Illyriad - Grand Strategy MMO
Before going into why I cannot recommend this game, let me point out that there are a couple of positive aspects to Illyriad. First, for a MMO, the game’s community is exceedingly welcoming to newcomers. Many of the established players are willing to answer basic questions in the chat, and even provide early game resource donations. The game world is suitably large and there is a strategic depth to the game that requires classic “guns vs. butter” decision making.
Those things said, there are two components of the game that prevent a recommendation.
– Real player with 4248.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder RPG Games.
For starters, this game is free-to-play, with a good premium currency model that isn’t pay-to-win (and you can even win free currency on Trivia Tuesdays). The community is great and very helpful to new players, and due to game design, big players aren’t rewarded for griefing new players, and there are apparently big players who will punish those who try.
The game itself is for those who like long-term worlds that change slowly, which I like, but ultimately, I ran into a series of disappointments that convinced me this game wasn’t for me.
– Real player with 460.5 hrs in game
Romans: Age of Caesar
A co-op MMORTS from a team of veteran city builder developers, Romans: Age of Caesar is the latest historical strategy game from Stronghold developers Firefly Studios. In Romans players must rebuild the empire as they gather resources, re-establish trade routes and protect shared city states from barbarian invasion!
Build Rome Together
Experience classic city builder gameplay online as you build, trade and fight alongside fellow players in a shared open world. With up to 16 players per city, governors must cooperate to grow and begin rebuilding the empire.
Grow Your Economy
Beyond your district lies an expansive empire map filled with new settlements, unique resources and growing threats. Forge alliances with otherwise rival city states, revive the republic and restore the Roman Empire to its former glory!
Reforge an Empire
Engage in tactical combat to push back barbarian frontiers in PvE or engage in political warfare, forging alliances to claim glory in epic PvP battles. Draw blood or work alongside fellow governors, defeating common threats and building the prosperity of your shared city states.
Become Caesar
With the ultimate goal to be crowned Caesar, players must carefully work their way into the senate. Earn the confidence of your political partners and either rise with them through the lower chambers or betray former allies when it suits you best. Manoeuvre between different loyalties, positions and even gods, to remain politically nimble and succeed in your final quest for power.
Key Features
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🏛️BUILD Rome Together - Rebuild Rome’s once great cities with up to 16 players and ally with thousands more across the empire.
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💰GROW Your Economy - Specialise your city district to serve the needs of your fellow governors, cooperating to prosper and expand.
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🗺️REFORGE an Empire - Resist barbarians and threats from traitorous politicians as you establish new settlements and trade routes.
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🗡️BECOME Caesar - Negotiate your way through the lower levels of the Senate, sights firmly set on the title and power of Caesar.
Read More: Best City Builder Free to Play Games.
World Of Conquerors - Origins
having played the game a decent amount of time this game for me was very enjoyable. You build cities over time like a mobile game but you can raid for the resources you need through play. you have to consider unit strengths you can upgrade units with tech and pick and level up your general who serves as your heavy hitter. Game looks are not what is important to me and i enjoy the gameplay which i think is better. i’ve seen better but i’ve certainly seen worse at least nothing is glitching through the walls.
– Real player with 117.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder Free to Play Games.
I’ve played Evony, Stronghold Kingdoms Online, and others in this genre. This is the first one I’ve seen where you control an army live in rts style. I like it. Also, there’s no long wait as your army very slowly travels across the map. This game uses a points system. You can travel anywhere you want instantly as long as you have the Marching Points. Your market, barracks, stables, and archer/ranger school generate Marching points. You also loot Marching points when you raid things, including other players. Plenty of inactives to raid if you’re a new player grinding it out to your promotion. This game just went free to play so if you’re into Evony type games you’ll want to try this one out for sure. There are three races you can choose from. I chose the Elves because I like ranged armies and the Elves have the best ranger bonuses. But each race has it’s own unique benefits/bonuses.
– Real player with 30.0 hrs in game
Stronghold Kingdoms
Okay, with over 12000 hours on steam alone I think it’s time I review this game. This is a very addicting very parasitic game. It is completely pay to win. While it is possible to do everything for free it would take too much time. The steam version has a lot of issues with crashing so It’s probably best to just download the client at strongholdkingdoms.com. I actually quit this game for some time after leading my house to win an Age then plunging it into war.
