Game Reviews

Lord of Ultima Review

by admin posted May 19,2010

EA has joined the browser/social network set with a free-to-play empire-building game called Lord of Ultima. With no download required and a real-time element that doesn’t require your constant attention, it’s an online game that begs to be played… dare I say… at the office or classroom.

Ultima Online this ain’t, but nevertheless, read on for why it might be worth risking a sneaky session of this free browser game in your down time.

Plot

The game’s website outlines a skeletal storyline about a chosen one that will rebuild a new world from the ashes of the destroyed — or something like that. You start off by gathering resources and creating new buildings. Eventually you can grow out your army to raid other cities, or turn your focus on defending and trading.

The Look

Being an in-browser, no-download game, the graphics are simple. Some very basic animation like smoke from buildings and fluttering flags are there, but they can be turned off (presumably to save cpu processing power). Outside of your city, you can view a region map that shows all the other cities (other players, really), dungeons and boss monsters. There’s really nothing fancy about the visuals. Menus sometimes have a slight lag to load, and it seems like a javascript base so make sure you have the most recent plugin.

The Sound

There’s absolutely no sound effects or music in the game. None. Zip. Nada. It’s like they expect you to be playing this at the office or in class.

Function

With quite a thorough introductory tutorial, the barrier of entry for newcomers is relatively low. It’s a slow paced game, and doesn’t have any active aspect requiring your immediate attention. That is, Lord of Ultima is an empire-building game with a real-time aspect. This means the most basic, beginner buildings and troops are quick to be made or recruited, but they will take significantly more time to be upgraded into higher level ones. We’re talking hours and days here, making Lord of Ultima the kind of game where you leave it open in a browser window, do your work, then come back to it a few hours/days later. Your construction and recruiting queues will have advanced on their own, as the clock is running even if you don’t log in.

Rather than just plunking the buildings down anywhere, placement of buildings require a bit more than your average “social” game. Neighboring structures will give benefits like faster resource harvesting, bigger storage boosts, or even faster recruiting. Some will have dependencies. For example, a mill would process food faster when it’s next to a farm, which in turn will harvest faster when there’s a lake nearby.

About conquering and expanding your empire. To discourage stronger empires ganking on weaker ones, there is a morale boost in favor of the weak. But since it’s not an end-all solution, it’s best to continue to grow your own forces for defense. You can raid dungeons and boss monsters without laying a hand on another player if you choose, but the stronger your forces, the more loot you’ll be able to bring back. Though it is raiding, don’t expect any flashy animation of troops duking it out – fights in the game consist of you giving the command and sending troops somewhere, then another menu summarizing what the gains or losses were. You can also forge an alliance with other cities to help each other out in case of raids or attacks.

For all the contruction and resource-harvesting, the fact that you’re essentially just watching a static screen may turn away those looking for action — it’s just not that kind of game. Lord of Ultima would definitely benefit if something, anything, involved a little more movement, to make it feel you’re not just managing menus all the time.

The in-game shop has an option to purchase ministers for a set amount of time that will build, recruit or raid on your behalf while you are not logged in, or prevent your city from being attacked by others for a short while. Other purchase items will give you instant resources, or shrink your construction time by a half hour. Some of these game changing items or options will eventually require real money to purchase, which is how EA expects to make a profit. They’re reasonably priced, but many players could probably get by without purchasing anything for months.

Decisions

Lord of Ultima’s connection to the legendary online MMO from a decade ago is pretty much nonexistent in its current form. As a casual empire-building game, it should compare as a deeper version of all the Facebook and iPad/iPhone games that are in a similar vein — if you’ve felt those so-called “social network” empire games were too simple, Lord of Ultima is a nice step up.

Despite elements that may be too static for some players, it’s easy to get started, playable anywhere with a browser, and free. The real-time aspect almost guarantees that you’ll check in on your empire once every day or so and that may be the most worrisome thing — you might have a hard time quitting. I guess for a game that’s a good thing, and probably what EA and its studio Phenomic are banking on. Check it out at www.LordOfUltima.com.

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