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Empires and Puzzles Review

Empires and Puzzles Review

Do you remember when you could buy mobile games? You know, that thing we used to do where we paid once and just played the thing? Maybe you didn’t get another splash screen every ten minutes reminding you that you can buy more special coins that makes the game easier for half a second. Perhaps the developers were happy to just make a product and sell it, rather than whale fishing? Pepperidge Farm remembers, and I remember too. Sadly, those days are long gone, so I’ve had to put on my big girl pants and suck it up to review Empires and Puzzles.

Like so many others before it, Empires and Puzzles is a match three puzzle game, however it’s also got a lot of elements of the Collectible Card Game genre as well, with you collecting heroes of different rarity to battle more monsters or other players. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also got a base building and expansion section as well. I’m pretty sure Small Giant just Googled “what type of mobile games make money?” and combined the top three. They also added in Tai-Chi pandas to be certain about it.

With the mixture of genres, the game is actually pretty complex. You’ll spend a lot of your time managing resources to best upgrade your base with sources of food for your troops and iron to craft new buildings and battle items. You’ll also spend time collecting cards to get the best heroes. Your heroes can consume the cards of your crappier heroes to level up (you get XP, but your heroes don’t) and the stronger a hero is, the stronger attacks from their particular colour are. On top of this, each hero has a special skill, which could be a buff, a strong attack, or a healing function. You earn mana to cast these by matching gems and the matches will send a swathe of troops heading towards the monsters directly in front of them. You can also upgrade these troops with your cards to get even more power.

Screenshot 20170421 2

By now, you can probably see that there’s a lot of stuff going on all at the same time in Empires and Puzzles. If you were just thrown in at the deep end, I imagine it would be pretty overwhelming, but the game does a very good job of introducing you to features slowly, so you have time to take it all in. The downside to this is that the tutorial can take over an hour to get through, but when you’ve completed it, you’ll have a good grounding in what is quite an in-depth title.

As well as battling against computer-controlled opponents, you can also take on the teams of random other players. It’s not a live battle; it’s just a fight against a team of characters that a player has defined as their “defence” team. This mode is terribly implemented however, with little evidence of matchmaking. I found myself frequently going up against players who were two or three times my level, making any kind of chain of victories nigh-on impossible without forking out for microtransactions.

Screenshot 20170423 3

As you progress through the game, you’ll find the same issue with computer controlled opponents eventually. As monsters start to increase in power much quicker than your heroes, by the sixth or seventh batch of levels, you’ll find yourself up against monsters who will one-shot your characters and then after the defeat screen, the game will tell you that you might want to level up or summon more heroes, using a premium currency naturally. You could feasibly improve your team by playing the game, viewing an ad every 12 hours and taking advantage of a free summon every 24 hours, but the random nature of summoning and training up heroes means that it would likely take months to get anywhere. I found myself grinding earlier levels in the hope of rare drops that might boost my team. They didn’t come.

I did enjoy the game, but the lack of any real matchmaking and focus on prising my wallet open just can’t be overlooked. In its current state, with broken online, and an over-reliance on microtransactions, it’s not a great game, but it is a competent one and it is fun. Just be prepared to either pay or spend weeks replaying old levels until you’re powerful enough to move forward. I'm enjoying it enough to do the latter, but your mileage may vary.

Screenshot 20170423 4

6.50/10 6½

Empires & Puzzles: RPG Quest (Reviewed on Android)

Game is enjoyable, outweighing the issues there may be.

A solid game which is quite fun to play, but like with so many freemium games, you will hit a paywall eventually. The online matchmaking system is atrocious and a pure pay-to-win feature but if you’re patient, the single player is quite fun, just don’t expect to progress quickly without hurting your bank balance.

This game was supplied by the publisher or relevant PR company for the purposes of review
Gary “Dominoid” Sheppard

Gary “Dominoid” Sheppard

Staff Writer

Gary maintains his belief that the Amstrad CPC is the greatest system ever and patiently awaits the sequel to "Rockstar ate my Hamster"

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COMMENTS

Ed
Ed - 01:11am, 27th November 2017

You're more charitable than I am with your description of the online match-making system. While it is arguably the worst part of this cancer of a game, the entire thing is hot garbage that I couldn't delete from my phone fast enough.

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dominoid
dominoid - 11:52pm, 27th November 2017 Author

Don't sit on the fence, will you XD

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Travis Miles
Travis Miles - 03:47pm, 28th October 2018

Thanks for spending your money, but you are out of luck! Customer is wrong, company is right, terrible business model. Deleting the game right now

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Selina Kazmiersky
Selina Kazmiersky - 05:30am, 7th January 2019

Thank you for your honest review, have deleted the game... I was about to shell out $$ but decided to check reviews. Thank you again

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Puzzle questing
Puzzle questing - 01:23am, 23rd February 2018

I really wanted to love this game but sadly your review gelled with my experience too. I sadly gave up on it. Do you have any recommendations for a similar game?

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dominoid
dominoid - 07:18pm, 23rd February 2018 Author

I haven't found anything that mixes these two genres like this, but the Civilisation series is a much better city builder so just play Civ V and keep Candy Crush Saga open on your mobile at the same time maybe?