If you want to be successfull in this game (in terms of leading other players) you have to have a basic understanding of politics and diplomacy. This game has tightly weaved webs in its community that can sometimes be very hard to climb. It took me most of an age to rise to the rank of House Marshal. It took rising up through the ranks of a faction within house 16. Then when I had a reputation I formed my own faction and filled it with volunteers from other factions of House 16 and the gloucestershire area. Pretty soon it was full and I formed 2 more factions and joined them to house 16. At this point I had 3 votes to make myself marshal. But it was not time to strike. I waited for the opportune moment which presented itself as a out of game issue that my house marshal had. Suddenly he had to go on vacation mode. During his vacation the house started to go slightly down hill and I would just keep whispering how we needed a house marshal. It wasn’t long before I had some of the other convinced that we needed a new HM. But they wern’t sure who, it’s not normally a responsibility people want. Luckily I already had plans of stepping up and ran unopposed. This wasn’t the top of the ladder though. House 16 (at this point) was in a super alliance that controlled the server. House 16 happened to be slated for winning the second age. I had to maintain diplomacy with the other houses of the alliance while waiting for my age to begin. Once it began I became the leader of the super alliance it was just a matter of keeping stability. Which takes all your time. I was psychologically drained and by the end of the round I was ready to quit. But the world at this point was farmville. So I declared war without warning on our main enemy and left the game. I found out later that the enemy won and took the next age.
– Real player with 12899.3 hrs in game
Dear Wallets, the TL;DR is run from this game. It will make promises about delivering the best night of your life, only to steal your dignity, and your pocketbook
I started SHK approximately a year ago, in that time i’ve learned that sometimes customer service does get so bad that your absuive family relations really did you a favor preparing you for the “Real World”.
The issues as I see them:
1. You MUST pay to play: You can invest all the time you have to be “the best” but you’ll never come close to the lady/fella that has thousands to spend in order to become the digital pimp of SHKland. You will forever be outclassed and outgunned, and if you want to have any hope of being a competitive player, you’ll end up spending at minimum a few hundred dollars to keep up. Free to pay this game isn’t.
– Real player with 3358.0 hrs in game
Million on Mars: Space to Venture
Million on Mars feels great with its crafting and how hardcore it is.
The linking of the factories has to be my favorite part, it really lets you build complex structures and planning really has to go a long way.
The sound track is absolutely beautiful.
The terrain feels like I’m actually on mars
Obviously this game is in early access and a lot of work still needs to go into it.
Would love to see more progression systems but as early access goes I think it’s worth it!
– Real player with 184.4 hrs in game
This is still clearly early alpha, but the resources/recipe system definitely shows promise for being a physically accurate model for really building a human civilization on Mars!
– Real player with 89.4 hrs in game
Game of Thrones Winter is Coming
The game is pay to win, yes. But you can still have fun playing it for free. For fans and lovers of Game of Thrones, I would recommend this game.
If you do not love or haven’t even heard of Game of Thrones, then I would still recommend this game if you like multiplayer and strategy/base building type of games
I would advise strong caution to you about whether you should spend money on this game. It’s so easy to spend money on games like this that suck you in with ‘special’ promotions. Do not fall for this marketing trick. The packs are not special, and they are offered to everybody.
– Real player with 6696.0 hrs in game
I’ve spent the biggest part of last year playing this game, building, upgrading etc. I can honestly say - this game is by far one of the worst when it comes to forcing people to pay in order to, not only win, but to play as well. The game requires you to spend far too much time clicking around and playing it in order to advance at a relatively reasonable speed. However, after you grind and build and research and get stronger, you come to realise that all that time was wasted, because every part of this game is and was, and always will be, very strongly tipped to P2W side. Items in this game ARE NOT cheap. If you think you’ll spend a few bucks here or there and you’ll be set - this isn’t the game for you… Overall, after playing it for so long, I can honestly say it’s a rather boring game, but most ppl stay cause of people they’ve met playing. One more thing to note is their customer service, which is by far the worst I’ve ever seen in any game. So long story short:
– Real player with 4933.6 hrs in game
Realm Quest
Download available at https://www.realmquest.com/
Realm Quest is a new VR MMO RPG being developed by the team at Dynamious Studios! The setting is a medieval fantasy spanning across a huge open world map. Players can search for quests, compete in skill competitions, and explore the enormous map while finding the perfect class to match your playing style! In our unrestrictive environment, game play will support what the players hope to achieve. Our team aims to create a truly immersive and unrivaled virtual reality experience.
