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War of Legends Review

War of Legends Review

There are plenty of great MMORTS games out there, and I say that as somebody that doesn’t really enjoy the genre. There are companies that really want to push the boundaries of what you expect from the genre – slow gameplay, annoying quests, bad graphics – and then there are games like War of Legends. Made by a Chinese company and published in English by Jagex, War of Legends is everything you’d expect from an MMORTS. And that is by no way a compliment.

War of Legends

If you like sitting around for hours waiting for even the slightest thing to happen, I think we’ve found the game for you. If this introduction isn’t enough reason for you to go and play something like Call of Gods or Ministry of War, check out both the points below and our video review.

War of Legends Video Review

War of Legends positives

Busy Chat – Community is important in any MMO – even the bad ones – and that’s one of the main reasons bad games stay popular. War of Legends has a great community, with friendly, helpful people populating the chat box almost constantly. It’s more than just hints and tips being shared, or trading requests, there are some genuine friendships, the sort of thing you used to see in chatrooms. Say what you want about the game (and, believe me, I will as well), but you can’t knock how engaged its players are.

War of Legends Battlefield

Battlefield in War of Legends doesn't offer much really...

War of Legends neutrals

Graphics – The graphics for War of Legends are decent enough. There are a few different colours (mainly greens and blues) and a nice watercolour effect that really does work well on each of the screens. The downside is that everything is incredibly static, meaning you feel you’re playing a series of webpages rather than an interactive game.

Legends – Rather than just hiring an army and having at it, War of Legends adds “Legends” to the mix. These are basically generals, to whom you’ll attach troops. Success in battle relies both on the number of troops you’re sending out and on the skill level (and abilities) and the items you’ve attached to your legend. For some people this will add an unnecessary complication, to others it’ll be another layer of gameplay. Whatever you think, it’s impossible to say this system wasn’t created with microtransactions in mind (see below).

War of Legends Battlefield

War of Legends tip:  Upgrade your buildings for success like in many MMORTS games

 

War of Legends negatives

Playing the Waiting Game – Like too many MMORTS games, War of Legends is build around the idea that games are supposed to leave the player waiting for something to happen. That’s not strictly true of course (they’re supposed to be played in short bursts during breaks or when there’s not enough time to play a longer game), but sometimes it feels like it, it really does. If you’re expecting something that will grip you from the very beginning and then keep dragging you back for more, you’re going to be very disappointed.

Same Old, Same OldWar of Legends does very little to move the genre forward and puts about as much effort into catching up with current genre leaders. For a game that’s only a few years old, how dated it feels is unreal and new people to the genre would be better off looking into more modern examples of how strategy should be done.

War of Legends Battlefield

War of Legends - Typical map

Translations – Sometimes a game just doesn’t make sense, and you can usually blame that on poor translation. Is it Aeris or Aerith? Maybe it’s both? A simple naming problem wouldn’t have made War of Legends seem all that bad, but the menus are littered with confusing descriptions and bad spelling. I don’t know who translated from Chinese to English, but I’m tempted to say they didn’t know either language very well.

Your Friends Hate You – If you were desperately wondering, yes, you can sign into War of Legends via Facebook. If you want your friends to know that your resources are slowly refilling, that you’re getting your ass kicked by people who pay to win and that your legend isn’t nearly as powerful as anybody else’s, you’ll have multiple opportunities to share.

Buying Your Way to Success Microtransactions, when done correctly, can be a fine addition to a game. They can add cool costumes, new weapons – they offer an extension to people looking for a deeper experience and that’s fine. They’re not a necessity for a player looking to dominate the leaderboards, but they can help long-time players get something out of the game. War of Legends allows you to speed up development, buy things to overpower your legend, increase your resources and generally just skip ahead. And in a game this slow, it’s almost a necessity.

Conclusion - War of Legends review

War of Legends isn’t a terrible game, but it’s a deeply flawed one. The problems it suffers are problems of the genre, problems of a lazy developer and of poor translation. If all you want is a standard MMORTS, you don’t need to look any further than this. If you want something a little more playable, there are better options out there – seriously, you hardly need to even look. With a history of security issues and poor updates, it astounds me that earlier this year this game reached five million registrations, but I suppose that says more about Jagex’s link to Runescape and less about this quality of this particular game.

 

 

 

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