iPhone review of the day: Kingdom Conquest – dungeon crawling meets city building and monster armies

On iPhone
Game: Kingdom Conquest
Price: Free
Size: 69.2 MB
Get it now on the iTunes store:US/UK

A mish-mash of genres. That%26rsquo;s the best way to describe Kingdom Conquest. It%26rsquo;s one half dungeon crawling hack %26lsquo;n slash MMO, and one half in-depth city building strategy game. It%26rsquo;s big and it%26rsquo;s deep, and while not all of the elements are the best on their own, the overall package has the potential to consume you. And it%26rsquo;s free.

Like so many fantasy kingdoms, the land of Magna Gul has been overrun with terrible monsters. Sensing that things were getting bad, the king split town, leaving his throne open to anyone with the stones to take it. All you need to do is become the baddest dude in all of the land and it%26rsquo;s all yours.

The game is divided into three main sections. First, there%26rsquo;s the city building, which works a lot like many social network games, with you erecting buildings and producing goods, but all of this happens in real time. So it takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for a building to be ready or for crops to grow. Thankfully, there are other things to occupy your time. In the second gameplay style, you can explore nearby towers and fight off waves of monsters. Though the combat is a little shallow, whacking a skeleton with a sword is always satisfying. You can also team up with up to four other players for some co-op battles, which are almost a necessity when it comes to taking down the big bad bosses.

Then there%26rsquo;s that third tier of gameplay %26ndash; building your monster army. You%26rsquo;ll also collect monsters along the way, and these helpful creatures will form an army that can be sent out to overtake nearby areas, further expanding your empire. Like the city building, this takes time. Much of the game is spent setting things up and then simply waiting. But since there%26rsquo;s so much to do that%26rsquo;s not a bad thing.

Kingdom Conquest is sort of like a fantasy themed Facebook game on your phone. Except it%26rsquo;s one you%26rsquo;ll actually want to play.

Jan 20, 2011