When I fired it up for the first time after buying it, I thought to myself that I was playing a shareware game from 10 years ago. There is no variety of teams or This game looked and sounded very promising before release. There is also a lack of exciting content. Remember shareware? Bad UIs, graphics seemingly drawn with crayons, lack of documentation. This game looked and sounded very promising before release. There are better ways to notify and ask for feedback from the user. The use of modal dialog boxes is especially rampant in Elemental, as it was in Galactic Civilizations 2, and is very reminiscent of Windows productivity and office software this isn't how a modern PC game should feel. Small touches that make modern user interfaces visually pleasing, such as transitions and animations, are noticeably absent from Elemental. Aesthetically, Elemental's user interface appears very dated to me. The user interface does a poor job of communicating information to the user and is very unwelcoming to new users. So many of the user interface problems that plagued Stardock's previous title, Galactic Civilizations 2, are present in Elemental.
Design aside, a lot of the flaws in Elemental's core mechanics are overshadowed by it's dated UI and it's amateur production values. Outside of some rare strokes of genius, this methodology very rarely makes for engaging and deliberate design decisions. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the features that separate Elemental from its spiritual predecessor Master of Magic (dynasties, diplomacy, quests) started with the sentence "Wouldn't it be cool if.". Where the rest of the game industry plans and prototypes the core mechanics of new titles, Stardock very obviously subscribes to a school of thought that revolves around some sort of agile design philosophy.
Fundamental and sweeping changes of core mechanics in the last two beta cycles and even as recent as the day-0 patches are a dead give-away that Elemental's core gameplay was most likely not planned. The erratic and frantic nature of the last few patches make this clear.
Fundamental and sweeping changes of core mechanics in the last two beta cycles and even as recent as the day-0 patches are a dead give-away that Elemental's core gameplay was There are moments of fun to be had here, but it's clear Elemental was developed without any sort of formal design methodology or prototyping. There are moments of fun to be had here, but it's clear Elemental was developed without any sort of formal design methodology or prototyping.
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