I downloaded this a week and a half ago and have been hooked! I enjoy the strategy and the guilds create an interesting social dynamic. My only frustration is that the gold that you can purchase in game cannot be earned in any way and improvements to your infrastructure take an increasingly long time to complete as you progress. This makes the game time consuming in a way that will become tedious. There are also great features that are only accessible by using gold which can only be purchased (increasing production queue, resending a particular troop configuration to attack a city a second time, etc.). I would happily invest this money in the game once but I am not willing to do it once a week which is all the time the features last. All that to say I would definitely recommend downloading it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The more the merrier.
The game crashed all the time under iOS 4 and now it is crashing all the time on iOS 5 on my iPad... Sometimes you'll just be typing a message (for several minutes) and the game crashes. Right now, it crashes every time you look at an outstanding attack! Going to move it to my iPhone 4S and see how it does.
As for the general playability as a strategy game, I'd give it 4 stars after the latest update (and 3 before that) if it didn't crash.
What's keeping it from getting 5 stars (besides crashing)? The messaging system has issues: you can't send messages to multiple people and you can't forward large messages (although I haven't tried that since the latest update). The forum works a little clunky if you have a long thread: if it jumped you to where you last read, that would probably fix it. Plus, I would suggest doubling the size of the guild profile message so you can put useful things like contacts and sister guilds without running out of characters: it's the only way to figure out who to contact in a guild. Lastly, I'd add the ability to see attacks on/by guild members if you are at a certain membership level.
When you lose your city, everything you put into this game is lost! Do not pay even once for the 50 different ways they try to sucker you into upgrades, advances or speed. AGAIN, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING IN GAME. And the option that tells you you can demolish a building is a blatant lie. You can't. For a free game it can be fun though. I've played a few other games like this and this is by far the most expensive when it comes to "perks". You can buy just about anything with real cash. More resources, faster build time, heck you even have a lottery wheel to spin and you can buy more spins! Too be competitive you have to spend money. And the worst part is that you can lose it all if your city is attacked and conquered by someone else. So all of your time and hard earned money is gone, just like that. The "perks" are way too expensive and the in game cost is just as bad. This is as bad as going to the fair. On a positive note though, if you are just here to play the free version and have a little fun, this is the perfect game for you! DO NOT BUY ANY UPGRADES IN GAME!!!!
I really enjoy the game because it is not overly complex. I've tried the sword & magic games my husband plays, and they have way too many steps and minutiae. This game is easy to pick up and is basically just a time-management game with the challenge of preventing someone else from stealing your stuff.
Having said that, it's a very good thing that the game is easy enough to pick up, because it is frustratingly short of directions, answers, or general information. I've been playing for over a month and only just stumbled on to where I need to go to trade with other players. Very frustrating because 1) I was stalled on a quest for weeks because I didn't know I had trade offers, and 2) I didn't find it until I had given away resources, thinking I was "trading".
Overall, a very enjoyable game. Download it, ask around until you are accepted into a Guild, then ask the other players any questions on how to play.
I was having trouble transfering my account from one phone to another. I contacted Playmesh support for help. Tim at playmesh responded within hours of the placement of my request. It took a few days to finally get it working correctly, but Tim from playmesh was super helpful from beginning to end. Their support is second to none!
The only drawback to this game would be the server connection errors. If you can get past that, this game is SUPER deep. As soon as you feel like you have a handle on it, it's time to take over your first city. Then before you know it you're being recruited by a guild and that's where the politics of the game get complex. Can't attack one player because they are allied to another guild who has a grudge against you. An it gets better from there!!
Way to go Playmesh! Fix the server errors and you've got a runaway hit!!
I really like this game although it started kinda slow as you build your city. Lots of down time while you wait for something to build, or travel. My main complaint is server errors/down and uneven resources. I spend more time trying to trade for the resource i need than attacking. My suggestion for improvements are show the progress on the map as troops march to attack. Like a dotted line with a flag or knight or something. Speed up travel time. And improve the map screen so it's easier to use, more info at a glance. Also add some sort of calculator that will show how much each type of troop can carry so we don't send too many troops or not enough to carry all the loot. Lastly, improve the messaging system/reports. We should be able to save messages or reports or create folders. It'd be great if we could sort and go to the next message/report without going out and back in. I really enjoy this game a lot but these suggestions would make it even better.
This game is exactly what a mobile phone game should be like. It's easy to pick up and learn, while keeping you wanting to come back for more. It all takes place in real time, so for example, when you upgrade a building, or build more units, it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half. It forces you to put the game down and continue with your day. Your city is always gaining resources, so in an hours time, you generally have enough to upgrade or build more units. It's menus are easy to understand and navigate through, plus with being able to see your city, it doesn't feel like a text based game, when at it's core, thats what it is. For fans of Age of Empires, or Civilisation, this is for you. It's certainly not as complex as either if those, or any strategy game on a PC, but for a phone it's perfect. All it requires is a quick glance, a couple button presses, and that's it, no longer than writing a text.
I really enjoy this game. I have been playing it for several months, and it remains fun and challenging. It takes a little while to establish your first city, but the game accelerates and keeps accelerating, the more cities you take, the faster you can grow and conquer even more cities. It isn't just a smash and thump game, either, although you can certainly play it that way if you want. There is a lot of strategy and teamwork involved in the game. Spend some time picking a guild that you like, it will make the game much more enjoyable to team up with a group of players who are interested in the same playing style as you, whether you just want to raid and conquer as fast as possible, or grow slowly and form a lot of alliances with other guilds. Yes, they occasionally have server issues, but honestly, with the number of people playing the game, I figure that one or two days of downtime a month for a free game is something entirely reasonable to deal with. The other nice thing about this game is that you don't have to spend money in order to advance. Some of the features are well worth a few bucks, but even without them, the game is fully functional. I hope to keep playing this game for quite a while.
This game is one of the most addicting games I've played. If you can live with recurring bugs that never seem to get fixed, and you love this kind of genre then you'll enjoy this.
The most common bugs are the guild invitations that don't work, frequent connection issues that cause you to post the same message multiple times or send multiple armies on the same attack. But the biggest bug occurred when playmesh changed the guild command structure. Before the change, guild leaders who wanted to share responsibilities had to give their helpers full control of all guild functions. This means once you got "crowned" you could easily remove the crowns from anyone else in the guild or even disband the guild just by a click of a button. Playmesh created a rank system in response, but the permissions associated with each rank don't work, forcing naive guild leaders to still give full control to someone else if they want the help.
So with the importance of these bugs being around for so long, I give valor a 3.
This is a phenomenal game, it is almost exactly like a few online games, such as Evony or Travian. But this app makes the menus so easy and quick to navigate. Unlike other games out there you do not have to spend bucket loads of cash to rank high, it helps be definitely not needed. I drop $5 every two weeks just to keep my queue cap at five. Farming is made very easy and scouting is great. The troop levels for servers that support it is a great addition to the game, makes you choose where to spend your points. I love this game and will be playing for a long time to come. I give the UI a 10, game flow a 10... Only thing I wish was better was the interaction of guilds. Such as a warning systems and logs for when your alliance is attacked.
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