Lords Mobile: War Kingdom

Average strategy game pushes purchases, guild politics.
Lords Mobile: War Kingdom
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Lords Mobile: War Kingdom is a freemium fantasy strategy game on iOS and Android devices. The game has a global chat function and an emphasis on competitive multiplayer and guild participation. Competitive gameplay favors players in guilds, and guild membership often requires a significant time commitment. This, as well as timer-based upgrades, creates a constant temptation to spend real money to speed things up. Built-in livestream functionality lets players stream gameplay by downloading third-party app WeGamers. On-screen global chat often contains bad language and inappropriate conversation that could expose players to language, sex, or drug comments. There are also frequent player-created ads selling in-game currency for real money, but offensive players can be blocked. While fights occur between players and monsters, there's no blood or gore shown. Players may also be tempted to spend money to refresh timers for gameplay instead of waiting for the timers to end. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change.
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Great game but terrible support services. Do not purchase "one-time" offers or you will be "creatively" targeted for "additional offers"!
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What’s It About?
LORDS MOBILE: WAR KINGDOM is a free-to-play fantasy mobile game that combines world-building, role-playing, and real-time strategy. In the world-building part, players build kingdoms from scratch: Starting with nothing but small plots of land, they construct buildings, gather resources, train armies, and vanquish enemies, expanding their kingdoms as they go. Each activity has a countdown timer -- anywhere from a minute to several hours -- before it completes. As structures are built and upgraded, players are offered higher amounts of raw material as well as special trading, crafting, and training options. In the role-playing part of the game, players collect a party of heroes with different abilities and guide them through a series of dungeon battles. Heroes become more powerful with experience, and dungeon runs earn them special equipment and other useful items like timer accelerators. Finally, in the real-time strategy part of the game, players (either alone or within cooperative guilds) attack other kingdoms in hopes of winning additional land and resources.
Is It Any Good?
Like other popular strategy apps, this has a fantasy setting, world-building mechanics, player-versus-player combat, and timer countdowns, but its play is dominated by purchases and politics. Anyone who's played this kind of app knows Lords Mobile: War Kingdom is all about watching timers. Everything has a timer: construction, training, research, resource gathering, monster killing, you name it. Though you can speed these timers up with special boosts, most of them must be bought from the in-app store. Another thing about these games: Cooperation is key. The idea is to build a kingdom powerful enough to withstand outside aggression, and that needs to be done quickly and efficiently if you don't want to be picked on by gangs of online bullies. Cooperation's the only way to do that, and it comes in the form of a guild.
You can either join a guild or start your own, combining your strength with that of other players. But there's a price for such alliances. Some guilds view membership as a contract requiring consistent play times, resource commitments, and set hours in-game. On top of that, guild politics can become a commitment in itself as guilds insist on communicating outside the game via text, chat, and email. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but food for thought if you're worried about your kids being overwhelmed or getting friendly with strangers. That said, guilds are the core of this genre, and fans would likely argue they're what make these games great. Certainly, without player-versus-player, these games would mostly consist of tapping buttons and watching timers tick down. Of course, Lords Mobile: War Kingdom does offer a bit of a break from that with its hero system. Heroes can be leveled and skilled up, equipped, and swapped out, and new ones can even be recruited. Ultimately, though, they offer only a temporary respite from the larger competitive game, and your enjoyment of that depends largely on your tolerance for timers, teamwork, and frequent wallet taps.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about commitments to game-related groups. Do your kids have set limits for time spent playing certain games and/or conducting game-related business?
Do your kids know not to give phone numbers and other personal information to gamers they meet online? Why should you be wary of what you share online?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Pricing structure: Free (Contains optional in-app purchases.)
- Release date: February 26, 2016
- Category: Strategy Games
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures
- Publisher: IGG.com
- Version: 1.93
- Minimum software requirements: Requires iOS 7.0 or later; Android 4.0.3 and up
- Last updated: March 13, 2019
Our Editors Recommend
For kids who love strategy
Themes & Topics
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