Forge Of Empires

The Forge of Empires shares similarities with games like Farmville,  and the Civilization series. Some of its strengths are: an economy that encourages social interaction, a well designed technology matrix, a mixture of game platforms and a feature that allows you to benefit from assisting other players or assist yourself by pillaging their cities for much needed resources.

 
Game Play: 6
   As far as browser games go this one is one of the best I have seen. It does not offer the continuous hours of game time that I sometimes crave in a game, but you can create more than one city if you wish to stay at it for longer periods of time. There are also a good selection of tasks to help keep you occupied.

   The economy is a balance of coins, forge points, supplies, and resources. Your objects produce goods in a timed manner and some of those also time-out. This requires time management skills, something this particular critic does not have a lot of. With the social aspect and its brevity of needs it is easily a great game to play while on a more in-depth MMO. It is too bad that this game does not work on EvE's in-game browser cause I could play this while mining.

Graphics: 4
   The artwork used is cartoon-like and the game is two dimensional. So there is not much to speak of in the realm of graphics. The battle sequence needs to be vamped, the maps need something and some sort of player personalization for their Kingdoms would be really nice. But hey! Fans, we all know that graphics are not a necessity to game enjoyment, nor does it ensure a quality game.

   This is a tough score to give for their graphics because visually it isn't that bad. However, with a two dimensional world, buildings that cannot be rotated and a combat sequence that looks like a 16-bit game, the Forge is severely lacking in graphical gloss. On the other hand, their building animations are such a fun touch that I think many will be able to look past it's other visual deficits.

Sound/Music: 7
   I really favor a game that can contribute to the feel of its world through ambient sound and music. The Forge of Empires does an awesome job with this. They even took the time to change-up the music for battle sequences, which used to be overlooked a lot in early game history. Interaction sounds are not original but do contribute to the theme of the game. The music is tasteful and didn't wear on me like so many do.

Free vs P2P: 9
   While paying money will get you specialty buildings, you don't need them. It will allow you to expand faster, but that doesn't take from the enjoyment of playing. Social aspects of the game seem unrestricted as well by financial contributions. All in all I would say that Forge of Empires stands as the current champion in providing a game that allows players to enjoy their work without making any initial contributions. I am a firm believer that we should pitch in for any game that holds our attention for long, it takes money to keep it running.

Depth: 3
   There is no real back story, no history, no iconic characters, nothing to add that final touch to the game. The game forum itself is active and involved which promises for many great improvements in  features, add-ons and hopefully some sort of story development. As things stand right now however, it is simply: become King, expand empire.

Overall: 5.8
   Forge of Empires has a lot of potential and promises to deliver in the future. I would say that this game is going to be one that will become very popular. It is already fun and its weaknesses are not that complicated to rectify. They have a growing fan base and a friendly community. Nope, this one isn't going to fade out anytime soon.