Mobile Game Oceans and Empires – Game Review

I have recently been playing a mobile game on Android called Oceans and Empires. If you like any kind of mobile strategy games or building games, then you should read this Oceans and Empires review. You will learn what the game is all about, how easy or hard it is, as well as learn a few pointers if you want to get started playing it.

Genre	MMORTS (Mulitplayer Strategy Game)
Developer	JOYCITY Corp.
Release Date	Nov. 2016
In App Purchases	Yes
Data or Wifi Required	Yes

What is the Oceans and Empires Game All About?

Chances are if you are reading this, you have played a few mobile strategy games before, and you are just looking to see if Oceans and Empires will be a good fit for you. There is also the possibility you are new to these types of games and you want to know if it is worth trying out. First, let’s discuss the foundation of the game.

Oceans and Empires is a Mobile Strategy Game (MMORTS) not unlike the majority of strategy games out there, except with pirates and ships on the open oceans. You start off with a level one castle, and your goal is to turn that little shack into your empire. You do this by leveling up your buildings, gathering and harvesting resources such as wood and food, as well as build up an army to fight for you.

Is this Mobile Strategy Game Different?

The first thing that sets Oceans and Empires apart from other MMORTS games is that you do not just build troops. Aside from training troops in your barracks, you have a ship yard and a dock to manage. The ship yard allows you to build ships, which you can then upgrade and even decorate. Think of ships as another form of troop that you must train and maintain.

As you level your buildings you will unlock better ships to build and troops to train. Combat success depends on your troop and ship setup. This means you rely on a some planning and testing to fare well in the battles that occur on the open oceans.

Aside from the ships adding variety to the game, Oceans and Empires also seems to cater to both the PVP (Player versus Player) and the PVE (Player Versus Environment) audiences. I would say I am an even combination of both and I have yet to find myself bored in the game. I will explain why as we continue this review.

Oceans and Empires PVP

PVP in Oceans and Empires is fairly simple. You can solo attack or you can attack in a rally with members of your alliance. To have a bigger rally, just upgrade your embassy within your city. March times can be reduced by using speedups that you can buy or earn as rewards.

The game seems to favor defense in the case of troop and ship losses. However, a fun aspect to the PVP is the ability to loot (plunder) your targets equipment. This means if you attack someone wearing a high level piece of gear, you have a chance to steal that item from the player. Keep in mind items can also be stolen from you.

As far as defense in the game goes, you may not lose troops to death, but you CAN have troops captured (in which they are gone for good). This idea seems to make up for the lack of casualties in the defensive play.

Is PVP Balanced?

Attackers do not seem to lose incredible amounts of troops against evenly matched targets as well. So enjoying PVP in Oceans and Empires would simply be a matter of finding some decent targets. You should be careful though, you can sink your ships in which you must pay Gold (the currency earned as rewards or purchased with money) to recover them.

All in all I would say the combat seems very well balanced, and it does not seem that there is to much favor for either the attacker or the defender. Defensive favoring is understandable to a certain point, as you usually don’t choose to be attacked.

If you are worried that you will be attacked, the developers make it very easy to stay protected. Within a week and a half of playing I have collected and saved over 100 8-hour peace shields (bubbles) to keep my castle protected while offline.

Oceans and Empires PVE

We are all familiar with killing monsters or bandits in pretty much any strategy game. It is a way for us to get a few extra resources and items to help us advance. Usually after a couple of days the excitement seems to wear off and killing monsters in a strategy game seems more like a chore to many people.

In Oceans and Empires, there is a way to multi-task. You can set what is called a Hunters Streak or Streak for short. An automatic series of attacks will be placed on which ever monster level you attack first. The attacks will continue until you use all of your streaks, cancel the streak, or log off the game.

There are a few different things that can cancel a streak which will be covered in upcoming guides. But overall this auto monster hunting feature is a real game changer. Even after a week I am enjoying killing monsters. It no longer feels like a massive chore, but rather just another part of the gaming routine.

