Elvenar review - a deep look to a long-forgotten fantasy world

The perfect strategy game is the one that perfectly mixes combat, city building, resources gathering, and thrilling gameplay in just one pack. Today we present you Elvenar, a game created by the German company InnoGames, which has ruled the browser game market since the beginning of modern times. We can't say that the Elvenar game is perfect, but we certainly enjoy the fantastic job that InnoGames did by creating a new fantasy world full of mysteries, battles, magic, and more. Players all over the world know some of the InnoGames masterpieces such as Forge of Empires, Tribal Wars, and Grepolis, but there's something magic about this game. Elvenar is just more than just building a fantasy city - players also build a new strategy and game style while discovering the world map and finding out how to use the resources in their favor.

We all love multiplayer games. The feeling that we get when we are sharing a good time with other players can't be matched by anything in the world. You can play this game on a web browser or a mobile device, making it one of the most popular fantasy city-building games out there. Players can go directly to almost any browser and register on the InnoGames official Elvenar page. Elvenar. com is available for players worldwide, and it's essentially a free-to-play game, meaning that you won't need to spend real money to play it, but is this completely true?

In this Elvenar review, we will analyze all of the aspects that revolve around Elvenar - the combat system, the PvP format, the trade option, the city building goal, the browser compatibility, and the free-to-play format. MMOAuctions is a platform created by veteran players of all kinds of games.

We love MMORPGs, MOBAs, and action games. Strategy games are also one of our favorite genres, but they can suffer from floppy gameplay and weak battles system. Let's find out if Elvenar is a game worth playing or if it's better to focus on other InnoGames titles... or if to skip this company once and for all.

Elvenar main story review

First of all, let's get into the main story of this game. Of course, in strategy games, this is not the most crucial part of the title. When we talk about Elvenar, we talk about a good building game. Before this game, most of the civilization games out there were based on real-life history. In fact, InnoGames took this path with Forge of Empires, a "realistic" strategy game with classic buildings like the ones we see in our city. Elvenar took a whole different direction by deciding to show magic buildings where Elves inhabit. You can choose your race and also play as humans, but let's be honest - elves are the true stars of this InnoGames title.

If you review the Elvenar buildings and chapters one by one, you'll find out that they are very similar. Nonetheless, some players agree that Elves' buildings and chapters have a little more advantage than human buildings. One of the many features that this city-building strategy game has is the Tech Tree. With this tool, players are allowed to discover new technologies that can be used to enhancer their town with relics and expand their knowledge to get to a higher level. Elvenar chapters are all different from each other, and we can review them one by one, but the truth is that it might feel like slow, repetitive progress.

To put it in a few words, Elvenar's story was sold like something fresh that you couldn't find anywhere at that moment. In a certain way, it is, thanks to the magic setting provided by the Elves, but is not a game-changer in this extremely competitive industry.

Elvenar Gameplay

This is a classic "build to prevail" game. You start basically from zero and climb to the top slowly... maybe slower than most players would like to. If you have played games of this genre before, you won't be surprised at all with Elvenar. Of course, if you deeply review the game system, you see that in this world, resources are harder to get, and therefore, you will think for hours before you finally use them. Building a civilization is not easy at all, and InnoGames know it, but it seems like they made the job of building a city even harder than it already was.

Either way, the gameplay progresses this way: start a brand-new city, watch your villagers and population grow, build new constructs and structures, farm resources as much as you can, and use them wisely. Then, explore the world to scout new provinces, trade goods, and resources with your neighbors and, from time to time, engage in battles against the AI. That's it. Don't expect anything too different, but sometimes, less is more. Classic gameplay might result in more fun for some players.

Combat System

The first thing you must know is that Elvenar is a peaceful game - there's no PvP. That's right, you read it right: a massively multiplayer online game without PvP. It might sound insane at first, but if you analyze it, it makes total sense. PvP is fun and engaging. We know this. We are sure that you are a hardcore gamer that has dominated lots of games. InnoGames don't want to make things easy to Elvenar players, that's clear for now, but they don't want them to lose interest either. The combat against the IA is turn-based which means that you need to plan your attack before executing it. This is a city builder game, not an MMO war game. 

It is why you can get into battles against the IA, but not in a PvP mode. To experience the combat system, the players need to explore the world map and find new adventures in unexplored provinces. The farther you explore the world map, the stronger the army of the city you'll need to face. The Combat Pentagon conditions the battles, a five classes system that kind of works like rock, paper, and scissors.

PvP is strong, fun, addictive, but Elvenar doesn't need it at all. The world map has many interesting battles to offer and a fun system to engage in them. There's no need to make it all more complex. Enjoy this peaceful world while you find new things on the map.

Free to play or pay to win, that's the question

One of the most common questions around Elvenar players is if the game is really F2P or if this is a P2W game. The first thing we should review about this matter is that players don't mind paying for a game. That has been proven thousands of times in the gaming industry. If the game is good, people will give our money to play it. If the game is free, players will give it a try and decide by themselves if the game deserves to get real money invested into in.

Fantasy worlds and magic buildings are highly attractive features to MMORPG players, mostly those who would like to experience true progress in building a wonderful city. Players could choose to raise their production level or to increase their knowledge points. This process is quick and takes less time than you expect, so it will be great for increasing your units and city rating.

We honestly believe that Elvenar does provide a fantasy atmosphere that no many games can achieve, but the intention that InnoGames has is not the correct approach to a community that can be the most loyal one of the entire world or the most toxic one that can bring a game to an endless abysm of forbidden games. It is true that a user may boost his stats by purchasing the premium currency that the publisher got to sell, but the vast majority of them want to play it for free.

