Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour has a strong pull because Elemental puts you in charge of more than a conventional empire. Your sovereign is out on the map casting spells, while you are also choosing where to establish cities, researching lost knowledge, harvesting resources, and building the military needed to protect your growing realm. That combination makes even early decisions feel weighty: expansion is not just about claiming territory, but about shaping a magical kingdom around the ruler you created.

There is a lot to do, and that is both the point and the problem. Elemental reaches for the wide-open fantasy strategy sandbox associated with Master of Magic, while borrowing the empire-building rhythm of Civilization. You can spend time on city growth, research, armies, sovereign advancement, and quests, so the game has plenty of room for a long-term plan. But its systems compete for your attention rather than always snapping neatly together. If you enjoy learning a sprawling ruleset and setting your own priorities, that density can be rewarding; if you want a brisk, immediately elegant 4X, it can become tiring.

Combat offers a welcome choice between hands-on tactical battles and auto-resolve. Taking direct control lets you make the army-building side matter on the battlefield, while auto-resolve keeps the campaign moving when you would rather focus on the map. Neither approach fixes the broader issue that Elemental asks you to carry many different strategic concerns at once. The game is most enjoyable when you accept that it is a messy fantasy sandbox and pick the parts you care about instead of trying to optimize every layer.

The included modding tools fit that open-ended spirit well. Elemental clearly wants to be a game you keep reshaping, rather than a tightly authored strategy puzzle you finish once. That makes it more inviting for tinkerers than for anyone looking for a polished, self-contained campaign experience.

Graphics

Elemental uses a diagonal-down view for its strategic map, putting your sovereigns, settlements, resource gathering, and armies into the same broad fantasy landscape. Tactical combat shifts the focus to turn-based unit control, giving battles a more concentrated view than the overworld.

Story

The central setup is solid fantasy strategy material: the world has been destroyed, and channelers are trying to rebuild it through magic and conquest. Your sovereign is one of those channelers, which gives the ruler a more personal role than the anonymous leader found in many 4X games. You are not simply expanding a color across a map; you are meant to be restoring a realm in the aftermath of catastrophe.

The divide between Kingdoms and Empires gives your choices a clear moral frame, with Kingdoms positioned as good and Empires as evil. The races are largely human rather than the usual fantasy checklist, so the setting leans more toward rival societies and factions than elves-versus-orcs shorthand. It is a straightforward foundation, but it suits a game focused on building power across a damaged world.

The most distinctive narrative touch is the family system. Your sovereign can marry NPC heroes and have children who later become heroes and potential successors to the throne. That gives the long campaign a sense of continuity beyond one ruler’s level progression. Even if you are mainly here for expansion and warfare, the prospect of a growing dynasty adds a personal stake to the kingdom you are assembling.

Overall Experience

Elemental: War of Magic is easy to admire in concept. It wants city building, magical rulers, quests, tactical warfare, research, dynasties, and a devastated fantasy world to coexist in one large strategy game. Few 4X games aim for that much breadth, and when you are founding a city, improving your sovereign, and preparing an army at the same time, it can feel like you are genuinely building a new civilization from the ruins.

The catch is that breadth does not automatically become momentum. The game can feel overloaded, and its many attractive ideas do not always produce a clean, compelling whole. Frustration is most likely to set in when you want the game to guide you toward one satisfying strategic rhythm and instead find yourself juggling several. Patience helps enormously.

Give it a chance if the thought of a mod-friendly, turn-based fantasy 4X with a customizable sovereign and dynastic succession sounds more exciting than a perfectly streamlined strategy game. If you want immediate clarity and consistently polished pacing, its ambition may feel heavier than its payoff. Elemental remains a fascinating attempt at a modern Master of Magic-style game, but more compelling as a grand design than as a fully satisfying one.

Retro Replay Score

5.7/10