By William Bernard
Zynga isn’t particularly known for moving beyond its comfort zone when it comes to game development. All of its games share its trademark cutsie look, and the game-play variation between each of them really isn’t all that much different when one steps back to look at the bigger picture. So it’s a little surprising to some that Empires & Allies was announced, as Zynga’s latest entry actually involves combat, fighting, and for the first time ever – player versus player conflict.
The game takes place on a large, sprawling island game board. You begin on one of these small islands, recently being bombed to oblivion by the evil Dark Empire. Your task is to rebuild your island’s economy, build up its armed forces, and go out and conquer. The tutorial walks you through the basics. You start by building up some houses, farms, and a barracks. More houses means more rent, and more farms means more profits. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The creation and building aspect of the game is very similar to Zynga’s previous titles, even down to the clicking of coins and power-ups within the player’s town. Player’s of any –Ville game should feel right at home, no doubt.
Even so, the game is easy to pick up. It’s entirely mouse driven and the tutorial does a fantastic job of introducing you to all the elements of the game.
The real meat of the game involves your armies. While you can go visit your friend’s cities and help them grow crops and collect rent (again, a very familiar concept to any –Ville players) you can also INVADE them, which has a much higher payout. Invading is an easy process – pick which troops you want to use and where they will fight. After that, you can click on the enemy unit to attack. Direct hits will remove some of their HP as well as spawn some energy and money. If you are defending, the computer does this for you, you don’t necessarily need to be online for it, as long as you have a suitable defense force, and your empire should be safe. There unfortunately isn’t much strategy involved in actual battle part the game apart from deciding what forces to build and where to place them
You can’t just go around invading all your friends however. The game’s bogeyman is the Dark Empire, and you need to muster enough allies to take them on. While invading is fun and has larger payouts in the short term, you also have to foster alliances with other player’s if you want to eventually take on the Dark Empire. It can be interesting to balance the pros and cons of each to find a sustainable balance for your own empire.
The game is both visually and aurally pleasing. Everything has that distinct Zynga look (which in of itself isn’t bad) and animated nicely. The music and sounds are all also well done.
By itself, the game is fun and addicting, however in true Zynga fashion; they limit you tremendously with energy. It takes energy to just do about anything in the game, and once you’re out, you’re out until it recharges, unless you pay. In true Zynga fashion, they make it very clear that they want you to buy energy and power-ups from their RMT store and this can be a huge turn-off for some people.
Overall, Zynga has managed to broaden their offerings well with Empires and Allies. It’s an addicting game that is very approachable and different enough as well to attract not just current –Ville players but maybe even some more core gamers who would really enjoy the war aspect of the game. It suffers mainly from the same flaws that all Zynga games do – repetitive gameplay, reliance on energy, and constant reminders that you can buy your way to the top, but if you are able to look past this than Empires and Allies is probably Zynga’s best offering yet.
Click here to play Empires and Allies
[Download the file here Tukko Rating | Empires and Allies]
[Tukkolabs]
Tukko Rating | Empires and Allies
By William Bernard
Zynga isn’t particularly known for moving beyond its comfort zone when it comes to game development. All of its games share its trademark cutsie look, and the game-play variation between each of them really isn’t all that much different when one steps back to look at the bigger picture. So it’s a little surprising to some that Empires & Allies was announced, as Zynga’s latest entry actually involves combat, fighting, and for the first time ever – player versus player conflict.
Even so, the game is easy to pick up. It’s entirely mouse driven and the tutorial does a fantastic job of introducing you to all the elements of the game.
The real meat of the game involves your armies. While you can go visit your friend’s cities and help them grow crops and collect rent (again, a very familiar concept to any –Ville players) you can also INVADE them, which has a much higher payout. Invading is an easy process – pick which troops you want to use and where they will fight. After that, you can click on the enemy unit to attack. Direct hits will remove some of their HP as well as spawn some energy and money. If you are defending, the computer does this for you, you don’t necessarily need to be online for it, as long as you have a suitable defense force, and your empire should be safe. There unfortunately isn’t much strategy involved in actual battle part the game apart from deciding what forces to build and where to place them
The game is both visually and aurally pleasing. Everything has that distinct Zynga look (which in of itself isn’t bad) and animated nicely. The music and sounds are all also well done.
By itself, the game is fun and addicting, however in true Zynga fashion; they limit you tremendously with energy. It takes energy to just do about anything in the game, and once you’re out, you’re out until it recharges, unless you pay. In true Zynga fashion, they make it very clear that they want you to buy energy and power-ups from their RMT store and this can be a huge turn-off for some people.
Overall, Zynga has managed to broaden their offerings well with Empires and Allies. It’s an addicting game that is very approachable and different enough as well to attract not just current –Ville players but maybe even some more core gamers who would really enjoy the war aspect of the game. It suffers mainly from the same flaws that all Zynga games do – repetitive gameplay, reliance on energy, and constant reminders that you can buy your way to the top, but if you are able to look past this than Empires and Allies is probably Zynga’s best offering yet.
Click here to play Empires and Allies
[Download the file here Tukko Rating | Empires and Allies]
[Tukkolabs]