Endless Legend: Shadows

A new faction twists the game world and enhances the fun. Endless Legend: Shadows treads into a new realm in the game world of Auriga and offers yet another way to lead your empire. The core elements -- menu navigation, the control scheme, and the look -- all are unchanged. This is still a very solid title, although players can opt out of the expansion and not suffer in any way. That said, this expansion offers ways to cripple the production of your opponents for several turns by attacking and taking out key buildings. For veterans of turn-based strategy games, maintaining stable or elevated production is a vital key to winning any campaign. Combat, though not broken before, hasn't undergone any changes and still seems like the poor cousin to the rich array of customization, the imaginative graphics, and the eXplore and eXpand elements of the game.

The new units can have very strong impacts in the midst of battle and can do a lot of damage quickly and quietly, but they appear to be more fragile than units from other factions -- especially if they encounter a faction that's worked up the tech tree and has improved armor. As a result, it's important to conquer or ally with other factions to bolster the strength of your forces, especially if fights take a while to resolve. Think of the Forgotten in terms of a paper tiger -- they're great for immediate damage but they can't last long in a fight. This puts the onus more on strategy to succeed with this faction. You may want to use the ranged predatores from a distance while you flank enemies with the assassins. All the while, you're getting your mysts to sneak behind enemy lines to take out ranged attackers or infiltrate unprotected cities, while more heavily armored conquered or allied factions take the frontal assault. Shadows is a solid experience that encourages players to be very underhanded and somewhat manipulative and evil within the context of the game.