DomiNations!

[Barathor]

So, I'll assume many Starships players here don't shy away from good mobile games. I just wanted to give players here a heads-up about a title I've been waiting for and just started playing when I noticed it within the Google Play store yesterday:

DomiNations!

When away from my computer, I play a lot of Clash of Clans and Boom Beach, so I'm very familiar with a lot of things within the game, but it also brings a lot of new and exciting things to the table too. The quality is superb. It's really stylish and beautiful to look at and listen to. Also, this isn't any kind of noobish Civ Revolutions type of game either!

I'm posting it here because it has a very strong Civilization flavor to it that many here would enjoy. Also, because the designer of DomiNations, Brian Reynolds of Big Huge Games, was a co-founder of Firaxis. He was the lead designer of Civilization II and Alpha Centauri, and after leaving Firaxis, the lead designer of Rise of Nations -- all pretty huge, successful titles. His studio now focuses on high quality mobile games.

Anyway, the game is free to play if anyone is interested. I know some have an aversion to games like this -- especially mobile ones, since there's a lot of junk out there. But, like Clash of Clans and Boom Beach, it's quite fair and you don't need to spend a dime if you don't want to. DomiNations is pretty generous at the beginning and rewards lots of "crowns" for achieving different goals. They also can be harvested periodically via hunting down stags, finding ruins in cleared forests, and probably other things I haven't discovered yet.

I personally don't mind throwing a little cash towards a nicely designed game to support it, and purchased the starter pack available within it for $10. It's a great bargain and gives you more than $10 worth of crowns and on top of that, you get a bonus house which gives you two extra citizens (you start with 4 to 6) which are your workers in the game. (Any tasks you do, like building things, hunting, harvesting, etc. consume a number of citizens until the task is complete.)

Blogs say this could very well dethrone Clash of Clans, especially once it gets settled and develops more content over the months. I'm really enjoying it right now and wanted to give other gamers here a heads-up so maybe they can too -- plus it further supports the game and spreads the word!

Some reviews:
http://www.gamezebo.com/2015/04/07/dominations-review-a-civilized-clashing-of-clans/
http://www.touchtapplay.com/dominations-review/
http://toucharcade.com/2015/04/07/dominations-review/

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Moved to All Other Games forum.

 

[Maniacal]

Moderator Action: Moved to All Other Games forum.

You can have it back, we don't want it. *holds dominations by a corner between two fingers as if it was a dirty diaper*

 

[civvver]

My brother is obsessed with this game and I do not get it at all. Just another cash grab on the backs of mobile platform popularity. I mean it's an ok time waster compared to like candy crush, but it's a far cry from any real civ game, even civ revolutions on the iphone is just as good. It's literally one of those build and wait games without much point or strategy.

 

[Barathor]

Haha, harsh!

civvver, you really don't need to spend anything at all. Indeed, it's entertaining and consumes your time. Though, in a different way than games on a PC. I play it in spurts throughout the day, then exit it to let it "cook" as things are being researched/built/etc -- which works really well on a mobile device. Though, you can play them for longer sessions too as you would a traditional game by focusing on raiding other players continuously.

Personally, I wouldn't compare it to a game like Candy Crush -- that's one that I'd toss away like a dirty diaper, as Maniacal put it, haha.

It isn't a real Civ game. It belongs to the base-building genre (or whatever you call them) that Clash of Clans belongs to and that works really well on mobile devices, in my opinion. I just said it has the flavor of Civ. I really didn't like Civ Revolutions. That's one that "is" a Civ game, though much more simple and streamlined for mobile. DomiNations isn't trying to be a Civ game.

I would disagree that there isn't much point or strategy to these games. If you gave them a fair shot and tried them out, you may disagree as well. I used to think the same thing until I gave Clash of Clans a fair shot to see what all the fuss was about.

Though, I almost gave up on Clash when I first tried it out because it starts out really simple and stupid. It slowly walks you through things until you're ready for what the game really offers. One reason is probably so it attracts a much wider audience that includes less competitive players, and it tries to temper them into clashers for the later game.

I'd say get to Town Hall 7 to start to get a little taste of what the game really offers.

Boom Beach is the same way (because it's by the same developers). I'd say get to at least Headquarters 10 to give it a fair chance.

DomiNations, on the other hand, actually seems to curve up much faster than those other two mobile games I play. I'd say get to at least the Classical Age to get a taste of what it offers, since lots of neat things become available (I just got to the Classical Age myself right now).

It's certainly won't be everyone's thing. But, I would at least try it before you knock it -- they're all free to play and you have nothing much to lose. You may just like it and then you'll have a new form of entertainment that you can take with you anywhere you go when you're away from your PC or console games.

I'm going to throw up some reviews in my original post.

 

[civvver]

No, it's boring. I'll try it when I'm on the can and that's it.

 

[Barathor]

No, it's boring. I'll try it when I'm on the can and that's it.

A great place to start!

ProTip: Remember not to touch your device again after wiping until you've washed your hands.

 

[da dick]

freemium, watered down. epic levels of disappointing because this was the dev for RoN