Make your empire rise to glory and make it the strongest in the whole region!

Raise an army of fierce and valiant warriors, build structures to make your empire a center of trade and commerce.

Defend your holdings, forge strong alliances, and make a name for yourself in this highly immersive MMORTS.

Real-time strategy games (or RTS), have not fallen out of fashion and Goodgame Empire proves this fact. It is a free-to-play, browser-based title which is centered around a single concept: building the most powerful kingdom there is. It has all the elements of a standard MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real time strategy) game, including building construction, resource production, researching, and of course, war.

In terms of graphics and gameplay, Goodgame Empire excels. Though the 2D graphics may look dated in today’s standards, we’re sure you would not have any complaints - everything is smooth and nothing is pixelated or grainy. Moreover, the user interface epitomizes intuitiveness: each function, like building construction or checking the world map is clearly labeled. You would not have any trouble finding any of these on your computer screen.

The game starts up well enough: every action prioritizes having your town up and running and for you to learn the basics of the game’s entire mechanics. In this part, you will learn the facets and intricacies of building construction, training and recruiting units for your army, and of course researching new technology. If you’re planning to immerse yourself in the game, it would be best to take note of everything on the tutorial stage.

To train military units, you will need to build training facilities, like the Barracks, which you will end up building first. After you do, your advisor - an in game AI - will tell you to train some spearmen, the most basic unit in the game. From there on, you will get a clear view of the world map, and you will see that there are other players near you, along with AI buildings. You can raid other castles once you are sufficiently strong to do so. If raids are successful, you can add the loot into your coffers.

Certain buildings will allow you to discover more aspects of the game. For example, having a tavern around allows the deployment of spies, which you can use to learn more about your enemies’ castles. By doing so, you will have sufficient information to allow you to attack your opponents more strategically. Furthermore, like most RTS games, it has a defense aspect characterized by building walls and towers. Joining alliances is recommended, if you need or want other to watch your back.

Although Goodgame Empire is a decent RTS by all means, you definitely need to spend real money in order to make progress in the game. Premium players, and those who purchase rubies (the premium in-game currency) have a distinct advantage over free players. A free player picking a fight against a premium one is comparable to a peasant armed with a pitchfork going up against a seasoned knight clad in full-plate armor. Furthermore, building construction is extremely slow, and to speed it up, you need to use rubies.

Although Goodgame Empire leans a lot more towards being a pay-to win game, the game is quite entertaining to play and is a fairly decent MMORTS game overall. You’re free to try it out, but if you wish to go far into the game and create the most powerful empire the game has ever seen, you’ll need to spend at least some real cash to do so.