Elven Legacy: Ranger Review for PC

System: PC	Review Rating Legend
Dev: 1C: Ino-Co	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Paradox Interactive	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Oct. 20, 2009	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1-Multi	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Teen	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Since each unit gradually grows stronger, levels-up, and gains access to special abilities and bonus stats, keeping them alive and fostering their fighting prowess is crucial to your success. When you do complete a mission and wind up losing some non-essential but still very important units in the process, you can't go back without re-loading old save files. Let this happen too many times and you simply won't be tough enough to hack the beefier challenges that lie ahead. It's essentially the same as the Fire Emblem effect, though you there's not a lot of personality in these characters to get overly attached to.

Elven Legacy: Ranger screenshot

So what does this expansion really bring to the table besides a handful of grievances? Well, if you have the patience to read through all the mute dialogue, then the story does pick up intermittently at different moments. The 16 missions in the new campaign are enough to keep you busy for a while even if they're essentially more of the same.

Other than that, Cornelius has the power to use spell-like abilities to charge his attacks in different ways without losing his turn. That is an improvement, though it's not one to crow too loudly about. There's also a few new spells and special artifacts.

When you get down to it, there's not that much to get excited about here. The $9.95 price tag definitely makes Elven Legacy: Ranger a decent purchase on a tight budget, if you want more of the same kind of semi-frustrating action offered in the main title. By the way, it's not a standalone expansion, so you'll have to buy the full game first to dive into this add-on. If you're a major fan, you might want to wait to see if a combo pack of all three expansions is released together. Otherwise, save your money.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

3.5

Graphics
Lots of color and interesting character designs break down a bit on closer inspection. Lack of cutscenes, even poor ones, is disappointing.

3.9

Control
Tons of flexibility in the camera angles and a somewhat easy-to-grasp interface.

2.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Hell, we'd even settle for some bad voice work over absolutely none at all.

3.0

Play Value
16 missions in a single new campaign that covers a lot of the same territory and doesn't offer much in the way of new stuff may not hold your interest for very long.

3.0

Overall Rating - Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

16 new missions.

Three new heroes.

Five unique artifacts.

12 new spells.