Stardock Entertainment have announced Elemental: Reforged, which is kinda of like a super remaster of three different games to finally realize their vision.
It brings together the 4x series Elemental that was split into three games across Elemental: War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress, and Sorcerer King. Stardock said their original plan conceived back in 2008 was limited by the technology of the time and so this brings a modernized 64bit game engine to deliver on their original vision. There will be some game mechanics from each in the series, along with entirely new features. Check out the trailer below:
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
“With Elemental: Reforged, we’re finally able to deliver the original design we wanted,” said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment and lead designer of the original Elemental game. “As we developed Elemental, we realized that the design wouldn’t fit in a 32-bit game and pared it down to into Elemental: War of Magic, which still had challenges fitting in 32-bit memory space. So then we made Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, which did much better but was still a shadow of what we had designed. Then we made Elemental: Sorcerer King where we focused on the crafting and quest elements of the original design. Now, thanks to remastering the engine to 64-bit, we can actually make the full game we originally envisioned in 2008.”
Elemental: Reforged Highlights include:
- Unified Elemental Experience. Brings together the strategic depth, smart AI, and rich gameplay from Fallen Enchantress, the immersive crafting and quest systems from Sorcerer King, and the dynasty-building, terraforming, and innovative mechanics first introduced in War of Magic.
- Rich, Dynamic Worlds. Enjoy endless replayability through procedurally generated fantasy worlds filled with lore-rich quests, evolving environments that respond to your magic, unique fantasy civilizations, and bustling cities populated with individually simulated characters.
- RPG-Infused Unit Design. Customize heroes and armies through an intuitive RPG-style character designer, crafting each unit with their own unique history, stats, equipment, and abilities, growing stronger with experience.
- Compelling Tactical Combat. See how your designed units and characters fare in battle in highly refined tactical battles that reward strategic thinking, or leverage a sophisticated auto-resolve system powered by advanced AI for streamlined empire management.
- Deep Quest and Story Integration. Embark on rich, narrative-driven quests seamlessly woven into the empire-building experience, influencing diplomacy, unlocking secrets, and offering meaningful rewards.
- Modernized UI and Graphics Engine. Explore enhanced visuals powered by DirectX 11, seamless zooming from strategic cloth-map to detailed tactical view.
- Integrated Modding tools. A comprehensive built-in modding and map-editing tools, and a fully redesigned user interface optimized for modern PC gaming with Steam workshop integration.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
See more from me
See more from me
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
You can also find comments for this article on social media: All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
Boldos 4 days ago
Oh... Stardock Entertainment?
This brings very strong OS/2 memories from the past...
This brings very strong OS/2 memories from the past...
4 Likes
R Daneel Olivaw 4 days ago
Hearing Stardock say that their past games were too simple and "pared down" is just scary .... !!! I have fond memories of Sins of a Solar Empire, but my god, those systems were DEEP. I can only imagine what the systems are like in their other games and if this is their "true vision" then yikes! I'll need to have a doctorate course lined up.
2 Likes
someone 4 days ago
Any information yet, if this will work under Linux? I struggled with Fallen Enchantress and were never able to get it to run properly.
0 Likes
I was there, 3000 years ago...
...which is why I'll be waiting for proper reviews. And I don't mean the "Let's Have A Look At The New Patch" YouTube payola coverage kind like they're doing with GalCiv4, either.
...which is why I'll be waiting for proper reviews. And I don't mean the "Let's Have A Look At The New Patch" YouTube payola coverage kind like they're doing with GalCiv4, either.
1 Likes
Linux_Rocks 4 days ago
Stardock is based here in Detroit. I tried getting a job there, but no dice. lol
Apparently they pissed a bunch of people off with their Start11 software and not supporting it that long, only to release a new version of it that felt like a patch.
Apparently they pissed a bunch of people off with their Start11 software and not supporting it that long, only to release a new version of it that felt like a patch.
0 Likes
I've been holding off on GalCiv 4 myself. I didn't like GalCiv 3 nearly as much as I expected to--it's exactly my kind of game but there was something weirdly boring about it. The tech tree was mostly boring, the weapons made too much sense . . . nothing you could do felt cool, nothing you could research felt like it made a qualitative shift in how your empire worked. Which you might expect would be in the service of game balance, but the game was actually unbalanced in a weirdly boring way, like "If your race has this one ability that lets you make use of these ancient thingies you find while you explore, you rule. Otherwise, you are mediocre." But even that unbalanced thing gave you massive but pretty generic bonuses, so it was boring too. As 4X space games in the MOO genre go, it did not hold my interest. I go back and play MOO2 again sometimes, and I go play another game of Stellaris every so often, but it never occurs to me to play another game of GalCiv 3.
And when I go to the Steam GalCiv 4 page, I mean, some people like it, but overall what people say doesn't look that promising. So I kind of feel like Stardock make games that I would normally expect to like but somehow probably won't.
