World at Arms Review: A game that looks good and plays pretty good too

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Published on Friday, 08 February 2013 11:49

Gameloft is a company that is known for its high-quality games. Their titles normally look good, sometimes being at the top of the charts for graphics. Unfortunately they’re also known as a company that tends to rip off or copy other titles. Even if that’s the case, nothing seems to stop this game giant.

 Name: World at Arms | Publisher: Gameloft | Category: Strategy | Players: 1+ | Version: 1.0.8 | Size: 12 MB | Price: Free

World at Arms, a new title from the gaming giant promises world conquest, thrilling action, city-building and amazing graphics. It’s certainly a fun game that looks good, and there is some city-building going on, but overall it’s not totally unique. Gameloft is good at games that do just enough to stand out from the crowd, but they push out so many titles that it’s hard to keep up with them all. It’s easiest to describe the game lineup as solid, fun and a good deal.

World at Arms follows the typical Gameloft formula, meaning that you know you’ll get a high quality experience for a very small price. At first you’ll be confronted with a tutorial that shows you how to install a few buildings and how to interact with your base, and then it will quickly throw you into combat. The combat is fun, pitting you and the enemy against each other on opposite sides of a rolling battlefield. You fire automatically but will occasionally shoot off a missile and can even block incoming enemy salvos by swiping at the screen. It’s a charming combination of action, automated combat and using the Nexus 7’s capable graphics and response. There’s never an ounce of lag and even basic fights can vary, depending on how much you can afford to spend on missiles or other extra weapons. I never felt overwhelmed of overly confused by the combat, even when it became challenging. If there’s one thing Gameloft is good at, it’s giving you a fun time

City-building is fast, or at least fast enough. I was able to build a new structure, go battle a few people and come back to its completion. On top of that, the cities allow you to click on each building to pull out gold and other useful bits occasionally, swipe at jets as they fly by and even touch the different tanks or infantry units that patrol your town, all in order to gain extra little bits of resources. Again it’s nothing new in the grand scheme of things, but Gameloft loves to mix up familiar genres and mechanics to come out with something new enough.

If you’re tired of fighting NPC armies or performing missions, you can click on the global map and find players to attack. Fighting them is the same as fighting an NPC, but it’s so easy to access other players that it makes it all a seamless experience. In other games you might have to wait for an opponent or have to search through confusing menus, but in World at Arms it’s all so obvious. I was defeating my enemies within no time. Combat doesn’t seem a necessity, and much of my time was spent rearranging my city and doing missions. It’s also a game that’s open to casual play, something that I require. I have to play a ton of games each week so I need games that allow me to pick them up here and there. World at Arms not only allowed me to play at a comfortable pace, but still allowed me to move forward.

I was, frankly, surprised at how much I enjoyed World at Arms. I shouldn’t be surprised, though; Gameloft makes high quality games and has become less known for ripping off other titles. They pump out more games that most studios than I can think of, and have done a lot to show how capable the mobile platform can be. Mobile fans owe them a lot. As I said, you won’t be blown away by how original World at Arms is, but you will enjoy how smoothly it runs, how nice it looks and how intuitive it all is. There is always a batch of new players to attack, and from what I can tell the city-building stage can become a game in itself. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

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