The Free MMO Reviewer's Blog

First Impressions: Freesky Online

thefreemmoreviewer — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:16:55 +0000

Seems dull, but it’s nice to look at.

Mafia Wars Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:15:56 +0000

It’s a waste of time, no rating needed.

CyberNations Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:13:59 +0000

7/10
Pros:
+Allows you to simulate something awesome
+Is fun when you have money
+Can trade and ally with other nations
+Can do some of the things actual nations do.
Cons:
-Is fun when you have money
-Donation bonuses offer significant advantages

Tribal Wars Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:46:08 +0000

(No pictures for this review, sorry).

Tribal Wars is an interesting game, it’s one of those games where you have to wait for ages to build something, yet it’s still incredibly fun at the same time.

Graphics: The graphics in the game are okay, just okay. They’re semi-cartoony and animated, but they’re a bit bland. Though saying that they are quite detailed. The other art in the game is nice too.

Sound: There is no sound, once again. When you’re sending an army to another city, I’d reccomend “T-Rex – Children of the Revolution”.

Gameplay: The most interesting, and important part of the game is the gameplay. You start off with a simple, small village, with which you can build several buildings and ultimately make it into the best one! There are A LOT of other cities around you though, so it’s rather difficult to climb the leaderboard enough to even be in the top 500! You can eventually build an army, which means you can attack other villages and steal their resources, it’s a lot of fun and a great source of income for your village. You can also partner up with other villages and make a tribe, in which you can organize attacks, or just generally chat, it’s fun and rather strategic too. Sadly though, some of the games require you to pay, such as getting ‘coats of arms’ for your tribe. It’s good but I don’t particularly like that you have to pay for it, though it is relatively cheap. You can see all the other villages through a map, and you can see whether they are active, inactive or how powerful they are. If they’re inactive it’s very easy to take over their village, if they are active and powerful, it’s very difficult. Your only village can also be attacked, meaning that you can lose your village and have to start over again, it’s frustrating because you’ve put so much effort and time into your village and it’s gone in an instant.

Overall: Overall, Tribal Wars is fun, but the fact that you have to pay for a lot of features and the fact that there is a possibility that you’ll have to start all over again is frustrating.
4/5

Farmville Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:45:07 +0000

Now, I know this game kind of doesn’t count as an MMO, but it has online capabilities, and it’s in a browser… it’s also mediocre. But yeah. Zynga have been making Facebook games forever and ever, and this game is their most popular (and also the most popular on Facebook), but is it worthy of such popularity?

Graphics:

Semi-unique graphical style.

(I edited my friends out, for privacy reasons). The graphics, admittedly, aren’t that bad. They’re colourful, cartoony and generally aesthetically pleasing. The animal and plant graphics are pretty nice too, as with plants you can see them in different stages of development.

Sound: I despise the sound in this game, I really, really do. The music loops over and over again (I believe it’s around 25 seconds before it loops again), it’s repetitive and boring. The sound effects are silly, but they fit the style of the game fairly well. I’d reccomend listening to some Bob Marley whilst playing this game, but that’s just me.

Gameplay:

Plowing fields is err.. so much fun?

The game is basically a cycle of the same thing over and over again, plow the ground, plant seeds, wait a few days, sell the plants, repeat. It gets boring, but admittedly it’s kind of cool to run your own farm. To get further in the game, you need friends, so extreme basement dwellers, you might be out of luck when playing this.

Come on mates, just send me a few more bricks!

You need friends to get parts to build buildings to keep animals to get money from, basically. If you have a lot of friends, good, because it’s very likely that at least a quarter of them play Farmville. You can also get animals, which you feed, then sell, it isn’t very fun looking after them though, which sucks.

Overall: Farmville, isn’t neccesarily bad. It’s not really my thing though to be honest, as it’s just the same repetitive tasks over and over. However, having a farm is kind of cool and a lot of people do enjoy this game, so I’d at least advise you to try it.
2.5/5

Desert Operations Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:22:50 +0000

Desert Operations is a strategy warfare game (that hardly requires any strategy), it’s boring, but a small diversion, admittedly.

