Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes Review

Combat now has a great deal of added depth. Hundreds of tweaks have been made to the tactical system, providing much more satisfying battles. Maps now come in more varieties, and tend to start up with the opposing forces closer together than before, which lets you get to the good stuff more quickly than ever. The only serious problem is that the starting location seems purely random, which can get you into trouble depending on the makeup of the forces involved. You don't want the enemy popping up too close to your front lines when you're taking a bunch of archers and crossbowmen into a scrap with powered-up brawlers, for example. This can be an issue at times, in part due to the new swarm ability that provides bonuses to melee units based on how many friendly units they have surrounding a foe. That said, you can make swarming work for you as well, which additionally increases the importance of positioning and moving your troops smartly around the tactical combat screen.

And all because Spear Maiden posted an unflattering photo of City Militia on Facebook!

Every faction now comes with special abilities, too, a new characteristic that further increases the need to think during battles. Many of these skills are incredibly useful. The Altarians, for instance, can now rush their movements, which lets them close quickly with enemies at the beginning of battles. The Tarth can attack twice in a single turn, while the Trog can go into berserker mode with pluses to attack and initiative at the price of you losing direct control of the unit. Urxen double up on the swarm bonus, a boost that can swing the tide of battle with ease if you have enough troops on the front line and are smart about how you position them for attacks.

Weapons have also been adjusted. Spears can impale lined-up pairs of enemies, effectively doubling up damage. Axes can be used to cleave up to three adjacent enemies, and shields can be employed to bash foes, knocking them backward. All of these adjustments add a lot of tactical strategizing to battles, and have been implemented so well that everything feels nicely balanced.

And then there is the usual assortment of additions that come with most expansions. Legendary Heroes comes with around a dozen new monsters, a handful of new champions, and hundreds of new traits, spells, items, and quests. Nothing really stands out for being dramatically different from what was on offer in Fallen Enchantress, although the new content freshens everything up enough that you almost feel like you're playing a new game.

Safe behind the town walls, your citizens will prosper.

Like its predecessor, Legendary Heroes isn't a good-looking game. Units are little more than multicolored blobs, although they are at least slightly more detailed multicolored blobs here. Animations stutter and stagger. And slowdown is commonplace once you start to open up larger maps. The game also shudders a bit when enemies are taking their turns. Crashes take place occasionally, as well, seemingly due to the slowdown and due to issues with magical effects on the main map. The game is generally quite stable, but it does crash just enough to make you thankful for the always-on-duty autosave system. The whole engine looks and feels more than a little creaky by contemporary standards, so it isn't surprising that the game seems to be a bit bulging at the seams with all of the new added features.

It many have taken a while, but we finally have the game that Stardock tried to create back in 2010. Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is a terrific 4X strategy game that builds upon the good work done in its immediate predecessor last year. While there isn't anything showstopping in terms of additions and changes, so many subtle enhancements have been to make the entire game a more complete and fulfilling experience.