Wasteland Empires

Here I am posting about yet another Facebook game.  I was needing people for Castleville, so I made a deal with a friend of mine that I'd play the new game he was playing since nobody was playing it if he'd play Castleville.  So here it is 2 weeks later after starting the game Wasteland Empires.

When I first started out playing this game, I didn't think I was going to get into.  The buildings in the game have detail but there is no option to zoom in so everything stays at such a small scale that you wish you could zoom in some.

There is a learning curve to this game.  The quest helps you get stuff put down to get you moving but it's not going to help you learn what you want to know.  When you learn how this game works, that's what will pull you in.  So you have to give the game some time or you'll just start it to never return.

This game in my mind is still a true beta as it's in the title where they are doing updates as I've seen a huge one take place where my friend has had it easy up until now.  Lucky for him he start 1.5 weeks earlier and he is twice as far in the game as I am.

OK, so now about the game.  The story is set off in the future where the only source of survival is having water.  Without water there is nothing you can do.  You are locked down to the range of your water hole.  With in this space you put down buildings to help expand; town hall, houses, farms, barracks, towers, reserves, and more.  The game does have a age of empire feel to it as you are required to have a certain level of this building in order to build this building.  So it becomes a big circle of updating all your buildings to get to the next level.  Once all that is done, you can research the next tier which the cycle will repeat itself all over again.  From what I can tell, you only have 6 tiers in the game right now.  I'm not sure what is past that as the game also has 6 chapters to go through for the storyline.  I'm in chapter 2 right now but I'm on tier 3.  So I can only assume the tier's will go higher at some point.

There is another aspect of this game that just changed with the update where before it didn't matter and now it does.  That other side is building an army to go to other players wasteland empire to destroy them and get resources.  You have to do this in the game otherwise you can't get the tools you need to build the buildings you need in the game.  The latest update made a change where when you get attacked you do lose your resources now.  So now the defense side of the house matters as well.  You can build towers to defend your empire you're buliding.  You can also build fences around your town in order to protect it as well.  So you have to learn how to strategically put down your stuff to defend properly.  The higher tier the better stuff you can get.  One interesting part is depending on the level you're at, that's what the tower will be when you put it down.  Otherwise you're stuck updating the tower with resources to make them better later on.

Which moves me into the time to play this game.  It goes quick at the beginning but this game is based on time.  Right now I'm try to scavenge rumble that requires 40 towns folk for 24 hours.  I have another one going that required 40 for 48 hours and my next big one is 40 for 72 hours.  Granted I will get a lot of resources when they are done but the time in between will slow you down waiting just on that.  Luckily the game gives you buildings to mine the 3 resources you need in order to progressing which you have to level them up to get a lot from them or you're just wasting your time.  Especially since now you can lose all your resources from an attack.

Back tracking a little as I mentioned towns folk for scavenging.  Your army comes from the towns folk as well.  That ratio is like a 1:5 ratio.  so you need people to have a big army and you have to have them available to use.  Like right now, I have 80 being used up with only 8 available.  I have a very small army.  You have to build houses and farms to increase your population in the game.

Something else to remember is whenever you put down a new water reservoir, you will never be able to move it again.  The game asks you like 3 times are you sure this is where you want it as it's important.  So you might can move everything else around but you'll be stuck not being able to move these later on in the game.  Which brings me into the design concept of you MUST have water.  You have to build roads in the game to connect everything.  If a building isn't touching a road that is touching the water reservoir, then it's not doing anything.  Running roads and setting everything up in the game gets hard to do.  Especially with the limited space you are going to have.

We have found out that some resources just don't show up in the game when attacking.  Which is where you need friends to play in order to get the resources.  Which you can only send 1 a day, so the more friends, the more resources to build faster in the game.  Already having to us it to build early in the game as well otherwise you'll be spending the gold coins in the game which you get 5 per level you are at in the game.  The fighting in the game has a reputation system built in, so yet another part of the game.

To wrap this up, this game has a lot of different aspects and can be overwhelming.  However, once you set down and give it the time it needs.  You get pulled in and it is a game you can enjoy playing.  Waiting to build and research to the next level to expand out is currently where I'm at.  It'll be a week before I advance to Tier 4. 

Maybe I'll see a friend playing it soon beside just me and my other friend.