RIGHT!
It definitely is AoE/WoW/Farmville all in one delightful little package.
It's AoE as in... well you all know what AoE is. Get resources. Build units. Build units to counter the other guys units. Question mark question mark question mark question mark. Profit.
The game eases you in gently. There are two races (at the moment). Greeks and Egyptians. You can play as both races but both level up individually. When you pick a race you're asked to name your capital city. I chose Egyptians and the luscious capital city of Lesbian on the banks of the Nile. Shut up. You've all heard of it. After that you're planked into your city. It's pretty basic. There's like houses and stuff. Little dudes running about, talking about the price of papyrus and shit. There's a guy standing outside your palace with a giant gold exclamation mark. He says "HEY GUYS. It's not an MMO without a fucking gold exclamation mark, is it?" to which you reply "DAMN RIGHT IT AIN'T" and then you click all over his face. Hot.
So he's gives you a quest. I half expected my first quest to be like starting a skirmish game in the original AoEs. Start with 5 villagers and build a base up to the final age and stampede with 200 guys with lightsabers and Chevys eating lasagne. Nope. This game slides in gently with all the love and tenderness you wanted your first time to be. He guides you along "OK... build some villagers. Get 500 food. Uhh gurl yeah like that. Now build a house. Shiiiit yeah... you've done all that... here it comes!" Next thing you know you're covered in hot, sticky XP points, gold points, technology and empire points. You're a real woman now.
The next mission will see you use the technology you earned in the previous missions. Old gold exclamation mark man has given you the power to pro-create and make villagers. So you'll probably be expected to make 10 villagers and harvest 400 wood. Rinse & repeat. Eventually the missions will see genuine combat once you've been de-flowered and are no longer afraid of the sight of blood because I mean they didn't tell you that you bled that much? It wasn't magical at all. I'm bitter now. BITTER AND JADED.
So how is it WoW? Well thanks for asking, Mr. One Eyed Snake. All of your buildings and units are equipped with slots. Some quests will see you get a reward of Leather Thong of the Domanatrix which you can equip to, say, you're spearmen giving them +5% sex appeal or damage or whatever. You can equip buildings with similar items giving -10% building cost and such.
You can craft things too. During missions you'll find chests with planks and copper ingots and suchwhathitherforthnotwithstanding. You combine these in certain places to make a nice new pair of gloves to help you run faster. How? I dunno. Shut up. It's a game, Jesus.
Then there's the old premium aspect of the game. In my fifth mission I was offered the choice of several rare weapons. I chose one and went to equip it. No sirreee bob! You need to have a premium civ for that. So there's inevitably some dude running around with a mastercard horribly owning everything around him. I mentioned empire points earlier on. You get a few rewarded during missions. I thought it would be a way to get F2P gamers addicted into the uber item aspect of the game but nope, you have to be premium to even use them.
How is it Farmville? Why thanks for asking, Purple Helmet Man. You can customize your capital city. You know. Shrubs. Trees. Flags. Gay bars. All the makings of a good city.
Graphics wise the game looks really pretty. TF2 style graphics. Lovely death animations. You kill a guy and he'll die and a grave with flowers will arrive in his place. WHERE'D THAT COME FROM LOL? Who knows! Who knows...
I haven't done any PVP yet. I'm not sure how. I probably have to do more little missions and what not. I'm at the point where I can do co-op missions so if any of you guys wanna go for it my name is Big Rony Lad. It uses GFWL but it hasn't gave me any bother thus far.
Any questions?
