Review: Pocket Kingdom
Score:
74%
Version Reviewed: Final Rele
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Well here we are, the promise of mulitplayer gaming through the N-Gage Arena has arrived in Pocket Kingdom. And as a statement of technology, and what the platform can do, Pocket Kingdom delivers. It's unfortunate that it fails in the key areas of the User Interface and excitement.
Most games are shades of grey. That is to say some people will love them, some people will like them, some will think it's only average, etc. But there are a few games that will push people into two groups: love the game or hate the game. Pocket Kingdom is one such game. There's no half measures, either you're all for it, or you're against it. Which is a shame, because I don't think it deserves either response.
Pocket Kingdom casts you as a General (or King, or Democratic Leader, it's never clear) of a flying castle that can visit different regions (the Kingdoms) in the land of Ulgress. Your ultimate aim is to control as many kingdoms as possible, gather as much money as possible, and amass victory points. By doing this you'll gain control of the land of Ulgress and be the ruler. Of course, you're not just battling a number of computer AI opponents (NPC, Non Player Characters), you'll also be fighting a number of other N-Gage players who are in the same world as yourself, when you go online through the N-Gage Arena. What's great is that this online play is in the same world as the offline play, so things you do in one affect your actions in other. It's possible to train up your armies’ offline before taking them online. Given everyone else is doing the same, this is a fine strategy to start with.
And strategy is the main strength of Pocket Kingdom. As the Commander in Chief of your armies, you can recruit soldiers and clerics as you see fit, outfit them with weapons and armour that you find or make, tell them how to attack and in what order. A dedicated player can spend hours fine tuning these options, getting g the perfect mix of attack and defence. Once you’ve decided on the tactics though, it’s time to sit back and let them loose to attack a stronghold. And all you can do is sit back and watch. Some people are going to complain that this leaves them as a bystander with no way of influencing combat. Wrong. It's just that all your influencing is done long before combat happens. And it's these orders and making up of armies that is key to succeeding in Pocket Kingdom. For example, when attacking an 'end of level' castle stronghold, you'll want to concentrate your fire on the big baddie - once he dies you win that battle, even if his minions are around. But storming a town means you need to kill everything in sight, so you'll want to mix up your methods, targeting different people. Defending your own kingdom (the floating castle) is going to need more thought - even throwing bathtubs is a viable option.
Going online and battling real life opponents is very similar to fighting the NPC's in your own N-Gage. There's a little bit of latency involved - but the strength here of battles between armies not directly controlled by players means the data transferred (and the time taken) is much less than you'd expect. There's also an additional Global Auction here you can make money from all you ill gotten gains to other users, or buy the Green Leaves that you need to complete your Rank Emblems. Beyond these changes there's almost no difference between offline and online play - the join is seamless.
And Pocket Kingdom's major problem is evident no matter who you're playing against. The User Interface is absolutely shocking. How this got through play testing I have no idea. Let’s take a simple example you’ll all hit on the second level. Making a weapon takes 15 steps. Ergo:
Shop… Buy… Item… Copper… Yes… Sword Mould… Yes… Back… Back… Lab… Combine… Select Copper… Select Sword Mould… Combine… Yes…
Each step needs a confirmation click. Most of them need some amount of scrolling through a list. It’s just not on. Now consider that I need four swords (or two swords and two armour, depending on the strategy I want to use) to outfit a team of four soldiers. It’s absolute madness that with all the keys (and a number pad for crying out loud) that they couldn’t come up with something a little easier on the thumbs. This is one isolated example, but all over Pocket Kingdom is let down by a really bad user interface and some really annoying things that detract from the main game.
When a character is injured and retires from a battle, you need to go into your Army Management, and add him back in to the same team. You’ll also need to make up new sword (or other tool) for him, so it’s into the shop and lab click-a-thon. Until you get addicted, Pocket Kingdom is nothing more than a frustrating challenge trying to get to the battles.
There’s also a general lack of information available to the new player. There are hundreds of elements in Pocket Kingdom. All these can be combined to create new items. Sword Moulds and Copper is one, but if you add in a Garnet jewel to the mould and the ore when you combine them, you get a Fire Sword. So there’s a lot going on. But does a new player know to experiment? Or want to experiment? After all, it’s a huge number of clicks just to find out if something might work.
The user manual does its best, but it’s not enough. Nor is it enough to suggest going to the Pocket Kingdom website, and then be referred (when you find the link) to the ever-useful Pocket Kingdom section of the Warcry website. On here are all the stats tables, guides to combining items, how to rank up your soldiers into archers (very useful)… Which is great but is does typify Pocket Kingdom.
Everything is too many clicks away from the user! I’ll agree that this style of gaming needs a lot of menus and interaction, but that means programmers should work at making it more accessible to regular gamers, rather than assuming that the RPG fans will just accept the quirks as ‘part of the game.’ Pocket Kingdom has to be measured alongside other games, on its own merits. It may be the first mobile game in this genre, but that can never excuse the design flaws.
But no matter these problems, Pocket Kingdom is getting a lot of people very excited. Games like Everquest on the PC have already proven that massive online games work, and can easily capture the imagination of gamers, and those gamers can become rabid fans, enthusing about the game everywhere on the web, and to everyone they meet. The same goes for Pocket Kingdom.
While technically Pocket Kingdom is great for the N-Gage, as a gaming experience, it leaves a lot to be desired. It may be the first massive multiplayer game on the N-Gage, and with the buzz it’s getting it’s not going to be the last – which is great because the interface really needs sorted out. When you hide a good game under a crummy UI, you’re going to loose a lot of average gamers who play for fifteen minutes, decide that all this clicking is going nowhere, and they move on. It’s no good having the long term players suggesting "they should just keep going, it gets better’ because that’s not what a game should be. It’s great that the artistic department have some lovely backdrops that are tiny works of art, and your soldiers have a huge number of frames and looks when they battle. I can even see why they use hacker l33t speek to give the game a bit of a sarcastic tone (and it works). But a game should be entertaining and challenging from the first twenty seconds.
Even through all that criticism, Pocket Kingdom is a good time waster, it just takes a long time to get to a point where you can be comfortable with it. If there is to be a PK 2.0, then the user interface team needs to be fired, there needs to be more information in the box, and the gameplay needs to have a few more addictive hooks. Those of you who like this genre are going to be extremely satisfied (and wondering why anyone can give it less than 100%), but there’s nothing here to tempt people to explore a new genre.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at