Circle Empires – Review
Have you ever wanted to invade circles high in the sky where you can see the defeat of your enemies instead of a rainbow? Well, now you can! Luminous finally turned their demo into a full Circle Empires game, following the demand of thousands of players.
Story
There isn’t an actual story in the game. However, there are three different game modes you can play and every one of them has its own mission you need to accomplish. The creators made the right decision not adding a story as it would probably be constantly doing the same thing over and over but just with a slightly increasing difficulty. Now you have the option to choose the game mode you want to play, which is a really good thing.
Graphics
The graphics in Circle Empires aren’t the most spectacular you will see, in fact it’s really simple and basic, yet they really contribute to the charm of the game. You can clearly see the difference between the various characters and soils. For example, when you walk through water, you move a lot slower.
The simple style of the graphics makes the game enjoyable to play. You might for example be bored and decide to start playing and then suddenly you realise you are playing for three hours already. It sure makes you lose track of time.
Sound
The in-game music isn’t really contributing to the gameplay. The menu music is catchy to listen to but it’s the same thing over and over again; it starts calm and then goes to a faster pace. The in-game music is also a bit of a let-down. It’s there but it doesn’t add anything, it doesn’t change when you get into combat or something like that. There is a small variety of sound effects but it’s not that impressive, what they put in the game is really basic.
They really missed an opportunity with the music. Yes, it’s simple and fits with the rest of the game but they could have added better or more special sound effects for things like that when you attack, build a building etc. Now they are really basic.
Gameplay
Circle Empires is a RTS-game where you have to build an army and improve your circles so you can take on enemies and conquer their circle. The game is easy to understand and fun to play, which makes a perfect combination. You start with your own circle platform where you can build a base and raise an army. When you think you are strong enough to take on your enemies you can march to their circles and start to attack them. When all the opponents are defeated you can claim the circle and start building there as well or move on to another enemy.
When you start a campaign you have to choose one of the eighteen leaders. From the start you have already three unlocked leaders, the others are unlocked by completing challenges. Every leader has its own special power and starts with something extra for example one starts with more gold and another starts with more food.
After you have chosen your leader you can select a game mode. There are three game modes you can select: Monster Hunt, Full Conquest and Imperial Conflict. Every game mode has another mission to win. While playing the Monster Hunt you have to find a given opponent and defeat it in order to win. When you play Full Conquest you must conquer all the circles in the game and in Imperial Conflict you fight against AI controlled empires to take over the entire world.
When you start playing Monster Hunt you can decide against which monster you want to play. At the start there is only one monster available but as you keep playing you can unlock up to twelve monsters. You also have the option to decide which difficulty level you want to play. There are six of them: easy, normal, hard, extreme, nightmare and impossible.
In Full Conquest you can again choose the difficulty of the game, and here you will also have the option to select how big the map should be (XS, S, M, L and XL). If you decide to play the last game mode, Imperial Conflict, you can only pick between five difficulties since “impossible” is not an option. You can also select against how many opponents you want to play; one, two or three.
After you started the game you will find yourself high above the clouds on a circle with a couple of workers and soldiers. Here you can develop your circle more by improving the wall or build several defense towers. You also have the chance to increase the damage output or armor of you soldiers. There is a variety of soldiers to choose from, if you do it right you can even build special creatures. You will have a couple of workers who can collect useful resources like food, wood and gold. These resources are used to improve everything even more.
When you think you are ready for a fight you can invade other circles to complete your goal for victory. The three different game modes make it fun to keep on playing since there are different goals to achieve, but the core gameplay basically stays the same which can make it kind of repetitive. You can make each game even last as long as you want as you can start building an army right from the start or you can improve your owned circles so they have a better defense system.
Conclusion
The gameplay of Circle Empires is easy to understand. Add the simple graphics to that and it makes the perfect combination for a fun game to play. The rounds can be quickly completed or you can stretch them when you want to focus more on improving your owned circles. The only thing in the game that is a bit of a let-down is the music, they could have made an even better game with a charming soundtrack and more improved sound effects.
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