Elvenar

Overview:

How many times did you wish you could escape your boring routine just for some time, and find some magic in this life? I think about it all the time. If you are anything like me then listen closely. Here’s the deal: The Magic has finally come and it’s called Elvenar.

Another bestseller from the German studio InnoGames  (the authors of sensational “Forge Of Empires”, “Grepolis” and the “Tribal Wars” franchise) has enough magic for you to completely wander off from reality.

Elvanar setting is a fictional medieval-styled magic world where mythical creatures coexist with humans. This beautiful fantasy city builder lets you choose to play as either elves or humans to build their city. Whichever you choose, as the ruler of the town — you are in charge to help your kind prosper. While the mystic creatures command powerful magic, humans heavily rely on their medieval weaponry. But in this game, Economy is a real King, not War. You should be aiming first of all to build and develop an economy-centered city with thriving trade and then use it as a foundation to create an army that can wage and win wars against other civilizations. And Boy Oh Boy, it’s easier said than done!

• Free: playing Elvenar does not require credit card info submission, but players can buy advantageous game options (speed boosts, resources).

Main features:

• Fantasy City Builder Browser Game: City building is quick and easy with a friendly introduction and active community. Create a home for humans or dwarves, fairies, dragons, and other charming fantasy races.

• Explore The World: Discover new provinces to expand your city.

• Trade With Friends: Trade goods and resources with fellow players and merchants in the marketplace.

• Building Tech Tree System: Advance your civilization; upgrade and decorate your buildings to keep the inhabitants happy which leads to better resource production.

Deepdive

As always in this kind of games — you start your adventure in a Far Far Away fantasy world with a small patch of land, playing along powerful magical elves or medieval, pugnacious humans. You are the boss, the one to build the town and take care of your townspeople, leading them to prosperity and domination in the region.

A nice touch, by the way, is that your city style and buildings’ design depend on your Race choice — a town of humans and a town of Elves will look differently, but both will look amazing thanks to the detailed colorful artwork and beautiful graphics. Esthetics, in general, plays an important role in Elvenar and its a pure joy for the eyes. Almost every building can be upgraded and visually changed multiple times to increase productivity, becoming ever more beautiful in the process. The main hall, factories, workers huts, residentials, and many more buildings are waiting to be upgraded by your eager hands so that one day your small village could become a thriving empire!

But if you are a bit familiar with online strategy games, you definitely know that in order to really progress and succeed you should never limit your gameplay to building and renovating your current city-state. Expansion and trade — that is what you wanna be doing every now and then. Explore the world map and areas around you to uncover rare relics that help you to boost your production and grow your city faster!

As the One And Only Ruler of your kingdom — you are to decide if you want to have good relations with your neighboring towns and use these associations to develop trade and thus boost your economy.
However, if the trade isn’t going well, you can always choose to call upon your army, defeat a neighbor and acquire their resources. Elvenar features a unique turn-based combat system that you might have seen in “Forge Of Empires”. It means that you can directly control your units as opposed to sending them off into auto-battle, so you actually have to use a strategy to beat your opponent using the right combination of fighters with varying skills and abilities.

Another essential key to success is learning new technologies and advancing. More than 200 different improvements can be discovered and unlocked in Tech Tree of Elvenar.

Standout features

• Single Player: The absence of a PvP mode in Elvenar is made up for by a truly engaging PvE experience where you can actually fight your own battles in full control, rather then auto-battle like in many other similar games.
  
• Graphics & Animations: Amazing detalization and bright colorful artworks, leave alone various mystical creatures are a blast to observe.
• Choose Your Race: Play as powerful humans or magical elves to build as you see fit. The choice of a Race will affect your City style.
  
  

Overall rating

The two main emotions you feel when playing Elvenar is relaxation and joy. The game is absolutely free to play and while has the standard for the genre option to upgrade and speed up the process with a real-world, it is absolutely not necessary and it is not forcing you to do so. The music is calm and relaxing, the graphic is beautiful. Thanks to the non-existent PVP mode, no one is trying to conquer your town or steal from you while you are away,  which means Elvenar has a unique potential to be that kind of game in which you login occasionally, just checking for the well-being of your people. But I personally liked it the most: you are just enjoying the soothing magical atmosphere of the game, upgrading and rearranging your perfect kingdom and get completely lost in time and space.