Price: Free Score: 9/10 Category: Arcade & Action
Real-time-strategy meets Massively Multiplayer RPG in an epic twisting of genres in Dragon Kingdom on Android from developer X6 Game. Develop a kingdom, destroy your enemies, and strike out on fantasy quests in one of the most exciting Android games of the year.
Players start with a simple island, occupied by a single relic, and they must learn to develop their kingdom and help it thrive. The tutorial in Dragon Kingdom will provide you with all the information you need to get started in simple and easy to understand messages. The interface will initially seem overwhelming, but after spending a few minutes clicking around players will quickly adjust to the layout.
Players focus on developing their kingdom and training their initial forces, but soon find themselves fighting ghost ships and fending off pirates. Players can gain quests to advance their kingdom by clicking on the quest icon or by talking to the locals on their island, who will assign them with quests or quiz them for information. Players have a lot of choice in Dragon Kingdom, including choosing how to grow their kingdoms abilities. Whether a player chooses questing or city building, either way will grow and upgrade their kingdom.
A concern for minimizing such a game that plays on such a large scale is the user interface, which one might assume would be shrunk down to miniscule proportions, or possibly clutter up the screen. Developer X6 Game has done an excellent job of providing the player with adequate information at all times and an easy to understand UI that primarily occupies the top and bottom of the screen. The center of the screen is dedicated to gameplay. You may see messages from the developer on the top of the screen as well with helpful information or warnings about releasing private information.
Dragon Kingdom is simply stellar looking, with bright and colorful 2D graphics that lend a feeling of Final Fantasy mixed with Settlers. X6 Game has brought strategy down to a fun and manageable level for mobile gaming. It’s easy to spread-zoom to get a better grip on where you are tapping, and the grid system of your kingdom makes city-building easy and eye-pleasing. The in-game buildings are quirky and animated and may remind the player of a style reminiscent of Warcraft.
In many real time strategy games there is a real fear that the background music will become monotonous after spending so much time in front of your city, but Dragon Kingdom doesn’t suffer from this common RTS plague. Much of the music will seem familiar, with tunes that are pleasing to the ear. There’s a considerable amount of string and flute orchestral music that holds up very well.
Fantasy and RPG elements play a large role in this Android strategy game. The standard players and fantasy staples should appeal to the RPG fan, while the city-builder and strategist should find plenty of things to occupy them as well. The gameplay is smooth and the imagery is superb. The combat is exciting and well executed.
Players can find themselves somewhat overwhelmed initially, but like any other RTS or RPG game they must invest some time in gameplay to truly get a grasp on the mechanics of the game. Initially there may be a feeling of uncertainty, but it’s quickly overcome and before long players find themselves developing heroes and massive armies. Multiplayer plays a large role in this Android game as well. The developer is claiming over 600,000 users!
Overall there is such a huge offering of gameplay styles that it would be hard to find someone who wouldn’t enjoy this style of game. Dragon Kingdom takes the best elements of some of your favorite genres and blends them into a wonderfully constructed Android game that’s perfect for almost any player. The free price and massively multiplayer inclusion make this a “don’t miss” game.
Dragon Kingdom (thanks Kenyu73) is available now for Android 2.1 and up, and is rated Everyone. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this Android game review.