By Jason Van Horn
Much has been said about the various Evony ads, which portray big-breasted women
that really have nothing to do with the actual gameplay when it comes to the
game. What you fail to hear people talk about, however, is the game itself. I
jumped into Evony knowing what kind of game to expect in the first place, and I
must say that I'm pretty surprised by how enjoyable I've found the game. There
are problems holding it back – most of which are in play to make money – but
once you start overlooking and accepting them there is fun to be had.
You play as a lord with your very own kingdom at your disposal. The idea is to
build your city up, take care of its citizens, expand it, conquer new lands, and
protect yourself from other foreign neighbors that are doing the same. The game
gives you quests to complete, but these all boil down to doing a task such as
upgrading a barracks, reaching a certain population or prestige level, etc.
There isn't a story to keep you involved, other than the natural one that takes
place as you build up your city, fortify, and look to expand and make treatises
with other players.
I'm typically not too fond of city building games, as they tend to be too
complex and feel more like work than an actual game. You'll feel a bit daunted
when you login to Evony for the first time, as there are a ton of symbols,
numbers, and icons at your disposal just calling out for you to drag your mouse
over them to see what they all mean. You'd think only a seasoned veteran could
help you out, as the chat box is often filled with people asking questions, such
as how do you get the horseback riding skill. As it turns out, people are lazy
and don't want to work for anything, as Evony's quest system does a fine job at
showing the player the ropes and letting you know what needs to be done to
prepare yourself for when your seven day grace period as a beginner is over.
A player can ascertain most everything they need to know by simply doing the
quests. I know, a shocker, right? In order to help protect yourself from attacks
from other nations later on, the game will present to you a quest to build up
your city's walls. You can tackle this quest anytime you want, as there might be
other pressing matters that need your attention first. After the wall is built,
a new quest will come along, telling you that you need to make 100 archer
towers. In order to build archer towers, however, you need to have some
buildings upgraded to a specific level, and must have the right technology level
as well. As you mouse over the upgrades, the game simply tells you that you need
"x amount of resources" and specific tech or buildings. If you don't have
something you need, the game spells it out in red lettering. If you have what
you need, the writing is green instead. Once all the lettering of an upgrade tab
is green, you just have to click the button and get started upgrading. As you
complete quests you also earn rewards, such as handfuls of lumber, gold, etc.
While it isn't too much of a problem early on, the biggest flaw in Evony's
system is how excruciatingly long it takes some times to get things done. It's
quick and easy to construct buildings in the beginning, as you make sure you
meet the requirements, click a spot to start building, and then as long as the
construction takes less than five minutes, you click a button and instantly the
task is finished. As you start upgrading buildings to higher levels, however,
tasks suddenly start taking 15, 20, 30 minutes, and even hours. Building 100
archer towers, for instance, took me roughly three-hours by what I recall. The
game rewards you early on with some special scrolls to help speed the process
up, but once they're gone you're stuck waiting or either spending real world
money on those items to help speed the process up. When so much of the game is
spent waiting around, you'll be tempted to buy some coins in order to get things
going faster, but if you don't watch it all of that money starts building up
over time.
Another problem with the construction system is the fact that you can only build
one thing at one time. If you've got to wait 30-minutes for your town hall to be
upgraded, you can't spend that idle time working on building something else. The
only exception to the rule is that you can be both building/upgrading and yet
research technology at the academy, but beyond that there isn't much you can do
until the time is over. The choose and wait approach makes the game great for
those quick breaks from work or for those who don't have much time on their
hands, but for those wanting to really sit down and upgrade their towns to their
heart's content in one sitting, you'll be very disappointed.
There is some micromanagement in the game, but for the most part it's
incorporated very well and is easy to digest. A lot of the elements of the game
have a great point and counterpoint system to your decision. If you want to
increase your population, for instance, you need to increase the amount of
cottages you have and keep upgrading them as well. The more people you get the
more people you can have doing tasks in your town, but the more food they'll
consume too, so you'll have to make sure your food production is in the green
and not the red. If you need money or a quick cash-in on lumber, you can raise
taxes or a levy, but at the same time you'll lose the loyalty of the people. You
can raise loyalty, however, by subsequently doing things like comforting your
people, but that often takes gold to do
Once your seven-day grace period is over (or either you raise your town hall to
level five), it's then where everything starts really happening. As you're
trying to make a name for yourself, raising up the economic and military
strength of your kingdom, so too are other players, who are looking at expanding
and taking over the land just like you. By recruiting a hero and sending out
people to scout and attack valleys, you can takeover those territories, build
new kingdoms, and raise them just like your starting city; you can even get some
resource production bonuses, such as conquering a forested area to get extra
lumber. If there is a neighboring city you want to war with, you can send troops
to attack and try to claim the city. Having an Alliance (in other words guild)
is very helpful, because besides being able to provide resources when needed,
the good ones will also watch your back and help when attacked. Another way
you'll be interacting with people – besides through the chat window – is the
marketplace, where you can both buy and sell goods with other players. Imagine
someone buying goods that ultimately are put to use to overthrow you…sweet,
sweet irony.
Graphically the game is played through an isometric perspective, where graphics
are mostly portrayed as simple buildings and various menus. The game isn't a
stunner, but there's enough detail so that you can most of the time look at a
building and know instantly what that building represents. The game does have
some more subtle animations that happen, such as clouds drifting across the
screen. As for the sound there isn't any, given the nature of Evony's
browser-based gameplay.
All in all, despite some problems I have with how the game only lets you do so
much at a time unless you want to pay up with real world money, I still ended up
having a lot of fun. At times I wish I could just sit down with the game and
play as much as I wanted, but at other times I enjoyed getting some work done,
logging in real quick, then making a few decisions before ultimately heading off
to work again. It's not a game for everyone, but for those who can look past
some of its flaws, it's still a pretty fun time.
3.5 out of 5
For more information please visit
http://www.evony.com/index.do
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