The question could be asked, what can one expect from a free online game? Yet many people pay considerable money to play Evony Age 2, via a clever marketplace feature whereby players are encouraged to spend real money.
In fact, it is impossible to raise your town to the top level without doing so, unless you are incredibly lucky. Evony Age 2, like so many, many games before it centres around building cities to make your empire stronger. Un-original to say the least.
Basic Gameplay
The game commences with a tutorial, yet the really helpful information is located on the player-created Evony Wiki. In fact the players do all the work, with no customer service at all. Emails to customer service go completely unanswered (save for their computer-generated auto-responses), even after multiple ones are sent.
The game requires you to build your city, improve your buildings and create troops to defend yourself. It then specifically requires you to take over players cities, basically, the game requires you to bully other people in order to progress. Repeated attacks on the same person again and again are allowed, even encouraged and the sheer savagery of some of the ingame emails that go back and forth between players is astounding. Entire alliances are created with the design to attack specific other alliances resulting in frequent ingame wars breaking out.
Aside from the general nastiness of a game that supports and encourages bullies, the game play itself has very little to offer. It simply consists of clicking on building to upgrade them (some of which can take 24 or more hours) and walking away, as only one building can be built at a time. Clicking on the barracks and selecting troops to make will start making troops for you and so on. The game feels like a cheap rip-off of the early Warcraft without any of the same style or substance that kept players so engaged.
Evony Age 2 Culture
The game advertises itself specifically to say that there is no bullying, yet this could not be further from the truth. This is disappointing, given the lengths gone to in order to try and convince would-be players that the constant harassment endured by some in Age 1 was now a thing of the past. True, a person cannot completely "take" another's city, yet they can launch wave after wave of attack killing every troop the person has, and then drafting troops as the hapless victim tries to make more to uprise and be free.
Being a member of a strong and helpful alliance is the only way to avoid this, yet the strongest alliances all have strict entrance requirements, totally preventing a newer player from seeking any kind of real protection. A "truce" function exists within the game, once applied the person cannot attack or be attacked, however it only lasts 12 hours which does little to prevent people taking over their city.
The culture of Evony Age 2 is one of constant attack and defense, and while this sounds exciting, it most assuredly is not. Due to the painfully slow movement of the game and it taking days or even weeks to create troops and upgrade buildings, being attacked is simply more frustrating and annoying than anything else as it means the player must start all over again to rebuild their army.
Evony Age 2 Overall
Quite simply, Evony Age 2 is a dull game, completely lacking in originality and substance. The lack of customer service coupled with the inability to do many things without spending money make this "free online game" rather a farce. Overall, the game is disappointing, with an attitude that bullying is the acceptable form of game play and help and assistance being alien concepts to all concerned.
