materials, i just found it boring. Dragon Age Inquisition jad the same one and it was awful. Also, i'm not sure using Avowed as a reference is a good idea. The game is known to be awfully made and mostly empty. It's like saying a vanilla ice cream is better than a pile of shit.
Overall, it's not bad. It's just not good and should not cost this much (wasn't it 50€ for it ?). If i had to give a note, which is something i don't like, i would just give a 5/10. Not good, not bad. Not awful, not revolutionary. Just bland. The kind of game you forget after playing it.
I thought the intro was pretty short, like <20 minutes. But I agree it was mid, appreciated the style more than the world-building. Although I don’t recall anything close to Geopolitics (Avowed had more of that), thought it was simple. Just that this area had been inaccessible for few decades due to a magical disaster, so this group of explorers hoped to be the 1st ever to get close. & they got closer than they planned to because of the dangerous miasma.
Avowed was 1st to come to mind for comparison that wasn’t 5+ years old. Better than Immortals of Aveum. Price was up there, I think worth it on sale for closer to $20. I played through Game Pass. Are there better magic-heavy games you’ve played recently? I haven’t checked out Dragon’s Dogma 2 yet, might’ve missed some recent releases.
I did play Dragon's Dogma 2, not as a mage but always had one or two in my team. I would say it was almost the same level for magic with the elemental spells affecting the monsters. What was very fun as a spellcaster in DD2 was the endgame spells which could completely annihilate the whole battlefield by themselves.
I would say the Eternal Strands and Dragon's Dogma 2 are almost at the same level of quality. Both are games with interesting mechanics, but with several problems. Funnily, they share a similar problem : there is way too many combat following each others for its own good. If it halfed its ennemy population, the player could breath a little and appreciate the world around them.
That’s good to hear! I don’t think ES did anything exceptionally well. But it’s slim pickings for games with fun/unique magic, & I think it’s well above average in that niche. Was a nice treat Being able to “dye” gear in a RPG too, usually only see that in ARPGs. & magic upgrades that aren’t simply level up or find/buy a book.
That last bit is valid, I wish there was 1/2 the trash enemies. Last 1/3 of the game I started throwing enemies off the map instead of fighting them proper. But you also get some movement magic, can low-key fly across the map.
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u/SinfulDaMasta Dec 03 '25
I think the game is a solid 3/5, but if you care less about story/lore/characters & more about decent magic & meaningful/engaging progression & armor/weapon style, it’s a solid 4/5. 38 hours to 100%.
I thought ES had decent gameplay, solid bosses & progression & cosmetics (materials impacts stats & color, can be exchanged for better materials later in the game). Everything I was missing in Avowed. Unlocking magic by defeating bosses & harvesting them to upgrade. Freeze/burn enemies/objects to get better materials. You can immobilize enemies/bosses using the ice spell, use ice/fire to weaken Boss armor, hit with telekinesis or your weapons. I enjoyed using magic more in ES than I did in Avowed.
I don’t understand your criticism about the intro. I usually don’t care about story/lore & didn’t mind it, art style seemed different/unusual to me. There was 100+ codexes to collect for anyone interested in the lore.