Realm of Empires

Haven't written a game review in a while, but here goes!

Lately I've been playing a game called Realm of Empires. Yes, it is a Facebook game, but it's not as lame as you'd think.

It can be categorized as a MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy game...what a mouthful). Like all Facebook games, you play this through your Facebook account in your web browser of choice. The gist of the game is you start with a small village and set out to take over the entire realm. In order to do so, you must upgrade your village (silver mines for money, barracks for infantry, stables for cavalry etc.), produce units, form alliances, and take over neighboring villages. The realm consists of NPC villages that players can take over or plunder for silver, and of course rival player-controlled villages.

Overview of a typical village.

There are usually 3 realms running at once, each with a different start date. This way newer players can start on the newer realms without being at a huge disadvantage to the more well-established players in the older realms. So if you want to play with your friends, first make sure you are on the same realm!

The scope of each realm is ever-growing - the first player on the realm starts at coordinates (0,0), and as new players join, they are assigned villages outwards in a circular fashion. If you look at the overall map of a realm, it is basically a circle composed of many points, each representing a village.




Map of a couple villages.

Once you've picked a realm and your first village has been established, you'll likely want to join a clan. Not only is joining a clan highly recommended, it is borderline mandatory. Without a clan, any of your neighbors can attack and invade your village without fear of any repercussions. You need a good-sized clan, preferably close by, not only for protection, but also to coordinate offense. Note that once your last village has been taken over, it is game over! You'll have to re-register on the realm, and start from scratch.

As far as benchmarking your progress in the game, there is a ranking system for both individual players and clans. Each village is worth a certain number of points depending on the upgrades that the village has. Combat units themselves are not worth any points, but can be used to take over villages that will add to your point total. Clan rankings are also based on points, which is simply the sum of all the points of the individual players in the clan. This provides a competitive nature to the game, for those of you out there that like to "win" at a game. In most other Facebook games, you are just playing by yourself, passing time in between class or work. But in RoE, you can actually become highly ranked, lead a top clan, and feel fully immersed in the game.

Combat is fairly simple - each unit has a defensive value and an offensive value. The outcome of a battle is determined by adding up all the offensive points of all the units that the attacking player has sent, and comparing it to the sum of the defensive points of the units stationed at the target village. Whichever side has more points wins. Winning by a larger margin ensures that more units on the winning side survive, so it is in the best interest of each player to have a "landslide victory." Villages can also be upgraded with walls and towers which modify the defensive value of the troops stationed there. On the other hand, siege units are available to counteract the effects of the walls and towers. Once a village has no more defenders left, the attacking player can send "governors" to commandeer the village.

As far as Facebook games are concerned, this is definitely one of the best ones out there.
For starters, a lot of the other Facebook games are mostly geared towards individual play. Some of the Facebook games that I'm familiar with are Mafia Wars, Restaurant City, and Farmville. All of these games are considered "single-player" games, since they require little or no interaction with other players. Of course they offer incentives for inviting other players to the game as a way of making their games more popular, but in the end, you can be quite successful playing the game by yourself. However, in order to be successful in RoE, you must join a clan and coordinate with your clanmates. The game has a built-in private messaging system as well as forums for each clan. The clan leader can designate other members to be diplomats, inviters, forum admins, etc. This introduces a social aspect to the game that many other games are lacking.

The game is also relatively simple. Some of the other browser-based MMORTS games I've played require you to do a ton of calculations on how many farms you need to support how many units, upkeep rates, and other annoying things. However, RoE buildings and units are all very straight forward. There is still a variety of buildings and units that require you to have an overall strategy, but you don't have to be extremely detail-oriented and nitpicky to succeed. The game also does not require a lot of time to play. In fact, the motto of the game is "15 minutes a day." Granted when you are planning a large-scale attack, you'll want to be around more to see how the attack is going and whether or not to make modifications to your attack, but for the most part, 15 minutes a day is enough to keep your villages operating. Of course, more active players that participate on the clan forums and plan for future wars will likely spend more than 15 minutes a day.



The draw of the game is the persistent world, climbing the ranking ladder, and the "high" value of each village. After you've logged out of your Facebook, your villages continue to operate, carrying out whatever instructions you left for them. It is always refreshing to log on and see that your villages have grown while you were away. But on the other hand, your villages can also be attacked while you're away, so you might be inclined to check up on your villages more often if you feel like your neighbors might be a threat. Climbing the ranking ladder can be achieved in 2 ways - managing your villages effectively and accumulating a large number of villages. Both add to your point total, and as you know, more points means higher rank! Lastly, you grow quite attached to your little villages. You can name your village whatever you want (as long as it is not offensive), and they continue to grow every day. Sure, you only put in "15 minutes a day," but once you've been playing for a while, you'd hate to see all that time and effort wasted. Remember, once you've lost your last village, you're literally "dead." You have to start all over from one meager village. So when attacking, or being attacked, quite a bit is at stake. This all adds up to a lot of fun, as long as you're the one winning!

However, some of the drawbacks to the game are that it is very difficult to catch up in a well-established realm. Once some players / clans are ahead, newer players will have a tough time competing with them. They can quite literally steamroll your villages (if they feel like it is worth their time to). If you wish to remain competitive, I'd highly recommend starting in a new realm. The oldest players are generally the highest ranked as long as they remain active. Also, the consequences to losing villages are rather harsh, but keeps the game exciting. Lastly, sometimes you just want to play the game, but there's nothing left to do! There is quite a bit of downtime while your villages are upgrading and your armies are training. But don't forget, the game was designed to be played in 15 minutes each day.

Pros: Simple, Multiplayer, Social, Competitive, Takes Very Little Time, Abundant Room for Strategy

Cons: Downtime in Between , Dying Sucks, Difficult to Catch up

Overall, I highly recommend this game if you have 15 minutes a day to spare.
Look me up on Realm 6, "Academy of Kings."
My in-game handle is remixnzza, and I'm part of clan LEGENDARY {LDT}.