CasinoRPG
After playing for a few months now and nearly 2000 hours, the game itself is very good, however they have CA which moderate the game and most do not understand their own official rules, which if you try to ask them about the rules, they get very crabby and decide to try to bully you aswell, so lets start with a few Pros and Cons!
Repeatedly asking/begging for any in-game currency/items - is not NO Begging.
Pros:
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Game has lots of mini-games to offer.
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Can build Casinos and decorate them
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Can earn the Cash shop currency just playing
– Real player with 2739.9 hrs in game
CasinoRPG wears a mask that makes it look like it’s a good game until you dig a little deeper and you’ll find out it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The Moderators, as has been mentioned before in other reviews, have no guidelines and just do what they want. It’s offensive how they behave in global chat fairly frequently from showing bias toward players who are part of a clique to calling for an end to discussion simply because they don’t care for the subject regardless of how pleasant and polite the conversation is. They do respond orderly when called to a table where someone is being a racist prick or loudmouth jerk though. Don’t use borderline language by the way, these jokers think Casino games are fun for the whole family and little seven year old Amy should be able to saddle up to the poker table with eighty one year old Guss. Seriously, it’s crazy.
– Real player with 1516.2 hrs in game
Kingdom Wars
MUST READ BEFORE YOU PLAY:
There are a few things i think people should know about before playing this game.I bought kingdom wars before it was a f2p game and have had two maxed out citys with high lvl hero’s and have spent money on the game beyond just buying it pre f2p.This is my honest review about what i know of the game.
BUGS! Be prepared to lose resorces for winning pvp matches.That’s right you lose for winning! If a person trys to fight you and you accept and then he pays you to flee battle you get a win and maybe a little gold from the payout BUT you will lose 5k food 5k wood and 5k stone from your towns resorce stash which varries depending on what your stash has in it but that was my last loss to this bug. Not only do you lose for winning a pvp match in this manner you don’t recieve the crowns for the win that you are supposed to get for winning.The only way to avoid this bug is to fight until the game tells you you won or lost.
– Real player with 328.8 hrs in game
Dawn of Fantasy: Kingdom Wars
Update: 4 years later - This game is still fun but you definitely need a friend. The playerbase is extremely low leaving much to be desired on the PvP and COOP aspects. You can still solo the online campaign but it won’t ne as enjoyable. It also helps a ton if you are the same faction as your friend. This allows you to group up MUCH easier as you have to share the same army str. My original review still stand, I just edited some mistakes from a less educated me.
Hello! Let me start by saying this. I wanted a game that I could command large masses of troops to attack strongholds. After searching EVERYWHERE I found this. This game exactly fit my needs! Now I am going to let aside my desire for games like this for the rest of the review to keep it unbiased.
– Real player with 280.4 hrs in game
Ymir
I whole-heartedly recommend this game with a few caveats.
-The game is early access and is being worked on my a single developer.
-This game will not be completed quickly. The game will not always be updated quickly (although he has been doing quite well so far. An update every couple weeks usually).
-There will be bugs (although generally not game breaking, they can be a challenge and if you do not want to deal with it, I would wait).
-While there are official servers. They are usually quite full. So, the other servers are entirely player run. They can be hit or miss. So, until there are more official servers / there are better server hosting tools / more dedicated server hosts are better equipped to handle the job, you may very well sink 2-3 weeks into a game and one day it is gone. This can be avoided by doing your research on servers before joining. Some server and their hosts are amazing such as Age of Porcos run by Shem and PigsLands run by Jey.
– Real player with 5283.9 hrs in game
New changes and recent major update have slowed the already awful pace of the game and made the overall progression and experience worse, to name off a few problems. I am giving this a negative just based on the early neolithic stage of the game alone, it is that fucking bad.
-You are now locked into where you spawn, you use to be able to move your starting tribe around a bit and maybe find a better spot at the risk of losing some or all of your tribe; you could even force settle onto another primitive tribe if they had a better spawn and after you reached a certain size you would have to fight them for the land. This ruins Arid players who spawn in the desert and rely on river networks to farm crops during agriculture and ranching phase of the game. Already players are just straight up abandoning and respawning if they get a godawful spawn.
– Real player with 3036.9 hrs in game