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Ikariam is a web-based game where your goal is to establish an empire in ancient times. It is free to play and so I cannot fault the game because if it's free, what right do you have to complain?

There is also no download necessary to play the game. All you need to do to start playing is register, activate your account and you're all set. Once playing, you will also find you don't need a good computer at all to run the game. There are no animations present, so every screen you see will be static.

Gameplay:

As stated, your goal in the game is to establish an empire in ancient times. You will start from humble beginnings having only a small village to help prosper in your bid for world domination.

With the game being web-based, there are naturally loads of other players playing at the same time. They will play in the same world as you and establish towns on the same island as you. This is integral to gameplay. The game is team centric, as you will have to form alliances against other players and likewise, them against you. Or you can play solo, but that would put you at a disadvantage.

When first starting, your income is so small that you'll wonder how you can get ready to compete with others. Luckily, I haven't found this to be a problem. No-one seems to attack you early on in the game or at least they didn't attack me. Also, your resources, gold and population begin to rise quickly after a few days of playing.

In the town screen, you will be able to build several buildings, but not resource ones. If like me, you might have a bit of trouble in locating resource ones. If you look at the icons along the top left of your screen, you will see show island. Click it and then look for a lumber mill and another resource production site. Once done, you can start gathering resources. No-one has to build these sites but each island dotted over the world will only be able to produce one sort of resource alongside wood. There are five resources to gather, including wood. So if you want to be able to produce every type of resource, you will need to expand onto other islands. It is pretty easy to figure out which island produces what if you go to the world map. As always, you could always trade for the resources though. But I don't see the benefit in that when you could just establish colonies on other islands and produce them.

Now that resource gathering is out of the way, there's a rather large amount of technologies to research within four fields. You can access them via the academy.

Next, you can upgrade each building you build to increase bonuses granted and what their resource storage limit is as well as how many people your town can house. Upgrading your barracks will also let you train more advanced troop types.

Clicking on a plot of land on the town screen will allow you to construct buildings. However, you can only upgrade or construct one building at a time. They can also take several hours to build.

When you initiate battles, you will find you have no involvement.

Graphics:

As mentioned, the graphics displayed on screen are static. They're not good but the game is free and they also suit what type of game it is. The graphics are cute and cartoon like in style. Also, as your settlement grows, you will the town screen changes accordingly. You will find little trees and benches appear. The odd person will also be seen though as stated, they're static.

Overall:

The game is alright but nothing special. Again, for it being free, you can't grumble. Also, you might not like that you have to wait around hours for buildings to finish being constructed. But overall, you might as well give the game a go as it's free and see if it's for you.

Learn more about this author, Dan Cartwright.
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