Rise of Kingdoms is a mobile game released in 2018 by Lilith Games. Not sure if you’ve crossed paths with this game studio before, but they’ve released quite a few popular games. One of their most popular is Art of Conquest, a game that I’ve played in the past and enjoyed.

However, in comparison to Art of Conquest, the Rise of Kingdoms game is boring. I’ve been trying to play it for the past week or so, but still cannot get hooked into its gameplay.

First of all, a bit of details about it:

  • RoK (that’s their official acronym) is a strategy game, the “build your own empire” type. Basically you start by choosing a civilization and start expanding … everything. A mix of RPG, strategy and Sid Meyer’s Civilization game. But a mix that doesn’t work quite well.
  • When you start, you can choose between different evolution paths, either by building a democracy and focusing on creating architectural masterpieces, or by focusing on your military and become the next Alexander the Great.
  • There’s a lot to choose from, 14 unique civilizations, real-time battles and an enormous map to explore.
  • You can move your troops anywhere on the map and fight or gather resources, send scouts to explore new territories and that’s pretty much it.
  • They have some sort of alliances, where you can interact with other players and fund collective achievements.
  • You unlock commanders, and an RPG-like side of the game starts. You level them up, send them into battler and so on.

Don’t get me wrong, obviously they’ve put a lot of effort into making the game. Graphics are quite good, there’s a lot of live interaction, even some AI to try different scenarios and an immense network of upgrades and items. But the game still pales in comparison with how addictive Art of Conquest is.

The Android version alone has 50 million installs, so the game is quite popular, though I’m not sure how many of those users are also continuously playing it or just testing it like I did. I tried summarizing what I dislike about the game and who knows, if anything changes maybe I’ll give it another try in the future:

  • Steep learning curve: Rise of Kingdoms starts small and seems easy, but they introduced a lot of elements so it gets very complex. If you’re just starting the game, you’ll feel pretty soon overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and options presented at the start. The learning curve is steep, and mastering the game requires a considerable time investment. This can be discouraging for casual gamers looking for a more straightforward experience (such as me).
  • Time-consuming gameplay: Success in Rise of Kingdoms relies on 2 elements, either time investment or real money investment. Building and upgrading structures, training troops, and participating in events demand a significant amount of time each day. While this may appeal to some players who enjoy this type of effort, it can be a deterrent for those seeking a more casual gaming experience.
  • Pay-to-Win dynamics: Like many free-to-play games, Rise of Kingdoms has a strong emphasis on in-app purchases. While spending money can expedite progress, it also creates a noticeable imbalance between paying and non-paying players. It does feel pretty discouraging to see “whales” with X hundreds millions in power and you with less than 1 million, just because they paid to advance faster.
  • Intrusive microtransactions: While the game is free to download and play, Rise of Kingdoms employs various microtransactions that can be perceived as intrusive. The constant prompts to buy in-game items, resources, or special packs can be distracting and detract from the overall gaming experience.
  • Same build-your-own-empire setup. When you start your base, it feels just like any other empire building game (i.e. Clash of Clans). You add new buildings, start producing resources (i.e. wood, gold), build barracks to train soldiers, and so on.
  • Chat with Heroes. Game has heroes, that you unlock from opening chests. What Rise of Kingdom has, is a hero-chat option. From time to time, your heroes will wander around the base with a chat bubble above them, that you tap and start a boring discussion. These discussions are repetitive in a way, and you basically just fast tap to get to the reward – they also come with an additional audio support for enhanced experience, but still somehow boring.

  • Vast map. You can exit the base view and access the kingdom map, which seems endless. On it there are several undiscovered areas, mines of all types, barbarian hordes and that’s pretty much it. I always feel lost when opening that neverending map, because you don’t actually have a smaller version to see exactly where you are. Supposedly you can teleport your base elsewhere on the map, but I feel clueless on where it would be better without a better map. Their other game, Art of Conquest, had a clearly defined map that was easy to navigate and intuitive, the one in Rise of Kingdoms is not.

  • Boring fights. You can tap on a barbarian horde on the map and attack them. Your army will exit the base, go to them and start fighthing. However, there’s nothing you can interact with, you just have to sit and watch the fight ending. And you see it from above, with very few details. Again, in Art of Conquest you could dynamically participate in each fight, arrange troops, cast spells with heroes and much more. In Rise of Kindgom you’re just a spectator.

  • Unattractive expeditions. Pretty much the same boring fights happen in Expedition mode. You just tap on an enemy and send the troops to fight. There’s hundreds of them but nothing enticing to continue past the required Expeditions (to reach goals you need to win fights in expedition mode).

  • Passive events. They have continuous events posted, that come with a lot of rewards. However most events are passive, for instance gather a certain amount of resources, train a certain number of troops and so on. In Art of Conquest you could actively participate in events, instead of just passively reach goals.

  • Heroes look good, and that’s it. Yes, you do get to unlock a plethora of heroes that resemble historic figures (i.e. Joan of Arc), but aside the overall graphics (which do look very good), there’s not much about them. Difficult to understand what skills you should unlock, not sure which one is more powerful than the other and so on.

So, would I recommend Rise of Kingdoms for someone looking to play a strategy/RPG mix? Not really, you can surely give it a try but as I mentioned above, it’s not something I really enjoyed doing. If you do want to try it, there’s an iOS and an Android version.

I highly recommend though their other game, Art of Conquest, which is in my opinion better structured, has a lot of dynamic events and much more enticing fights and other elements. A bit too enticing I’d say, because at some point it can become quite addictive. Lilith Games’ strategy is also one that keeps the player always hooked by releasing more upgrades, more new elements, new heroes and levels and so on, to the point where it feels you’re playing a never-ending game.