And when I go to the Steam GalCiv 4 page, I mean, some people like it, but overall what people say doesn't look that promising. So I kind of feel like Stardock make games that I would normally expect to like but somehow probably won't.
2 Likes
Stardock seems to have issues with making their games not just functional, but also interesting to play. Back in the GalCiv2 days this wasn't much of a problem with very little competition on the market, but now, with forever games like Stellaris and a slew of acclaimed indies... I'm amazed they're making their money back and have marketing budget to spare with how they design these. The major change from 3 to 4 seems to be cutting the game up more than before, and spreading base game development across multiple paid dlcs. So, an industry standard, but this isn't a product people seem to value enough to accept getting fleeced by the publisher more so than before. Also, that Epic cash injection that launched the game into complete obscurity that persisted for a year. Probably not helpful in the long run, but I can also see how they may have needed it to make the budget work.
And then there's things like people seemingly only covering GalCiv4 on YouTube when they're paid to do so...
The AI race generator was an interesting idea on paper, but the execution was just about on par with the rest of the game, so a bit underwhelming.
And then there's things like people seemingly only covering GalCiv4 on YouTube when they're paid to do so...
The AI race generator was an interesting idea on paper, but the execution was just about on par with the rest of the game, so a bit underwhelming.
2 Likes
robertosf92 2 days ago
Just curious @such, which are the indies you mention? I'd love to play a space related 4X game that's not stellaris.
I wanna give FreeOrion a test, though
I wanna give FreeOrion a test, though
0 Likes
I've tried FreeOrion. It's . . . interesting, but ultimately, at least so far in its development, I don't like it.
So, the pros: Interesting tech tree, some interesting ideas about how empire economics and pop growth work. Pretty cool ship designs and tech trees surrounding them. Arguably a pro is the very open source approach to the UI, that has all these sub-windows that you can arrange and size how you want, if only you understood what all of them are for.
Neutral: There are a lot of space monsters, which in the early game can put a serious crimp in exploration or even kill your empire if you get unlucky. But they're sort of interesting to deal with and let you test your latest combat ships without actually going to war with real alien empires.
The cons: Incredibly minimalist look, with essentially no art whatsoever. User interface bare and often difficult to understand. Notifications of what's going on almost feel like error messages in a command line interface. Nonexistent diplomacy. Interesting and unusual concepts and technological capabilities with unobvious strategic implications are usually not matched with even half-decent explanations of how they actually work. Wonky; weird things appear not to work, increasingly as you head towards later in the game. Sometimes it's because of some obscure rule that is not explained anywhere, like you can't take that planet because its stealth is so good that even though you're seeing it on the map and just defeated its orbital defences, in some hypothetical way you're not supposed to know it's there so you can't land troops or settlers, but nothing in the user interface really tells you that, it just won't let you. Sometimes it's just because shit isn't working, and so some tactical action you kind of need to take, you just can't because it decided not to work. And, late in the game (although I'm sure there's a setting you can do to turn this off . . . somewhere), often some kind of overpowered crisis aliens just kill you and there's nothing much you can do about it.
I've never finished a game. But it can be kind of fun through to the mid game or so if you get lucky.
I, too, am interested in these indies @such mentions.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 31 Jul 2025 at 5:09 pm UTC
So, the pros: Interesting tech tree, some interesting ideas about how empire economics and pop growth work. Pretty cool ship designs and tech trees surrounding them. Arguably a pro is the very open source approach to the UI, that has all these sub-windows that you can arrange and size how you want, if only you understood what all of them are for.
Neutral: There are a lot of space monsters, which in the early game can put a serious crimp in exploration or even kill your empire if you get unlucky. But they're sort of interesting to deal with and let you test your latest combat ships without actually going to war with real alien empires.
The cons: Incredibly minimalist look, with essentially no art whatsoever. User interface bare and often difficult to understand. Notifications of what's going on almost feel like error messages in a command line interface. Nonexistent diplomacy. Interesting and unusual concepts and technological capabilities with unobvious strategic implications are usually not matched with even half-decent explanations of how they actually work. Wonky; weird things appear not to work, increasingly as you head towards later in the game. Sometimes it's because of some obscure rule that is not explained anywhere, like you can't take that planet because its stealth is so good that even though you're seeing it on the map and just defeated its orbital defences, in some hypothetical way you're not supposed to know it's there so you can't land troops or settlers, but nothing in the user interface really tells you that, it just won't let you. Sometimes it's just because shit isn't working, and so some tactical action you kind of need to take, you just can't because it decided not to work. And, late in the game (although I'm sure there's a setting you can do to turn this off . . . somewhere), often some kind of overpowered crisis aliens just kill you and there's nothing much you can do about it.
I've never finished a game. But it can be kind of fun through to the mid game or so if you get lucky.
I, too, am interested in these indies @such mentions.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 31 Jul 2025 at 5:09 pm UTC
1 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
How to install Battle.net on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck for World of Warcraft and Starcraft
How to play games from GOG and Epic Games on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck