Ancient Empires 2

Finally! an excellent game for mobile phones!
Review By Nynt.


Finally, the first great mobile phone I've ever played. This game is a turn-based strategy game very similar, in both gameplay and graphics, with the Nintendo Gameboy Advance/SP game, Advance Wars. The difference is that the Advance Wars series takes place in modern-day warfare as Ancient Empires 2 take place in medieval times. The cellphone model I've used in this game is a Nokia 6670.

GRAPHICS: At first glance, the game looks like the Advance Wars games. The game characters are well drawn and the animation is good though very slightly inferior compared to Advance Wars' animation. Color palette is very good too, the environments as well as the characters have vivid colors. The only drawback is that there is only one theme or setting with the environment, only a snow setting. You'll never see a desert, forest, underground caves, urban/city, etc. environment, just an area with some waterways or lakes, mountains, and a few trees all covered with snow. There are also some subtle effects like smoke coming out of a house chimney. I still give it a perfect score because of the well-drawn graphics, good animation, and excellent color palette. Even the interface is done well.


SOUND: Finally a game with excellent background music, it is typical turn-based strategy music with some differences. Like any turn-based strategy games, the music changes during the fight animation. There are no sound effects though, when any of the game characters attack or execute a move or get hit, you won't hear any sound. Lacking sound effects is the only factor that prevents this game from getting a perfect score in this category.

CONTROLS: Simple and easy to learn control scheme with only the directional movements and an action or execute button to use. You can control this game effortlessly with any form of keypad.

GAMEPLAY: The game is an excellent turn-based strategy game, like chess but less boring and more fun. There are 2 modes of play, the story mode which is the main mode of the game and you unlock maps for the skirmish mode as you play through. The game has 3 profiles for saving your progress and you can save anywhere, anytime. The skirmish mode is a 2-4 players battle with human players or computer players. It doesn't support bluetooth connection so battling other people is done by passing the cellphone after each players turn. There are 12 skirmish maps and it's fun to play it with friends or the CPU, you can setup your team or fight alone. The game has 10 types of unit, commander(main unit, balanced), soldier(foot soldier that can also occupy houses), archer(ranged attack), elemental(high offense and defense on water), sorceress(low attack and defense but can resurrect dead units as skeleton warriors), wisp(attack and defense booster), dire wolves(mid-level versatile unit), golem(strong offensive and high defensive like a tank but low range movement), catapult(heavy offense), and dragon(high-level versatile unit). There are no different factions or groups of army to use, all player use the same type of units with only the difference of their commander unit's appearance. There are also no bases to build and resources to mine, money is given to you before each players' turn. You can repair and occupy houses for healing and defense advantage and occupy castles to buy units. Terrains like mountains and trees are also used for advantages to decrease the enemy's attack damage and increase your attack damage.

REPLAYABLE: There are 2 online features for this game that I haven't tried but its functions are very obvious. Online news is probably to inform the players about any news or new products from the developers and download levels is probably to download new maps or new missions for the story mode kinda like an expansion pack. Download levels is a plus for the game's replay value for anyone who can access it. The skirmish mode is the main attraction of the game's replay value, it's very fun to play and a good way to kill time with friends.

OVERALL: The game is excellent, it's not perfect but it is definitely the first and one of the best mobile phone game I've ever played. The first time I've played story mode, I was so hooked that the battery life of the phone didn't last more than 12 hrs. for too much playing. It is very addicting but not for the action type gamer since most of the time, thinking a lot and strategy is required. I give it an overall near-perfect score of 9 out of 10. The only thing it lacks are more theme/environments for the maps, more units or different types of armies, and bluetooth connection support for multiplayer, they're not necessary but it could make the game perfect.