Very unimpressive.

from Stardock Forums

So far what I have seen of this game is a very bad merger of some of the basic ideas of Master of Magic with a cheap copy of Civilization III, much more Civ3 than MoM.

 

Given all the hype that has preceded this game, I find that I am regretful of the $40 I spent on it. I had thought from the evidence of SoaSE that Stardock had improved its game development skills since the days of Galactic Civilizations II, but unless there is something much more to Elemental than what I have seen (and from checking YouTube there isn't), this one is a definite "waste of money". And I am not even experiencing the crashing and other bugginess others have reported on these forums.

 

elemental
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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Contact sales@stardock.com - If the game runs fine they'll still give you a 75% refund, which is unheard of in the game world. Most places will only exchange games.

Or stick around for a bit. 1.1 and all prior versions were working on internal problems like the out of memory crashes. If the game is bland to you, try grabbing some of the more popular mods for now - They're free and pretty decent, even the ones that are still works in progress.

Hopefully 1.2 and subsequent versions see more of a content increase. Fallen Enchantress, the stand alone expansion, might be better worth your wait.

 

As far as taking cracks at their game development skills, if the game isn't crashing, then it's not the development that's the problem, because the engine is running fine - It sounds like you have a problem with the mechanics, or the content, or some part of the gameplay experience. The program functions, but it lacks that bit that would make it fun for you.

I'd say it's that way for a lot of us at the moment, and since so far Stardock has made good on its promise to make reparations to their problematic release, and the bugs are being worked out (For the most part, there's still problems just like with any program as well as editor issues that haven't been worked out yet). A number of us are now waiting to see the game expand into something entertaining. The game is still a far cry from what I expected from the advertising, else I'd have not bought the collector's edition when I first came across it. But I've not yet wrote it off as wasted money myself.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

We'll see where it goes. If they had even bothered to lift their hands to create a barely passable in-game tutorial, it would have gone a long way towards making it less of a deep disappointment.

 

As for mods, well, if the game cannot stand on its own, no amount of mods is going to make it any better. Mods are fine when you've gotten everything you can out of a base game, but if there's nothing there to start with it would take a feat of wonder for a mod to make a game worth playing.

 

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I had thought from the evidence of SoaSE that Stardock had improved its game development skills since the days of Galactic Civilizations II... 
End of quote

Sins wasn't developed in-house.  ;)