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 Puzzle questing
Puzzle questing - 07:36am, 26th February 2018

LOL! Sounds like a solution. Thanks ;)

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Warriorway2004
Warriorway2004 - 11:01pm, 12th March 2018

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware! Game is a scam. Don't download ever!!

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Dustin
Dustin - 07:25am, 27th January 2019

100% agree!  I refuse to spend money.  I saved up 350 crystals to purchase an Antlantis summons.  I got a 3 star hero.  This game is rigged to make you want to spend real money to get higher tier hero’s.   I’m done.

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Danman
Danman - 02:37pm, 10th April 2018

For a pure Match 3 game/RPG Mix without ANY IAP (something nearly inexistent for mobile these days) and many hours of gameplay I‘d suggest anybody to try Hero Emblems. One of the best mobile games. Second part is on its way too (bound for release this year, also full premium experience again).

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dominoid
dominoid - 11:40am, 18th May 2018 Author

Thanks for the tip-off :)

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Pete
Pete - 01:27am, 12th April 2018

The most fun I've had on my phone! Don't buy into the haters. I'd rather play this game than most PC games - and yes, I am and have been a seriously avid gamer for years. :) 9/10

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dominoid
dominoid - 11:40am, 18th May 2018 Author

I'm glad you liked it Pete, thanks for adding an alternative view. 

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Silvernight
Silvernight - 09:39am, 18th May 2018

While the game does have an in-your-face money-grabbing aspect, it can totally be played for free and thoroughly enjoyed. You will need patience to develop your team and your home base but you will need it even if you splash money right, left and center (which, by the way, still won't guarantee you'll get what you want). For example, "legendary" heroes are very hard to get, and it's based purely on RNG, so even if you pay a ton of money to do summons, you might get none for your efforts or you can just make one pull and get it if you're lucky. It's an awesome game, actually, give it a try. It's not just a simple puzzle match-up, you'll need to think tactics and strategy and choose the right combinations of heroes if you want to defeat monsters and other players.

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dominoid
dominoid - 11:42am, 18th May 2018 Author

Very well put, thanks for the input :)

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Leo
Leo - 02:05am, 19th May 2018

Never seen more rigged game in my life. Someone got to put stop to those FREE games that'll cost you arm and a leg top play A message to those greedy makers Fuck you

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dominoid
dominoid - 07:49pm, 20th May 2018 Author

Thanks for the comment, Leo. Hope to see you around the site again soon.

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pwyller
pwyller - 07:10pm, 24th May 2018

Empires & Puzzles could be a great game, but sadly the developers continue to ignore the requests of many players for a more fair and balanced game -- it doesn't take one long to figure out the Empires & Puzzle's only purpose is to force players to spend money to advance.

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dominoid
dominoid - 02:11pm, 29th May 2018 Author

It's a sad sign of the way that puzzle games have gone these days.

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p h inkwell
p h inkwell - 07:30pm, 8th June 2018

pay to win game  would be an understatement, to discribe this game. The recent main event fables of grimm forest, players paid though thier noses to try and get certain event heroes. we are talking 100's of pounds to find they got rubbish. the online forum was packed with complaints. if one pays then one should expect to win. This game i'm afraid to say is a pay to gamble game with no cash returns or even good hero returns. a great game with lot of potential but ruined by greed and short sightedness. i can see this game losing its revenue quickly as players stop spending money.

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Crakker
Crakker - 05:10am, 30th June 2018

After playing for a month I am ready to give up, because it’s very hard to get better heroes when playing for free. A game in this genre I was addicted to was Marvels Puzzle Quest. Had to delete it since I was playing it morning day and night! Better heroes were easier to get in that game, plus you need to plan your strategy matching colours in order to activate your hero’s powers.

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Turdfergison
Turdfergison - 01:13am, 16th August 2018

I had this game on my phone and tablet. Two separate accounts. The one on my tablet always asked which I wanted to load with a load box under each account. I was collecting food from a farm when the option popped up just as I tapped the good icon. I accidentally loaded my other account. One tap. No "are you sure" op out option. My bigger account with a months worth of time just disappeared.  I sent in a ticket. They said they could recover it but the otheff one would have to go. That was this morning. I haven't heard anything since. So, one person cannot have more than one account and prompt response is not a thing with support. They may never fix it.

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Pete
Pete - 01:21am, 16th August 2018

The developers are Finnish, so think of time zones. Also I have found their support to be just fine. Give them a little time as season 2 will be rolling out in 8 days. Noted. Disregarded xD

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Jeann3x0
Jeann3x0 - 04:17pm, 16th August 2018

NEVER EVER give them a dollar.

Insulting answers and non existant refund policy. 

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Jeann3x0
Jeann3x0 - 04:22pm, 16th August 2018

Here the communication i received before the ticket (after over 3 days) has been closed without my consent, without a solution, and my emails to them starting bouincing back:

_______

I just spent 2600 gems to purchase 10 elemental tokens. But instead of getting 10 tokens, it did 10 automatic calls. I did not want to use all the tokens on the same element. Please let me know if it is possible to get 10 elemental tokens and, in case, take back the output heroes (I took a screenshot). If not, then please let me know if I can get my hardly saved 2600 gems. If no solution is possible expect my strong disappointment and the consequences it could come with. I am not going to use the 10 heroes from these calls while waiting for your reply, therefore please try to reply asap. On a side note, you should clarify that the 10 elemental tokens pack is not tokens but 10 unstoppable automatic calls on the same element. Thanks in advance. 

