I think the devs had all sorts of bitchin' ideas for EWOM - until they ran into bugs and memory management problems with the Kumquat engine, particularly for 32 bit users. Then they had to spend time figuring all that out instead of adding cool content. For FE, they had clear ideas on what the engine could handle and had to design within those boundaries. I'd love to see 10 more types of tiles and stuff, I remember Heavenfall's After the War mod where the ice faction made ice tiles and stuff. It was awesome. Imagine elves making forest tiles, all that jazz.

For the record I think the game is great, it's what I choose to spend my time on when I have time to spare. If the expansion is 64 bit, and SD has more time to fine tune the engine, we may see all kinds of cool stuff... assuming the market likes FE and SD decides to keep developing the Elemental world. I would be a sad panda if they threw in the towel. Which is why I discard the opinions of drive-by reviewers whom have not spent any meaninful time with the game. They are one night standers, didn't even by FE a dinner and movie.

It is subjective, but I personally totally agree on this.

Don't mean to jump on you, but FE *is* using basic fantasy tropes. Just because they aren't called "elves" and "dwarves" doesn't make it any different. You can basically substitute: elves->pariden, men->altar, dwarves->gilden, wood elves->tarth, orcs->yithril, evil men->kraxis, undead(ish)->resoln, and demons->magnar. I'm fairly certain that Tolkein would have sneered at FE, and I wouldn't call the setting here "cutting edge" by any means.

That said, a 4X strategy game is not the place for cutting edge new fantasy, and I'm quite content with the way things are. It seems to me that a lot of people/reviews are complaining because even though the basic fantasy tropes are there, they're not in an easily recognizable form, and therefore it takes more work to fill in the gaps with your own imagination. And the fact that all the races are visually very similar doesn't help.

It's not a professional review, so really, just a series of opinions. Some are factually incorrect.  Others seem to be the result of exposure to the game for such a short period of time that the writer didn't understand what they were seeing, and gave up rather than digging any deeper.  Much of it just makes me want to wonder what game this person was actually playing--except that, given his willingness to whinge without thought, I'd really rather not know.

Typically when someone complains about how bland a fantasy game is, they skip all lore books/texts/optional dialogue because "it's too much to read". This is almost certainly the case here, too. The game does have plenty of backstory and lore, but it's presented in a way that many of today's gamers somehow can't digest: paragraphs of plain text instead of fancy cutscenes and audio bits. (The world of Elemental doesn't offer the most original fantasy setting, but it's certainly not below what's average for video games, and at least it doesn't have flipping dwarves!) 

Personally, I'd say that is a problem with today's gamers rather than the game, but that's just me. I like it and enjoy it.

Lol AOW:SM et all are the WORST of the fantasy bunch. The AI is totally pitiful in the AOW series marching back n forth down a road for 30 turns and doing other stupid stuff like that. Good example of the AI in AOW:SM is I could make an Alliance with EVERY faction, march 3 stacks of units up to their capital doorsteps, declare war and eliminate all of them one after the other with that same strategy. Try it you'll see. The AI in AOW;SM is totally the worst. At least in MOM if you tried that you wouldn't get half a chance because the AI in MOM was already 90% against you from the start.