What RTS veterans may expect but not find in Civilizations Wars is player control over fort construction and diversification of troops; all buildings are pre-set on each battlefield map and the types of units the player deploys depend on the type of building the troops are housed in. With two additional civilizations unlocked during the first playthrough the developers had a chance to create fantastic replay value, but sadly each civilization’s campaign appears identical. Differences from one campaign to the next are to be found mostly in nuance; each civilization has different starting statistics that determine troop speed, offensive and defensive efficacy, how adept the civilization is at casting magic, etc. Nevertheless, there’s already a wondrous amount iOS gamers can chew on here, especially for those who may just be getting into the RTS genre.
Civilizations Wars‘ user interface is silky smooth in battle. Where it falls a bit flat is in the skill upgrade menu, where the player allocates skill points awarded every few victories to upgrade his or her civilization’s spells and troop properties. The problem lies in the distinction between a.) investigating what a skill does exactly – pictographs representing each skill aren’t always self-explanatory – and b.) actually assigning points to that skill. Players are liable to tap on the skill pictures first to investigate them and then find that they’ve accidentally allocated points to them. In truth there’s a sliver of a virtual button toward the top and bottom of each skill’s pictograph, but the player’s finger isn’t small enough to know the difference. Nevertheless, the problem fades with a bit of familiarity and skill point injections can be reversed at any time.
Civilizations Wars feels a bit unbalanced in terms of aesthetic presentation. Each battlefield’s landscape is beautifully drawn and there are plenty of animations for spells, giant monsters, and troop deaths from said threats, but the tons of skirmishes the troops must be engaging in when they seize buildings are visually lackluster. They march across the screen and they disappear, their fates shrouded in silence and invisibility. On the other hand, building seizure happens so often that more flair in this department certainly would have weighed on the game’s speed.
What players might find most disappointing is Civilizations Wars‘ bizarre lack of musical accompaniment. That’s right – there’s nary a thing to be heard during the battles other than the soldiers’ ululations, the crackling of spells, and the cawing of passing crows waiting to feast on the aftermath. This feels even more bizarre after hearing the wonderful tribal tunes that accompany the game’s intro and options menu. It is, after all, a quirk carried over from Civilizations Wars‘ previous life as a Flash game, but the least the developer can do is to allow external music tracks to play once in-game audio is silenced; I was ready to charge in to the sound of Holst’s “Mars: Bringer of War” and Civilizations Wars silenced my iTunes playlist. Hopefully this oversight will be addressed in future updates!
iFanzine Verdict: Civilizations Wars quickly becomes addictive thanks to a delightfully simple touch interface coupled with onscreen action that’s fast, furious, and demanding of a good thinking cap. It surely lacks a few of the bells and whistles that more established RTS franchises have developed over the years, but there’s still a wondrous amount of meat on this game’s bones considering the price range. If you’ve never played a Real-Time Strategy game before, do yourself a favor and let this be your introduction to the genre.