Empires Apart

Let's first lay out my experience with this game. I was accepted into the beta within the few weeks of development, and played when I got the chance from either university work, or other games. Being in the beta I saw first hand how responsive the devs were and how much they were actually communicating, and how easy it was to tell them something directly or ask a question. So take my word as you will, I may have a little bias, but from my point of view, the devs are working hard and they do NOT seem like the type trying to do a money grab. They are just 3 guys working their asses off trying to make the game as best they can. Onto the review.

The game is buggy, crashes, and really needs to be ironed out. Personally in my opinion release should've been delayed a little more, but deadlines are deadlines and they delayed release already.

However, the game is still pretty fun, has good depth and a lot of potential. To anyone that thinks the game is just a shallow aoe2 clone, have not looked past the facts that the game has the same 4 resources, and a lot of the same themes and core rts ideas. The similarities kind of end there. The game is faster paced, the civs are (much) lower in quantity but made much more unique. To any 4X fans, think of the difference between civ 5 BNW vs Endless Legend. In Endless Legend there is only now 11 factions (not counting mezari who are a re-skin) compared to the 43 civilizations in civ 5 BNW. However, in civ 5 all the civs are basically the same, aside from unique minor bonuses and 2 unique units or 1 unique unit and a unique building/tile. However, in Endless Legend each faction is incredibly unique with access to different technologies, passive bonuses and debuffs, completely unique units, and play style. One faction litterally does not use food resources and instead uses dust (gold/currency) to create population and just prefers desert territories. Another faction has the ability to force peace/alliance with any other player and stop wars whenever they want, except with the one faction that when they declare war, its PERMANENT war (they instead enter a truce for a certain number of turns). The differences and uniqueness of the different factions/civs in Endless Legend make the differences in Civ 5 civs negligable, and not feel that impactful. Their isn't much difference between playing French or China. And it's the same in Empires Apart.

You have 6 civs currently.
-Byzantians, a civ that has STRONG infantry and revolves around a stun on hit mechanic. They also have strong siege and and different ways to access increasing efficiencies of villagers through the mill, or their priests that give auras that buff gather rates.

-French, a civ that has decent towers and strong cavalry and want to take the game late to get their t3 heavy cavalry unit, the Paladins. Their units, however, have good strength throughout the game because their cavalry has a charge mechanic that gives them (splash) damage to the first hit after moving for long times (building momentum). Their priests give a blessing buff to units.

-Chinese, a defensive and slightly more complicated civ with strong archers and kung fu warriror monks for priests. The monks can also be utilized for their healing aura while stationary as it can be used to heal villagers under the Overseer effect which increases gathering amounts in exchange for damaging the villager units. They also have flamethrowers and other shnanigans.

-Arabs, probably the latest civ in the game. They have decent upgrades to everything all around, and have naft throwers, an aoe ranged unit that are very useful. Universities allow the ability to have strong stats on all units if used correctly. They also have special assassin units, that are invisble, can break invisiblity when a certain distance from enemies, and when they break the invisiblity will have temporary "i-frames" and their next attack will kill the target and if will cause an aoe slow around the area.

-Aztecs, an early game rush civ that focus on early map control and aggression. Instead of their units upgrading through buildings and spending resources for global unit promotions, units have experience and gain promotions from engaging in combat. This lets Aztes to have high promotion units very early, which they need as they have no cavalry or siege so they need that early aggression win. They are also able to capture enemy units instead of killing them and sacrafice them for bonuses, and their priests are capable of applying an aoe curse that slows enemies.

-Mongols, the other early game rush civ. Unlike the Aztecs that have 0 cavalry, all mongol units outside of villagers are mounted. They also have special units that transform into their buildings instead of building them, and this lets them disassemble buildings and move them into new spots that allows mongols to be nomadic in nature. They have the smallest tech tree but make up for it with early game activity and aggression. Very easy and fun civ to play.

This uniqueness in civs allows for interesting play and interactions and depth (something that other reviews seem to say this game lacks). This game has it's rough edges, lots of it honestly. But the game is fun and has heart, and the devs really want to make a good game. Most of the bad decisions (price, launch date) were most likely the publishers, so if this game is screwed more likely their fault than the devs. But the game has potential and I think If people get the game and support the game it can grow into something beautiful.

However, I am not going to tell you to buy this game. This game is overpriced, has issues, and not a good release. I recommened this game to whoever is willing to take a bet on the game, otherwise I won't try and decieve you into purchasing a product that I probably would have looked over in dissapointment if I were not in the beta, no matter how short it was. That's all I have to say about this game.