Elias The Mighty

In Brief

Based on a Russian folk hero called Elias the Mighty. The game is a casual arcade puzzle game that is over 11 years old and based on shape recognition. This is very similar to Mysteries Of Horus that was given away earlier this year HERE; the main difference is the theme.

Installation:

Elias The Mighty downloads to a 33.3 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper the set-up file and a read me). The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed if you wish. The installed game is approximately 34.5 MB (37.5 MB )in size.

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Elias The Mighty

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop; the shortcut to the game, plus three others ''Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and a shortcut to a free online game. These latter three shortcuts can be deleted once the game has been installed. The Themida wrapper may alert your security and even block the installation; there are details about this issue in the read me that unpacks from the downloaded zip file.

Introduction:

Based on the legendary Russian folk hero, Elias the Mighty is a thrilling Arcade-Puzzle game based on shape recognition. Match the objects with their corresponding shapes to keep Elias and fellow characters strong. Use food to increase the power of your character. Their health will fade fast without your Puzzle expertise. Collect gems and spend your riches on more items. Fight alongside Elias the Mighty in a storyline steeped with tradition.

Reference accessed HERE. 23rd March 2019

The Game:

Ever notice how most great movie villains have foreign accents? Russian, German, British… it usually depends on when it was made, but the common thread is there. Animated films are particularly notorious for this. You will find plenty of Russian villains in Elias the Mighty, but also some Russian heroes too – in fact, the game is based on a Russian folk legend.

When the story opens we learn that Russia is full of scoundrels, and I don’t mean communist spies. These guys make Stalin look like Santa Claus. The Nightingale Robber lurks near the river at Smorodina, and no one can get past him. What’s a country to do? Well, luckily for the citizens, Russia is also full of heroes like you, Elias the Mighty. Being absolutely flipping enormous has its advantages, as you’ll see when the bad guys go flying across the story screen.

How to beat these fiends? You must match a variety of symbols to their correspondingly shaped gaps. These shapes are varied each round, and include horses, bulls, feathers, jugs, and all manner of other objects. At later levels, there are even changing symbols, which stop their shape shifting once you’ve grabbed them.

You gain bonus points for placing shapes of the same color next to each other, so it really pays to have rows of all blue, green, or yellow in order to bring up the score. In order to beat each level, you need to beat the target score. If you don’t make the cut, you lose one of your lives. You’re only given 3 lives to live, after which you must start again, so the pressure is on.

Elias loses power gradually throughout the game, which lowers the number of points that he earns when the round is over. Flowers, donuts, and honey are all food items which can boost your power. An army marches on its stomach – remember that. It’s good to keep plenty of food handy. Discarding unwanted tiles also boosts Elias’ power.

There are several special gaps to take notice of, giving you certain temporary powers. The wand lets you fill any shaped gap with the current color. Bonus symbols give additional points, and hourglasses will “pause” the game, preventing Elias from losing power while its activated. Scrolls give you hints on where to place symbols, and gems can be used to buy food and equipment.

Of course, to be a good hero you need some equipment. Equipment boosts your points, relative to Elias power level (so the more power he has, the more all of his items are worth). You can purchase items and food using the gems you’ve earned, which you pick up by matching pieces to gem tiles. To start you get a scoop, sword, and barrel. As you gain riches, you can buy thirteen different upgrades, including chain mail, a shield, an axe, a helm, and even a steely rose.

Elias the Mighty has high quality 2D graphics, which look like what you’d find in a good animated children’s movie. The music is suitable, and the general atmosphere is fun. While it’s not completely unique, it’s not a clichéd genre either, so its something different than what you see a lot of in casual games.

Unfortunately, Elias the Mighty also suffers from some mighty notable flaws. The story premise is engaging, but ends up poorly executed. The story screens are shown in between each level. Quite a number of these story screens include no text captions, so you’re left to imagine what is happening. For example, you might be shown a scene of bandits flying through the air, but its up to you to figure out if they are jumping to attack, or being thrown off by Elias. When you are given story, it is generally very short, maybe a sentence or too, and feels awkward. The whole plot is generally hard to follow.

While the notion of Elias’ power and how it relates to score points is interesting, it can become frustrating to constantly have to feed the big guy. It’s nearly impossible to get past levels four and five without resorting to constant feedings. I suppose if I ate nothing but honey and donuts and flowers I’d be hungry all the time too, but still…it puts a lot of pressure on the player to try and fill his gullet while focusing on the matches.

Also, despite a number of upgrades, the game dynamics don’t change much from level to level, so it becomes very repetitive after a short while. There aren’t any mini-games, nor many power-ups that drastically affect the game play.

Elias the Mighty is a mighty good attempt, but it falls mighty short. It would be great to see a sequel which has a stronger story, and more variety from level to level to keep the players more engaged.

Reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Joel Brodie on Mar 27, 2008 , re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 23rd March 2019

Conclusion:

I've not played an image recognition game in years, and was expecting to find this boring, Remembering that we were given one several years ago (the name of which escapes me at this time). Well, I actually found the game mildly entertaining and at times challenging. Definitely a keeper for me. 7 out of 10 for game play.

Other Reviews and Videos of Elias The Mighty:

You can read other comments about Elias The Mighty HERE (scroll to the bottom of the page to see comments).

Also, you can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game free 24/7 via MyPlayCity HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big fish Games

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Elias The Mighty to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Elias The Mighty and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Elias The Mighty doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums). The free game over at Epic Games is Oxenfree a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift, ( worth £14.99/$19.99/€19.99). Oxenfree ends April 4th, where a new game called The Witness will be given away. Indie Gala have just added Memoranda to their free games list, plus another 20 free games in their recently added showcase section that includes adventure, RPG, Simulation, strategy and casual games i.e. Memetown USA, The Great Story of a Mighty Hero, Camp Sunshine, Five Nations, False Birth, GOR - Gorilla Office Rampage, Home is where Chip is, Age of Fear: The Free World, Die Legende von Saya: Befehl aus der Dunkelheit - (The Legend of Saya: Command from the Dark), What Never Was, The Last Humans: Awakening, Childhood, Dunwell, Safe Not Safe, Hi Hotel, Bugs Must Die, Cuadradito y Circulito, Hellino, Hovership Havoc and Wake Up , or you can find them all HERE. The Humble Store are giving away downloadable copies of Tacoma HERE, (ends Sunday late afternoon). Finally, there are some excellent bargains on sale via Steam HERE.