Boss Monsters in Oceans and Empires

There are also boss monsters that spawn on the world map. These boss monsters allow players to rally their alliance together and attack for rewards. The alliance that deals the killing blow gets extra rewards. This is equivalent to a raid if you ever played any sort of MMORPG games like World of Warcraft.

Killing bosses in Oceans and Empires is not essential to player growth, but it is an added feature for something to do. And hey, we all like to have something to do right?

Empire Troops

Empire troops are the NPC (Non-player characters) that are scattered throughout the world map. They are in small clusters and are set up just like a normal real player alliance would be. These guys have castles that range from level 1 to 32.

You are able to attack Empire castles just like you would a normal players castle. It means you cannot have a peace shield active, and you will take real losses as the attacker. This is a great way to get a feel for PVP combat before you really dive in.

And to prevent abuse and farming of Empire castles, players must earn tickets from quest rewards and killing monsters. These tickets are not incredibly hard to come by and they come in three tiers. The higher the tier the higher level range of empire castles you can attack. Each attack consumes one ticket.

Empire troops will retaliate against you or your alliance after a few attacks, sometimes even one attack can provoke them. You will have plenty of 1 hour peace shields to repel the attack so there isn’t much to worry about there.

Oceans and Empires Gameplay

The gameplay in Oceans and Empires may come off as confusing at first. It seems like there is a lot to learn at first. There is a quest helper that stays around to give you great tips and advice, her name is Marigold.

The advancement of your castle and buildings is similar to any other MMORTS, you need to have resources to upgrade, and upgrades take time. The early stages of the game are pretty quick, and you get plenty of free speedups to help you boost things up a little.

Growth does eventually slow down, you will start to notice a difference around castle level 15. Not to worry though, even the higher level build times are generous compared to many similar games.

Game Graphics

The graphics are enjoyable. They have a more realistic look to them, not the cartoonish style that many popular games have. If that is important to you, then this is a good pick.

Everything seems to flow smooth as far as screen movement, tapping icons, and selecting quantities of items. I have noticed a few instances in which the game tends to lag out for about 1 or 2 seconds. This is by no means a deal breaker, it is usually when changing view from the inside of the city to the open oceans.

Game Sound

Oceans and Empires has an enjoyable music track that it plays. It puts you in the pirate sort of mood. I typically play with the sound off or on a very low volume. But for those that enjoy a games music, Oceans and Empires music seems to fit the environment very well.

Accounts

You are allowed to have multiple accounts which you can then link to your gmail, facebook, or other email. Each linked account allows several castles to be created. This means you can create “Farm” accounts if you wish. At level 19 I have not come across the need for a farm just yet, but I do see others have farms.

Final Thoughts on Oceans and Empires Gameplay

I played a game called War and Order for over a year. You can see the guides on this website that I have written for it. To date I had not found a game that compared to it, until I tried out Oceans and Empires. Within an hour I was ready to keep going and pushing to level up.

The game is not without flaws, there is the lag spikes that seem to happen when changing from ocean view to city view. In the event of an incoming attack when timing is important, this could pose an issue, but the amount of times this will happen is not that much.

Some of the Ups and Downs

When they do server maintenance they do shut down the game so you cannot log in. Upon completion of server maintenance you will log in to several generous rewards (upwards of 1 million wood and food, and much more). Also, while the server is undergoing maintenance or updates, game time freezes, meaning your peace shields don’t run out while the server is down.

The community could use a little livening up. I got used to the way chat worked in War and Order, where it was almost like a forum, and there were continued replies to each world chat post someone made. In Oceans and Empires, it is a basic chat which messages and questions could easily get lost.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for something different.  If you enjoy strategy games, I would say check out Oceans and Empires. Test your knowledge of these types of games and see if you can crack the idea of the best troop and ship combos, plunder enemy resources and gear, and kill endless amounts of monsters (including the Kraken).

Where to Download Oceans and Empires

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Download for Android

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