Armies of Exigo, An Underrated And Forgotten Strategy Video Game
Armies of Exigo is a real-time fantasy-based strategy video game developed by Black Hole Entertainment and published for Microsoft Windows by Electronic Arts in November, 2004. Set in a rather 'Tolkinesque' world, where humans, elves, and dwarves wage war against evil, Armies of Exigo was compared with Warcraft III, which was released two years earlier, given the fact that it has very similar graphics.
However, the storyline differs significantly from that of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne. There are three distinct single-player campaigns (organised individually under three chapters), highlighting each civilisation present within the game, specifically the Empire (an alliance of humans, elves, and dwarves), the Fallen (undead creatures), and the Beasts (lizard-like creatures, orcs, and ogres).
Although Armies of Exigo follows almost the same strategy patterns as other previous critically acclaimed titles such as those from the Age of Empires, Warcraft, and Starcraft series, it does also manage to come up with something fresh. The fact that the maps are conceived with an additional underground network of tunnels is a unique feature for the game. This way the player must either take on the tunnels themselves in order to subdue their enemies or to expect invading armies rushing in and out of them. Additionally, the units within the game can be upgraded to a maximum level number of 5, depending on the experience accumulated throughout the gameplay session.
The soundtrack was composed by Jeremy Soule, an American composer of most notably video game soundtracks. In 2006, Electronic Arts shut down the game's multiplayer servers. The game received quite favourable reviews on Metacritic. Below you can watch a gameplay video on Youtube featuring the Empire against the Beasts:
Documentation sources and external links: Image source: http://www.moddb.com/games/armies-of-exigo/downloads/wallpapers7