Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians review

If you go into this with an open mind and a hankering for a buttery smooth RPG, you'll find Might & Magic Elemental Guardians more than satisfactory. If you're looking for a familiar M&M title, however, you won't find it here.

I'm not totally versed in the whole universe, but I'm pretty sure a magical battling school syllabus wasn't originally on the cards. Either way it's damn shiny, enjoyable, and doesn't try to rinse every penny out of you.

In Elemental Guardians you collect the ultimate team of fighters for academic purposes. You battle through different worlds, like Volcano, Ice Caves, and Mystic Forest, each of which has their own level of foes and its own tutor.

Each world has seven areas, the last of which is a boss battle, and once you've completed each level set you unlock Simulation for all of the tasty loot. Just for those completionists who love a challenge, each area can be completed in Normal, Advanced, and Nightmare mode.

If you're sick of taking on AI, you can nip into the Arena to fight real-life people in PvP combat

The team you make up has to be well balanced in order to dominate a variety of enemies. Different elemental types have different strengths and weaknesses against others – this is displayed using green, orange, and red arrows.

Once on the field you get to choose what attacks you want to use, some of which take a little bit of time to recharge, so you've got to think things through tactically. Or, if you're really not up to thinking, you can stick the battle on Auto and watch the fight play out based on the strength of your team.

It's not quite so simple as that, however. Each new area you enter and each new foe you face will be harder than the last, which means you need to keep yourself and your team well prepared with upgrades and glyphs to make them the best you can be.

Buy upgrades with gems, evolve your beasties at the sacrifice of other weaker members, or use potions in some cases.

As far as looks go, it's a very good looking game. Everything from its animation through to its colourful graphics and excellent performance is seriously high quality.

Mobile gamers will be familiar with the process, but those new to these sorts of mobile games are also given plenty of direction and not all at once, either.

One thing to keep in mind is that it's a huge drain on your device's battery. Even on 'Normal' it can take a bit of a beating, but you can switch it to power saving mode in exchange for a lower framerate. The game looks great even on a lower powered setting.

After a while it also loses its appeal as a major part of it is grinding for Soul Stones and upgrades. Saying that, it's very well done and feels totally balanced in the way your creatures level up.

Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians isn't the game fans were hoping for, but it's a game you'll enjoy nonetheless. It's high quality, easy to follow, generous, and there's tons to do in it.

For this style of free to play RPGs, and despite its lack of innovation, it knows what it wants to do and it does it damn well. It won't cost you anything, so I'd highly recommend you give it a go.