Developer: Fifth Season
Publisher: Fifth Season
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
AD2460 – Review
Within the ever growing MMO genre, there has always been a relatively small subset of games that catered to a very specific niche. These so-called WMMOs, or Web-based Massively Multiplayer Online games, often use simplistic, primarily text based interfaces to pull players into surprisingly complex game worlds.
AD2460 is such a title, and quite an ambitious one at that. It urges players to take part in a resource race spanning entire galaxies. It lets them start out with a single homeworld and allows them to expand their nation into a universal empire in whatever way they see fit.
Story
The game takes place in a distant future and as its genre companions, it relies heavily on the players themselves to create their own stories within the universe. In contrast with similar titles, however, AD2460 does deliver a believable backstory for lore fanatics. The general plot focuses on the exploitation of the so-called Dead Worlds, planets that are unable to sustain life. Most of these locations house a vast amount of raw materials, and it doesn’t take long before humankind’s typical greedy nature forces it into several alliances who soon lock themselves into feuds and wars.
To find this information, players need to look outside of the actual game. Therefore, story doesn’t seem to have been the main concern of Fifth Season, the developer. Then again, AD2460 does deliver a whole lot more on this front with its contemporary storylines, which are divided into several missions. Although the genre is usually solely focused on the creations of great empires and simply beating every other player into submission with your space fleets, this title successfully deviates from this somewhat stale premise by adding these mission plots.
Graphics
Being a browser-based game centered on statistics has its perks, such as the lack of a need for graphical prowess. Still, the game is littered with nice imagery to keep the player immersed in this science fiction universe.
More importantly, the game’s engine delivers a seamless experience. Usually, the genre uses a plethora of webpages, meaning that nearly every choice means that players have to wait for a new page to load. Here, everything takes place within a single page thanks to a clever usage of slider menus and an interactive interface. The downside of this seamlessness is that newcomers will be bombarded with information. Luckily, a very helpful tutorial will take you through the first steps, and then some, to building a modest emporium.
Sound
Let’s make this a very short paragraph: except for the occasional bleep and click sounds, there isn’t really that much sound to speak of. This could definitely be improved with nice sound effects and maybe a few tunes thrown in for good measure, but as it stands, there really isn’t anything in the sound department that will have you stick around.
Gameplay
Let’s get one thing clear before we delve into the depths of the gameplay experience: AD2460 is nowhere near a mainstream game. It is part of what could definitely be called a retro genre and fully expects its players to know and love its premise before even logging in for the first time. However helpful the tutorial may be in guiding the player’s first steps, after that, you’re pretty much on your own to fend for the wellbeing of your homeworld. Newcomers will quickly notice dwindling resources it doesn’t help that the game often expects its players to simply wait for hours until they can perform the next step in their plan. This is the kind of adventure that has players logging in before they go to work, get a few clicks in and see the results once they come back home. Luckily, you’ve got access to an in-game chat panel and forum. Thanks to a – at the moment of writing – lively community, help is never more than a question away.
As a redeeming factor, the game has done away with the Pay-to-Win attitude that has been running rampant in similar titles for years now. Instead of allowing players to buy vanity items and shorten waiting times, it runs on a modest subscription, ranging from € 0.08 to € 0.20 per credit, depending on the quantities of credits you buy at once. Each day, one credit is removed, so one month will cost approximately € 3. Because Fifth Season is a European studio, it accepts euros only. Therefore, our review also mentions only this currency as the conversion rate fluctuates constantly.
AD2460’s gameplay consists of a series of choices, to be made by the player. In order to grow your empire, you’ll need to use your homeworld as a central hub. It allows you the room to construct facilities, research and develop new technologies, as well as partake in missions and produce new units. Other planets can be colonized using Outposts, which then gather raw materials and transport them back to the homeworld at your leisure.
While it is perfectly possible to play the game as a true diplomat and build a peaceful multigalaxy corporation, most players will use their economy primarily as a stepping stone to space warfare. Gathering a fortune is all well and good, but without means to defend it, others might feel a little too inclined to step in and take your place. Therefore, it is adviseable to build strong fleets with which to defend yourself or attack other players. Being alone in a constantly expanding universe can be daunting, though, so most players choose to form alliances. The game supports this by including an alliance system, complete with a member directory, marketplace and the chance to develop technologies for the alliance to grow stronger.
Whilst getting your economy going is one thing, fighting other players is a different cup of tea. When looking up other players, you’ll see their total strength. Even though this may mean you have found your prey, it’s still advised to send a scout before you decide to attack your fellow space explorer. Depending on the tech type that reigns supreme in their fleet, you might just run into a brick wall if his ships are more advanced than yours. Not only technology and strength will be a key to success, but the tactics you decide to use as well. At the beginning of a battle you can determine on which ships you wish to focus, if you wish to flee after a set amount of damage and so on. Overall, it’s advised to try and find an alliance that will harbour you because otherwise, you’ll probably be a sitting duck as players can attack others which are a lot lower in level.
Conclusion
Though AD2460 caters only to a very specific and hardcore niche, fans of the genre will find much to delight in. Thanks to the low fee, the subscription system is a good alternative to the Pay-to-Win methods out there – which, by the way, is always a bad way of funding your game, but that is food for a whole other discussion. The community is filled with active members who will take care of any questions you may have and the U.I., although confusing at first, has grown on us pretty quickly. Nevertheless, it is a hard game to get into, a fact of which it even warns new players. If you’re not willing to go hardcore, this is a very difficult game to recommend. If, on the other hand, you live for statistics, challenging economies and the prospect of charging large fleets smackdab into other players’ armies, then this might be the old-school game you seek.
AD2460 - Review,
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