Grepolis – Review
Grepolis is the latest free online multiplayer strategy game from InnoGames, publishers of successful browser-based titles such as Tribal Wars and The West. Grepolis combines many of the much loved features from the browser-based RTS genre, and delivers them using a unique Greek theme, surrounded by hundreds of years of detailed lore and myth. As is expected in today’s MMO games, once you first start your journey in Grepolis you’re greeted with a new player tutorial. The tutorial explains some of the more basic aspects of the game such as advancing your city, managing troops and harvesting resources. It’s very simple and can be completed in under 10 minutes, but you can also skip it completely if you’re familiar with the RTS genre.
Constructing and advancing your city works in a similar way to other online strategy games. You must ensure you have a sufficient amount of resources to continuously upgraded and improve your city, constructing new buildings that offer various benefits and effects. At first you’ll want to focus on constructing your resource harvesting buildings such as your Farms and Quarries, these will allow you to improve your income of vital resources needed to expand your city and hire your troops. A slightly more interesting way of gathering resources comes from Farm Villages. Each player starts on an island inhabited by a few other players, but there’s also a large amount of Farm Villages owned by NPC’s. If you’re able to conquer a Farm Village you’re able to demand resources from them at regular intervals. You also have the option of looting the Farm Village for even more resources, but this can upset the inhabitants and eventually lead to a revolt, removing your control over the villages and opening them up to enemy players.
Combat also uses a variety of familiar RTS mechanics, players must train a number of different units to conquer opposing players and Farm Villages. Each unit is strong against certain units and weak against others, forcing players to train a well balanced army that can adapt to any situation. Combat is automated so players can launch an attack while offline but the travel times for combat are really long. This is one of the most negative aspects of the game and applies to both construction and combat. Even at the beginning, traveling to the nearest Farm Village or building a level 1 Farm, both take at least 10 minutes which leaves new players just staring into the abyss until something happens.
Overall Grepolis does boast a number of interesting features and mechanics but they’re overshadowed by a complete dependance on the item mall. Players that invest into the game can conquer entire islands with a simple click, construct buildings much faster and train troops easily. It’s a good game and offers strategy players enough new features to separate it from the competition, but it doesn’t do itself any favors with such an overpowered item mall.
Pros
– Unique Greek setting
– A variety of interesting features
Cons
– Long building construction times, even at the beginning
– Heavily dependent on item mall items
Rating: 7.0
by Blaine Smith
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Yesterday, 21:56 #2
figtree2
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This will not happen. We can’t pass an idea telling the devs what to do. Thread locked.
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So folks this is a moderator who states it plain and simple…..Mods work in 1 direction only from the Developers down, we the Consumer dont matter.
This point was driven home to the PAYING and NON PAYING players in Hyperborea. During the 5th Birthday celebrations there was nothing done for Hyperborea.. here is the response I got..
dadofwildthang 2014-10-04 04:12:45
this does not answer my question as to why the folks in this world dont have something for them or is a 2 tier pay system..the ignoring of this worlds paying customers and not providing some other form of task/reward program , in lieu of, will have a negative impact. folks feel as if they are getting less than other worlds
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Baudin 2014-10-04 04:53:04
Making an event of this scale takes a massive amount of time and resources and that is off set by the money made as the 1 event can be rolled out on every world of the same type. Hyperborea is a single world and creating a similarly scled event is not possible as it would not make anywhere near enough money to cover the costs spent making it.
Sincerely,
Mike
Co-Community Manager
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dadofwildthang 2014-10-06 22:49:22
So The fact I purchase Gold does not entitle me to the same Prizes or a similar contest as the conquest worlds. The fact that there are 2 levels of treatment for those that use Gold. I have never seen any where a disclaimer that states None Conquest worlds will not receive the same levels of treatment as any other world. That this is being done to people who use and play with Gold this is a slap in the face.
Thank You for Clarifying Innos Position WRT the players of their Games…”Making an event of this scale takes a massive amount of time and resources and that is off set by the money made as the 1 event can be rolled out on every world of the same type. Hyperborea is a single world and creating a similarly scled event is not possible as it would not make anywhere near enough money to cover the costs spent making it.”
I read this response to say that the Players of Innogames are to regarded as Cash Cows and not deserving of equal treatment. So having had pointed out to me so clearly what I am (CASH COW) I will ask you this question What are you doing for me to provide equal value for my money that I spend on Gold? Where is my EQUALl VALUE for my mone.
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Baudin 2014-10-08 05:03:49
The players are not cash cows but the event was not rolled out in an alternative reason for the same reason we can’t keep worlds open forever. It was not a monetarily sound decision. We’ve passed your feedback up to the devs so they are aware of the opinions of the players on peace worlds now.
Sincerely,
Mike
Co-Community Manager
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So there it is all in the open. The Consumer, that’s us, have 1 purpose pay and pay to play..
I wondered why I was willing to put up with this BS from any Corporation and then it appeared, I was bored and somewhat lonely. Soon I met people, joined an Alliance and there was the hook. I had found a group with common interest’s and some goals. Others above have talked about knowing their team and feeling down because they had not made the efforts, playing teaching or even knowing their teammates, they normally did.
There’s the hook and it becomes self-sustaining as, you gain skill, more cities, the ability to plan and ahve it happen and paying less than a big nite out awesome sauce..
However the bigger you are the more time is needed, more advisors and as of this date no skill is needed. All you need is a credit card.
Buy your buildings, your troops, your myths and off to the races.
The Cost’s will go up as we pay for Inno developers, just typing Inno Developers leaves a bad smell on my fingers, to design more ways to get our money. Rather than a collaborative approach which would have customers happy, willing to spend some money Nope Costs go up screw the CONSUMER..
The only answer to the Corporate Greed being displayed by INNO is to leave refuse to pay what they want. Refuse to give them what they want..YOUR MONEY..
watch how long this post lasts before being yanked by the Dev’s puppets; those called Mods
Last edited by dadofwildthang; Today at 01:30.
reposted twice now