It is the thing, and we will say it clear and loud: yes, Elvenar is free to play, but you need to play the game for hours, days, and weeks to make real progress to your city. Want to build faster and get more resources? Buy the premium currency of the game with real-life money. Just like you are thinking, players hate this. The progress always seems to be too slow, and the strategy you take always appears to be one step behind that those who pay for diamonds.

Graphics and sound review

Elvenar graphics are not bad at all for a browser-based game. Actually, back in the day, most players considered that the looks of this game were one of the main features that made them play it. Being supposedly a free game, it was amazing the way that Elvenar looked. Fantasy buildings are beautiful, and the province's landscapes are stunning to watch, making us believe that there's something special behind this fantasy universe.

As we said before, Elven buildings somehow look more beautiful than humans' buildings, but then again, it all depends on the taste of each person. If you closely review the graphics, you might get surprisingly pleased. The same happens in the sound department. Elvenar doesn't have the best sound department of the gaming industry, but for a free to play the game, they are not bad at all. The developers know what they are doing, and they tried to make Elvenar attractive to play with the new updates.

Elvenar community

Some people play Elvenar just for the joy of being relaxed in a fantasy landscape free of problems. The suitable music is pure happiness for you while you build a city from a small patch to an enormous metropolis. There are not many things to worry about. In fact, the only thing you should analyze carefully is the use of the resources you get and the strategy you use to place new buildings.

The size of your city always seems incredibly small, even if you sell buildings to get more space. Since there's no player vs. player and the focus is a lot more peaceful than other strategy games, one of the options to get resources is the trade menu. Well, in the end, it’s all about to share a good time and release the bad energies. In the trade menu, you can negotiate with your neighbors and trade resources you have for the resources you need.

We can summarize that games like Elvenar are made to scape of a very busy routine and also find a haven to quietly build a new city where you can make a difference if you offer a hand to a neighbor. The trading feature is so successful that the Elvenar community is actually very supportive of new users and is always there to help them use the game features.

What can you do in Elvenar to be entertained?

At this point, we have already made a review of almost anything that we can find in Elvenar. Our verdict about this game has already been made, but we haven't shown you some of the things you can perform in this game yet. Obviously, building a city is the first thing you need to accomplish.

It sounds simple, but soon you'll realize that you have two options: one, invest a lot of time in the game, play it as much as you can, complete all of the quests so you can earn the resources you need to use, build the constructs your population needs and review if it's better for you to fight or to negotiate with the IA. This first option will need a lot of time, dedication, and effort to be achieved appropriately.

The second option is to skip all of these activities and pay for diamonds with your money. You won't need to spend hours sitting in front of the PC or using your mobile device. You can just get ahead of the curve of progression and power up your experience. If you use diamonds, you will be able to build everything you need in Elvenar. You will also have everything you need for your city: a new building to increase the productiveness, a new size to put more constructs and more culture to upgrade your streets. Your Elvenar experience will be completed exactly how it should be.

But then, what's the problem with this? Hundreds of games out there are free to play, and people can pay to enhance the gameplay, that's nothing new. The real problem comes when developers intentionally block the game's progression if the player decides not to invest real money into it. We are not saying that this happens in Elvenar; we are saying that gamers are prone to see this as the worst thing that somebody can do in a game.

The Verdict

Elvenar is an excellent building simulator game. Its essence is unique and, to this day, no other city building game can achieve this. Elvenar is magical, is mysterious, and above all things, is extremely relaxing. To review Elvenar, we should see further than the fact this is a city building game. If you are looking for a game where you can battle against every other player, you should skip Elvenar. This is a game to enjoy after a long day of stressful work.

This Elvenar review was not written to discourage players from trying to this magnificent game, but it's extremely important to show off the flaws and virtues that Elvenar has. Above all of the bad things that gamers have said over the years about this title, the core Elvenar community is actually a very warm one.

Overall, there's no competition in this world. Of course, it is nice to see your new city glowing more than the others, but with the neighborly help and trade feature, you can review the cities of your friends and see what they are missing.

If we only talk about the good things of this game, these are our top 4 favorite things about Elvenar:

• Beautiful graphics, comfortable landscapes, peaceful gameplay.
• Heavily focused on world exploration, city enhancement, and resource gathering. This is a highly addictive formula.
• Diplomatic game style, but you can still get into amazing combats against the powerful IA.
• A loving community that's always aiming to help each other.

On the negative side, we can only state three things in this review:

• No PvP mode. We know this is a peaceful game, but a PvP option would've been phenomenal.
• Sometimes, your progress feels incredibly slow. Like you are being tempted to invest real money to speed things up...
• Building queue time. It is possible to feel like your city will never be built because of the constant balance that this game has.

If we were going to scale the pros and cons of Elvenar, we would say that the good things about this game are much better than bad things. Give it a try. You might feel surprised by all that you discover. And if you need anything else, you can always count on MMOAuctions to solve all of your problems.

FAQ

How do you play Elvenar?

You can play Elvenar on your phone or in a web browser. It is easy, it is safe, and it's fun!

Does Elvenar cost money?

No. This is a free-to-play game, so you don't have to pay anything to enjoy it. However, if you want to make faster progress, you must acquire premium currencies with real-life money.

Should I really spend my time playing Elvenar?

It will depend on what you are looking for in this game. If you want to peacefully build a beautiful city while enjoying a piece of suitable music and getting a relaxing time, go for it. If you want to battle everything that moves and faces against other players, skip it - there's no PvP mode. It's all peace and charm.