Eternium

Review by eFreeware

Most mobile action RPGs ask you to accept a compromise before you even start: a virtual stick under your thumb, a screen crowded with buttons, and a nagging sense that the interesting loot sits behind a paywall. Eternium, from developer Making Fun, is a free Android title that sets out to remove both irritations at once.

It has been on Google Play since June 2014 and has built a large following in that time, with more than 10 million installs and a 4.8 average across roughly 2.69 million ratings. Those numbers suggest a game that has aged well rather than one that burned bright and faded.

The pitch is straightforward. Eternium is an action RPG in the mold of the classics, with a control scheme built for touchscreens and a stated refusal to charge for progress. Whether that combination holds up for you depends on how much you value relaxed controls over direct ones, and how much patience you have for a game that grows slowly before it gets interesting.

Drawing signs instead of mashing buttons

The most distinctive thing about Eternium is how you move and fight. Instead of a thumbstick, you tap where you want your hero to go, which the developer describes as closer to the point-and-click roots of the genre and more restful than holding a stick for long sessions. Spells are cast by swiping a pattern on the screen, so a quick gesture produces a fireball or a healing effect rather than a button press.

I like the sound of this for anyone who has struggled with the cramped, imprecise feel of on-screen sticks. Drawing a sign to cast is a tactile idea, and it gives combat a rhythm that button mashing does not. The trade-off is that gestures take a moment to learn and can misfire under pressure, so the early hours may feel clumsier than a conventional layout would.

Combat itself is pitched as fast and responsive, with showy effects, damage numbers that pop, and atmospheric music behind it. Your hero levels up to gain new abilities and better attributes, and the developer lists roughly twenty abilities per class, with four more for each of your three companions. That is a generous pool to grow into, and it is the main reason the game is said to start simple and end up tactically busy.

Three heroes, four worlds and a growing pile of loot

You choose between a Mage, a Warrior and a Bounty Hunter, and the weapon list runs from swords and axes to staves and guns. The Warrior can carry a shield or fight with two weapons, which gives the class a bit of room to define itself. Each class draws on a different slice of the ability list, including offensive options such as Whirlwind, Shockwave, Arc Lightning and Blizzard, crowd control like Frost Nova, Vortex and Silence, and stealth tools such as Smokescreen, Traps and Snipe.

The campaign runs across four hand-crafted worlds and sends you through caves, dungeons, forests, villages and graveyards, into demon-held castles, over snowy peaks, and eventually to the moon and the deserts and jungles of the red planet. Along the way you rescue a tank, a healer and a ranger who join your party, and combining their abilities with your own is where the tactical side of the game opens up.

Loot is the other half of the loop. Chests drop gold, gemstones and gear, and equipment climbs from common through rare and epic to legendary. Gemstones fit into sockets in your armor, and socketed jewelry can be crafted and combined three at a time into a stronger piece. The storyline follows your hunt for an arch-enemy named Ragadam, with a plot the developer pitches as interplanetary intrigue lightened by comic characters.

Progression does not stop at the campaign. Past level 70, experience goes into Champion Levels, which have no cap and give steady stat gains. Those levels carry over to new heroes, so a second or third character levels faster than the first. Beyond the four story acts, the Trials of Valor mode offers an endless run of randomly generated levels for players who want to keep pushing a finished character.

What the free model actually looks like

Eternium is free to download, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases. The developer's position is that the game can be played entirely for free, that more than nine in ten players do so, and that purchases are optional. Gems, the main currency, drop from enemies and quests, and there is no stamina or energy meter gating how often you can play. The strongest items come from play, not payment.

That last point is the one worth weighing, because it is a claim about design rather than a description of a feature. Taken at face value, it means a patient player should be able to reach the same gear as a spending one, just more slowly. If that holds, the free path is genuinely the main path rather than a demo. If it does not, the grind is the cost of admission.

The absence of ads is a meaningful detail in a free game. The game carries a Teen rating, which is consistent with the combat and the fantasy subject matter.

Playing without a connection

Eternium is a free Android title with a large amount of content. For a game with this much loot and progression, that is a real convenience: a long flight, a commute with unreliable signal, or a quiet evening away from Wi-Fi are all viable.

The download itself is a step you have to complete first, and the offline allowance does not cover everything.

Who this style of RPG tends to suit

The people most likely to settle in here are those who grew up with point-and-click action RPGs and miss that slower, more deliberate feel on a phone. If thumbsticks have always felt like a compromise, tap-to-move is a genuinely different answer, and the gesture-based casting gives the combat a texture that a row of buttons cannot match.

It also rewards players who like systems. Twenty abilities per class, three companions with four each, socketed gems, craftable jewelry, item fusion and an unlimited Champion Level track add up to a lot of tinkering between fights. If you enjoy planning a build and watching it come together over weeks, the depth is the draw. If you want a quick, self-contained story you can finish in a weekend, the long tail of progression may feel like more than you asked for.

The free-to-play structure is worth factoring in as well. Someone who resents being nudged toward a store will find the developer's stated approach reassuring, while someone who wants to see everything quickly may find the pace slower than they expect.

A patient pick for classic action RPG fans

Eternium is a well-established free action RPG with an unusual control scheme, a large ability roster, three classes, four crafted worlds, an endless mode and a progression system that keeps going past the credits. Its strongest argument is the combination of tap-to-move and swipe-to-cast with a stated no-paywall philosophy, and its weakest is the time it asks you to invest before the tactical side fully opens up.

I would point it toward players who want a classic-style loot game they can chip away at for months, and who are happy to learn a control scheme that is not the industry standard. Anyone who needs immediate mastery or a short, tight campaign should weigh that before downloading. For everyone else, the install cost is nothing, and the game has had over a decade to prove it can hold an audience.

What's new in version 1.47.12

Visit our official forum to read the notes for this release! https://forum.makingfun.com/forum/eternium/announcements-aa