Game of War - Fire Age

 iOS
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
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  1. Gamezebo
    Aug 2, 2013
    70
    Game of War: Fire Age takes some important steps toward something truly revolutionary, but it lacks the gameplay advances to make it all the way there. It's likely to appeal to the same players who enjoyed the games that preceded it, yet it feels like a missed opportunity for everyone else.
  2. Pocket Gamer UK
    Feb 14, 2014
    60
    Sure, Game of War - Fire Age isn't a great game, but the people playing it are an entertaining bunch indeed.
  3. 148Apps
    Nov 11, 2013
    50
    Building an empire should really be more exciting than this.

Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Most Discussed iOS Game of 2013
4
#4 Most Shared iOS Game of 2013

User Reviews

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User Score
1.5

Overwhelming dislike- based on 106 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 106
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 106
  3. Negative: 89 out of 106
  1. Ghost67
    Jan 5, 2015
    1
    GOW IS NOT ABOUT STRATEGY!

    It is impossible to be competitive without serious dough. $$$ = Power, LITERALLY. And Machinezone has done a    GOW IS NOT ABOUT STRATEGY!

    It is impossible to be competitive without serious dough. $$$ = Power, LITERALLY. And Machinezone has done a BRILLIANT job of squeezing every last dollar out of you. Unfortunately, this KILLS the strategy of the game. At the end of the day, GoW is about brute force.

    This is a P2W game to the max. As you know, in Empire building games you are given an "Empire" or really, a "city" to build in a territory with other players you compete against. You build stuff, train soldiers, and eventually go out to attack other players. You also have a technology tree to advance on, so you advance in technology as you play the game.

    Sounds good so far, right? Well - here is where it gets crazy.

    Everything takes time. Building takes time, researching takes time, building troops takes time. We all know this is a staple of these Empire building games. However, GoW takes this to the extreme with building times that can go on to absurd amounts of time. We're talking that some techs could take as long as a YEAR - 365 days to complete. That means that if you are a free player. it will take years to complete one portion of the tech tree, while someone who cashed would complete it INSTANTLY through purchased boosts. I dont know exactly how much time you would have to put in to complete the tech tree, but its got to be over 10 years of time for totals.

    And it gets worse.

    Everything that you build increases your power. Power is a measure of just that - how strong you are. So, Machinezone had the great idea of creating a literal "Power" score that every player has. That power score is displayed once you select that player. This takes out the guessing game of how strong a player is, and once again like I said previously - the game becomes more about who has the bigger guns. Plain and simple. And of course there are leaderboards for people who have the most power.

    So, want to be the best? You'll be competing with crazy nuts out there that are dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars to increase their power. You must constantly spend more money to stay competitive, as power continuously grows. This is the essence of the game - increasing your power.

    So, since its advertised freely, there is not a huge need to scout someone when you know that if they have double your power, you shouldnt even consider them. There is NO LIMIT to the amount of power a player can accumulate. No troop limit. That means that you will have players that have been playing for weeks or months with maybe 200,000 troops, and then serious cashers that have TENS OF MILLIONS of troops. These are HUGE power disparities. You have single players that are more powerful than entire alliances. And once you reach a certain level of power, the only thing that is going to stop a player that powerful would be a full march from an alliance which is difficult in itself to coordinate.

    But it gets even worse. Shields that protect you from being attacked are available and relatively cheap for someone who pays. That means that if you have the money, you can easily prevent yourself from being attacked. This completely RUINS the game and breaks it. Basically, you can pop this shield anytime you want for a small fee. You can then break it and initiate combat anytime you feel like it. This makes the game really stale and ultimately, really boring as half the players are shielded all the time. The other players are too small for you to care about. BORING.

    This basically leads players that have the money to stay shielded as long as they are AFK or not wanting to fight, and initiating fights on players whenever they feel like it. Teleports are also really cheap, so you have these mobile forces able to teleport anywhere they want on the empire map. Again, where is the strategy?

    That is the sad fact of this game. GoW does have cool features, like heroes, a large tech tree, but these are negated by the fact of the amount of money that you have to throw at the game in order to be competitive. This is all a power game. Literally. It's shameful. I totally can see players spending over $10,000 on this game. The stories of people spending $30k+ are entirely true.

    Stay away. GoW is very polished, but at the end of the day its one of the biggest money sinks you possibly find. Its just unbelievable. As an experiment I coughed up the cash but no more. it's ridiculous and not worth your money.    … Full Review »
  2. yourcomb
    Sep 22, 2014
    0
    the creators of game of war (machine zone) charges $100 for packs that may allow you to grow a million or 2 in power. To put this inthe creators of game of war (machine zone) charges $100 for packs that may allow you to grow a million or 2 in power. To put this in prospective the top players in my kingdom are 500mil power. Some people have spent upwards of $30,000 on one account alone. So now that you have a little back story. MACHINE ZONE has allowed players to CHEAT using a glitch that gives about $250 worth of free gold every time they do it. These players have used this cheat to bring their power to double what those who have spent thousands on the game have. They refuse to do anything about it or compensate others who have paid real money for their accounts. Now these players are using their unfair advantage to make those accounts that were paid for legitimately useless. Surely MZ is happy anout this thinking, "oh good the spenders will need to spend more money to catch up." They are greedy and the game is far too glitchy, with zero support from them. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THIS GAME. I give it a negative 10.… Full Review »
  3. riven1431
    Jul 29, 2014
    0
    This game is very addicting before you know it it takes over your personal activities time and money. But the worst part is how gameThis game is very addicting before you know it it takes over your personal activities time and money. But the worst part is how game developers try their hardest to manipulate our feeble little minds to spend on the game. Please stay away from this game at all cost… Full Review »
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