When we first about Empire and Allies, Zynga’s newest Facebook game since CityVille, we were admittedly expecting a “hardcore” strategy Facebook game knock-off. (Come on, the company’s track record doesn’t fail our expectations.) So, consider us pleasantly surprised by what the company intends with Empires and Allies, slated for a June 1 release in 12 languages, a first for any social game. Thanks to a demo event with executive producer Amer Ajami, the new game looks “hardcore,” it may even feel as such. But Zynga has cleverly made it so anyone–even your mother–should be able to jump in and start blowing up their (friends and) enemies.
Farming, property management, even deeper character development–it’s all there. But what makes Empires and Allies work so well is, surprisingly, asynchronous gameplay. It may not be where the technology is at now, but the people still expect this type of experience from a social game, and Zynga not only knows that, but has hopefully succeeded in making that interesting. As you build a combination of resource-gathering (players can trade rare resources like metal ores as well), industrial and military buildings in your island city–it must be balanced between industry and military for defensive purposes–you will also create military units of three classes: Air, Navy and Infantry.
Admittedly, all three classes do the same thing. However, each unit within each class is more effective at defeating another specific unit. For instance, at least one Infantry unit will be able to take out Bi-planes while those same Bi-planes from the Air class are deadly to at least one Infantry unit. This system creates a deep level of Rock, Paper, Scissors that fans of the StarCraft or Risk games might be familiar with. However, when you’re attacking a friend or foe’s base, the type of units that they will retaliate with (controlled by AI, of course) depend on the exact area of the opponent’s map you attacked, so prepare your units wisely before going into battle.
0 comments:
Post a Comment