The Last Spell - Elves of Amberwald Review Summary

The new map's unique mechanics and added elf race bring some fun, but overpowered Sacred Flower, poorly designed penalized elves, awkward claws, and slim DLC value hold it back.

Sacred Flower is overpowered: The Sacred Flower is considered overpowered, especially for poison builds. It can wipe wide-area mobs and has strong single-target damage.

DLC has substantial content: The DLC is praised for its substantial content, including a new map, race, weapons, and a big balance/QOL update. It offers impressive value for the price.

Elves focus on dodge, poison, stun: Elves have a heavy focus on Dodge, Poison, and Stun, gaining benefits to these stats and effects that proc on them. This specialization can be strong.

Boomerang is overpowered: The boomerang is considered one of the strongest weapons, especially against large groups. It is often described as overpowered and able to wipe hordes efficiently.

Weapons rebalanced and improved: Older weapons were rebalanced, with most buffed, encouraging their use again. The developers shared their balance reasoning, showing care.

Elf race poorly designed and penalized: Elves suffer from harsh penalties, especially inside town walls where damage is drastically reduced, and their dodge-based identity is unreliable. Their perks are often seen as overpowered or useless, and the race feels tedious and forces players to avoid settlements.

Claws underwhelming and awkward: Claws are criticized for weak damage and range, lack of debuffs, high mana costs, and a useless passive. Their stacking mechanic is awkward and can reduce damage, making them a poor weapon choice.

DLCs offer insufficient content and value: The DLCs are disappointing, adding little content like no new monsters, only one map, and a lack of meaningful additions. Players feel the expansion does not justify the purchase price or provide a worthwhile replay experience.

Final boss simple and disappointing: The final boss is too simple, with no discernible mechanics, and appears as four statues with invincibility that just drags out time. The production is cheap with no animations.

RNG makes game unbalanced and tiring: The game is heavily RNG-dependent, with random talent trees rarely providing synergies and difficulty curves that make builds meaningless. Long play sessions become tiring and frustrating.

New map has unique mechanics: The Amberwald map features a changing layout, traps, and gimmicks like vision-blocking obstacles and random structures. It also has special defense structures and a different base design.

DLC adds elf race and map: The DLC introduces a new playable elf race along with a new map called Amberwald. Elf characters come with unique perks and synergies that support different builds.

DLC adds three new weapons: The DLC adds three new weapon types: claws, Sacred Flower, and boomerang. Each has distinct mechanics and playstyles, such as claws for isolated targets and boomerang for AoE.

Sacred Flower is potent but risky: The Sacred Flower is a magic weapon that deals poisoning damage over an area but has short range and high costs. It also has a passive that can harm the user, making evasion important.

Apocalypse system reworked: The Apocalypse mode has been reworked, offering new modifiers and a heat mode. It allows players to customize runs and includes achievements like 'Plant VS Zombies' requiring 12 modifiers.

DLC is worth the price: Several reviewers state that the DLC offers good value for money and is well worth the purchase. The feedback indicates high satisfaction with the content relative to its cost.

Recommended for base game fans: Players who already enjoy the base game are encouraged to buy the DLC for additional content and challenges. This is a frequent sentiment among positive reviews.

Skip until on sale: Some reviewers suggest new players can skip the DLC until it goes on sale, as it is not essential for enjoying the base game. This advice is aimed at those who are not yet deeply invested.

Not worth the price: A few reviewers feel the additional purchase is not worth it, citing insufficient content or value. This negative sentiment appears in a minority of feedback.

Good for new challenges: The DLC is recommended for players who want new challenges and more content in the game. This appeals to veterans seeking additional depth.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 10.5h.

Session length: 5.0h.

Reviews suggest the game shows initial appeal that fades: flashy abilities and new additions are 'fun at first' but grow useless or tedious, with late-game fatigue, a disappointing final boss, and boring map design. A minority voice praises the progression and pacing as satisfying.

Friction: Arbitrary switches to flip with no sense of progression or purpose; Tedious elf race with no new monster; Boring maps that are hard to build defenses around; Flashy abilities that turn out to be relatively useless; Late-game fatigue and a tedious, disappointing final boss.

Unlock drivers: Well-tuned progression system and pacing; New race additions that open up team build potential.

Expansion Content Seeker: Replays existing maps with new content and compares expansion value against prior DLC. Motivation: To extend an enjoyed base game with a new map, new race and weapons, and more replay variation. Stance: buy.

Challenge-Focused Veteran: Pushes 3-skull maps, stacks Apocalypse modifiers, and tests new bosses under maximum challenge. Motivation: To find enough high-difficulty Apocalypse content to justify continued play. Stance: no buy.

Build-Tinkering Experimenter: Tests new weapons and racial abilities, tries unconventional gear-light builds, and records strategy notes for others. Motivation: To discover and exploit creative new builds with the added race and weapons. Stance: buy.

DLC content additions: The DLC introduces a new map called Amberwald, new weapons such as claws, sacred flower, and boomerang, and elven perks. It also includes quests with more RNG requirements and an elf race with an archer class.

DLC is expansion with map: The DLC is sold as an expansion with one map, and it is a DLC for The Last Spell. There are two DLCs available.

Comparisons to other DLCs: The DLC is frequently compared to the Dwarves of Runeburg/Runenberg DLC, including its initial release before buffs and map difficulty. It is also compared to the Runeberg map difficulty and the Dwarves DLC.

Supporter pack perception: All DLCs for this game are viewed as supporter packs, and the content they provide is not substantial. Some feel the DLCs don't give a whole lot of content.

Lengthy DLC campaign: The DLC stage is lengthy with 10 nights, and the campaign took 10.5 hours for a somewhat experienced player. The amount of content is impressive for the price.