Graphics: The graphics, for a browser game at least, aren’t too bad (considering there even are graphics!). A lot of the art in the game is fully animated (to a certain degree) and it’s good to see what a thriving city you have. The games art is nice too, with lots of maps and stuff to look at.

You'll spend a lot of time looking at this part of the game

Sound: As expected, there isn’t any. I wouldn’t really reccomend any songs, as the game isn’t particularly exciting.

Gameplay:

Want to attack someone? Well feel free to wait for a while...

The gameplay is surprisingly mediocre, considering how mediocre browser games can be. The first part of the game you’re simply setting up your city, it takes forever, and I mean forever, to get started. First you build factories, universities etc. which takes a lot of time, then you build barracks which supply soldiers, then you attack. Simple. You can join alliances to get help when you’re attacked though, which I find pretty cool.

Wait... there are high level players in this alliance? Sweet.

You can also earn income from your city through building residential areas and making them pay you, it’s a decent source of income but it takes a while. There are some pretty cool things you can do with other countries, like sending a spy into them to collect intel (which is quite cool).

Overall: Overall… meh. This game isn’t great, far, far from it infact, but I think it’ll be a decent distraction for if you’re really bored.
2.5/5

eRepublik Review

thefreemmoreviewer — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:56:36 +0000

At first glance, eRepublik might just seem like a boring, political game. But it’s so much more than that, and it’s definetly much more fun.

My profile, some stuff on here might give you the gist of it all.

Graphics: Well, it’s a browser game, so it doesn’t really have any graphics, though the game is nicely illustrated. The game also has a sleek interface, so it’s very easy to find what you are looking for.

Sound: Once again, I will use the argument “It’s a browser game”. But, this game doesn’t really need any sound, you could always put some on in the background (if you’re in a political battle, I suggest Beethoven’s 9th Symphony ;P)

Gameplay: I need to get this statement of my chest as soon as possible. I LOVE THIS GAME. I really do. I’ve always had an interest in politics and the way people think their countries should be run (politics is a big part of the game), so this is the greatest part of the game for me. In the game, you start of as a normal citizen, but it isn’t long before you get a job and get paid in order to buy food. The work is simple click-to-do, but it’s a great source of income for you. Working increases your xp level, and the higher level you are, the more things you can do. As I said, the biggest part of the game is politics.

Elections are held to find the leader of your country (you pick your own country)

You are able to join a party in the game and work your way to congress, it’s a great idea and adds a lot of depth. There are also elections held so you are able to pick the leader you want for your country (which I suppose is the idea of them to begin with!). I’ve had someone try to recruit me to their party recently, it was interesting as they tried to voice their ideas to me (though I already had my eyes set on another party).
Another part of the game is the military.

Most of these windows are much more colourful than the main interface.

In the military part of the game you are able to train as a soldier, rank up in the military by fighting battles. Or go to war when you sign up to your countries army, it’s really immersive and fun, and once again adds more depth and realism to the game.

Overall: Overall, this game is a gem, and I’d highly reccomend playing it. With great gameplay, and a lot of realistic aspects to it, it’s great fun.
5/5

Browser Week!

thefreemmoreviewer — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:46:05 +0000

That’s right! Yay… *cough*

I’m going to review a browser game every day until Friday this week, including one you know is coming… it’s about scapes and runes, I think.

Announcment

thefreemmoreviewer — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 01:37:42 +0000

A little announcment regarding the IGG Bonanza and reviews in general.

A little less active in the coming months

thefreemmoreviewer — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:23:01 +0000

I’m not going to do as many reviews in the coming months, due to transitioning into GCSE’s on Monday. I have to study a lot and I have an exam in November. But I’ll try to finish off the IGG Bonanza at Christmas time (Voyage Century.. eww…)

-Ben