Time: around 3.30 pm EST 

Location: Toronto, ON, Canada.

_______

Kira (Small Giant Games)

Aug 16, 16:38 EEST

Hi F.t.,

Thank you for the message. Due to the high amount of support requests, we are unfortunately unable to give personal assistance related to gameplay. 

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Steve B
Steve B - 07:53pm, 8th September 2018

While I appreciate the Small Giant is a for-profit business, this game is a total scam and cash grab. Read the forums. 3+ month players are leaving by the 100s and SG relies on newbies to get sucked in and pay-pay-pay. The algorithms are designed so players can't even win if they pay. Again, read the forums. This is not just my opinion. We pay, but it is SG that wins. 

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Acidoil
Acidoil - 11:51pm, 29th September 2018

I've been playing Empires and puzzles for over a year now I have found it to be an enjoyable game I do believe that they rig somethings to try and force you to pay for example I haven't been able to level up some heros because I don't have the required ingredients so my hero is still level 3 instead of 4 Here is the real kicker I have not spent a single dollar on this game it turns out you can actually choose not to buy things

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Timothy Burchett
Timothy Burchett - 12:15am, 2nd January 2019

Worst game ever, pure blooded thieving psychopaths write the programming for this crap game and it's programmed only to take your money.... absolute crap....

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RobPhil
RobPhil - 09:07am, 9th June 2019

Hi all. I have been playing E&P for just on year now and although I'm now a c2p player buying the average specials that include ascension items I did play tbe first 6 months for free. Although the first 2 where a real grind and was pretty repetitive in having to constantly redo the map levels for resources I accepted that as a free player. It did take some doing and heaps of patience as I myself thought of giving up due to the grind if the game but chose to stick it out as top players where saying it does even it's self out after a few months so as a new player I gave them the benefit of the dout and stuck it out. As I moved on I that your chances bettered if you took on titans and did every event so I did which brought me to wanting a decent active alliance which was hard to find so I started my own in the 3rd month. This is now 7 months in and still the allience leader with a group of of now friends who have been with me niw since I started the allience with a few that left and then came back (also use a 3rd party app to communicate outside the game ). We work great as a team and we all help each other with growing suggestions. I only had 3 and 4* heros in my roster which I was leveling as I earned the required items and yes it was slow but never unachievable. I was winning and losing matches probably about the 50/50 rate there abouts but since I wasn't playing to be top player I was worried. 6 months in now and I did a epic summons pull and got my first 5* WOW right but I happy, then during that same still used won epic tokens from the game I started to more and more 5* that by the 7 month I had 9 of them and couldn't jeep up with ascending them all so they just sat there. This made me realise that had I not listen to the top players and accepted the grind I could have spent money earlier and been stuck earlier on in the game with no increased advantages for having spent a dime. Now 12 months and I can tell you with great confidence that this game is a great game and love every moment I spend playing on it. I have members in my allience that have now been with me for at least 6 months who have never spent a dime/cent and they have better 5* rosters than I do and do more damage on titans than I can and I'm a c2p player. The bottom line of this game is 1) you need to accept the grind and play for fun and stop trying to be the best. If your going to be the best it will come with time. 2) I've heard of many stories about thise that have spent thousands and got nothing. This game clearly states that spending is merely an option but will not improve or increase your chances within the game ad that will only come with time and experience of actually playing the game. Note; I don't personally feel this game can or should be considered or judged as a pay to win game as you not obtain and play every aspect of this game as a free member with never ever having to spend a single cent and that has been proven by the many free top players within the game. This game is also designed to be a grind as the devs say that it is designed to bring you years of entertainment and that grinding entertainment doesn't change whether your a free or paying player. There is nothing what so ever that can't do, obtain, achieve or play as a free player and nor does a paying player get any advantages within the playing of the games, doing summons or getting may materials from spending money other than getting the odd ascension item a little sooner, it doesn't make them better players nor does give them summons drop rate advantages etc. So I feel that people that write statements like I have read on here like (they force you to spend) ( constant ads to spend) (doesn't allow to to play unless you spend) etc are just people that expect everything to happen overnight and who don't read or understand the games rules, policies or the way it's designed to be played and to those people I say the loss is your not the games. Unlike many other games which don't allow you to or make it virtually impossible to advance if you don't purchase stuff Empire and puzzles gives you the opportunity to become the top player or obe of all for free, yes with time but that no different to any paying player ad well. Cheers

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dominoid
dominoid - 01:44pm, 9th June 2019 Author

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RobPhil
RobPhil - 07:01am, 10th June 2019

I guess that's about all you can expect from those that have nothing intelligent to say. But yet they found themselves funny or amusing when in fact they are only displaying child like tantrum fits because your not agreeing with them or thier not getting their own way.

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