Description: Armies of Dragons is an Android game that brings together elements of Tower Defense, time management games and more. It brings all of these elements together to create a new type of strategy game that asks its players to think about which elements they’re matching up against which enemies and also asks them to effectively manage their time. There are different classes of mages and warriors, as well as different powerups to help you in your fight. It’s a fully featured game that’s developed to a high-standard, but how much fun is it? Hopefully, our review will be able to answer such a question.
How it Works: Armies of Dragons is just a quick download from the Play Store, then you can go ahead and sign-in with your Google account to get access to Google Play Games integration.
Armies of Dragons introduces you to the story of the game with a nice interactive comic strip with some good music behind it, it’s just one of many small touches that shows the developers have paid attention to the details here.
The game then takes you through the basics, with a voiceover to match, again something you don’t see very often. Essentially, there are different castles in the Kingdom, each with a number of levels for you to go through, with each level giving you a maximum of 3 stars depending on how well you’ve done.
The majority of the action happens when defending your tower from oncoming enemies. Unlike your traditional tower defense games, Armies of Dragons will have your warriors attack the enemy’s tower as well, and you also have to drag warriors to their corresponding element, like thunder, grass, fire or ice. This portion of the gameplay makes up the time management side of things and has you taking warriors from the bottom portion to the battlefield. The quicker you get them there, the more likely you are to win and win without taking as much damage.
At the end of each level, you’re given coins and sometimes crystals which will help you unlock more warriors and such to play with.
How you get access to new classes of warrior is actually pretty novel, and sees you adding to the Princess’ Dowry and getting a lucky pick from a group of different warriors.
You can then configure who you’ll be using as your main team from this screen.
On the whole, I found the game to full of variety and there’s a definite level of polish here that’s higher than you’d find in other games. You’ll come across different bosses and more as you discover just how deep the game goes.
Opinion: Armies of Dragons is a game that I really enjoyed and while this sort of thing isn’t really my cup of tea, I had a blast with this. The blend of tower defense, time management and RPG elements all came together to give the game a feel all its own and the pacing has a nice rhythm to it that will keep you preoccupied. It’s not an easy game either, and while it’s not too difficult there’s a definite challenge here that puzzle veterans will really take to. Those looking for a game steeped in story will appreciate the many touches here that all add to the overall game’s atmosphere and feel. There’s some excellent voiceovers used here and the music as well as the high-definition graphics are all excellent. It’s clear that the developers have paid attention to the right things here and Armies of Dragons comes across as one of the better RPG puzzlers available right now.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Everything ran great here and the pacing and animations all add up to a game that’s quick and plays out nicely.
- Features (5/5) – With so much on offer, it’ll take any player a long time to find out everything Armies of Dragons has to offer, the blend of different gameplay styles comes together nicely and it’ll definitely keep you on your toes.
- Theme (5/5) – With high-resolution assets, good music and genuine voiceovers, Armies of Dragons is a great-looking game that has a brilliant atmosphere to it.
- Overall (5/5) – A game like Armies of Dragons will appeal to everyone, and it borrows the best of many different games while also standing tall as its own game. It plays well, looks and sounds great and is just fun, what more can we say.
Pros
- Good variety of different levels on offer that all have different challenges and will test your skills.
- Great-looking high-res graphics will help show off the power of your new smartphone and it also looks good on tablets.
- Blend of time management, tower defense and RPG elements come together to give Armies of Dragons excellent gameplay and a feel all its own.
- Armies of Dragons has a nice pace to it that really works well and ensures there’s very little ‘waiting’ while the game plays out.
Cons
- While the game runs well, some of the loading screens do take a little time, but that’s probably my device.
- A clearly taxing game, I wonder how Armies of Dragons will work on older hardware.
Conclusion: All-in-all, Armies of Dragons is a game that manages to almost perfect the rare balance of taking great elements from lots of different genres. The time management and tower defense mechanics work well together ensuring that you’re not just waiting for things to happen and the RPG element comes in to offer level ups, equipment unlocks and a team-building element as well. An excellent game that’ll be great for those young and old, Armies of Dragons is certainly worth giving a go.