Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest is a solid RTS that has a competent MMO component with it to make the game challenging and entertaining.
All our Warhammer-ing started early last month (May) with a review of the Nintendo Switch Warhammer card game. Complicated, but nonetheless fun. Tonight, after a few E3 press conferences, we are going to release the latest Warhammer review with Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest, a real-time strategy game of sorts. Released on iOS and ready to rumble in a free-to-play version of the game, with some transactions optional, the game is certainly something to behold.
Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest is complicated in functionality, and will certainly bring a learning curve that is guaranteed to keep your attention squarely on your mobile device. It’s a ridiculously, yet wonderfully complicated game, and it’s a challenge to win the game. You want an RTS to have a challenge, so mission accomplished with this one.
Now, the biggest positive in terms of gameplay design for Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest is the presentation. There are freaking voice-overs for an iOS included in this game when probably text and a fancy picture was all that was necessary. There is orchestrated music that matches the moments, and the visual details that are absolutely outstanding. You can feel the wrecked land all around, which helps put you in the moment of the game. Tilting Point did a superb job of using my iPhone XS Max to its fullest. Everything is rich with presentation value, and this game feels more than just another F2P on an iOS device. The lands are filled with life, lots of activity and details in the constructed onscreen buildings (and surroundings), and it just feels like a chaotic world that is under siege constantly. Getting into an iOS game of this caliber is a lot easier when you have high presentation value paving the way.
Of course, a pretty game will only get you so far in the mobile world. Having a reason to stay in the world lies within the design itself. The gameplay design is what you would find in a typical RTS title. You build complexes, you train troops, you upgrade areas you need to upgrade, and you attack enemies gradually. When you’re out of resources, you make more (mine more), restock, retool, and go! The design includes acquiring a champion (something that has been very present in the RTS genre forever) to help lead/train troops to combat, as well as including a level tree for said champion. It’s exactly what you would expect from an RTS, maybe a little bit more, and it doesn’t disappoint.
The departure point for Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest when compared to other RTS of its type is the inclusion of an MMO component to drive home how you’re going to truly shape your attack strategy. While it’s certainly easy to find predictable patterns in a PvE setup, going against other players isn’t so easy. The game is constructed to allow you to find new players on the Warhammer’s war-torn land and decide whether to engage them in battle or not. For example, If unsure of an enemy, you can gauge their power/capabilities from afar by sending out scouts to take a look-see. Scouting will give you some finer details about enemies. While playing over the last week or so, I’ve found the servers to be quite active and full of players ready to kill you. Sending out scouts to scope them out has helped, but at the same time alerting them to my presence. Those alerts usually end up turning into attacks, which can be slightly inconvenient at times. Just today, as I was walking through Old Navy trying to pick out a shirt/shorts, I was bombarded by notifications that my digs were being attacked by another group. It was cool, terrible, and there was nothing I could do because Old Navy kept me guessing today. This is the strongest reason to give this game a dip, though, because having the ability to build up an army, train troops and declare war on actual people via your phone at any given time and location is something to behold, especially in a Warhammer wrapper.
The only downer to the game is the notification system, which I really did have to turn off. From 11:37a until 6:23p, I had 16 notifications of battle waiting for me on the phone. While I certainly think one or two reminders here and there are fine, 16 notifications in the span of seven hours is a bit much. Shit, my wife doesn’t notify me of anything that much in a one week basis. Sad kidding aside, they need to tone that stuff down without actually needing to turn it off. As it stands, it was only a swipe away from being forgotten, but it still buzzed the hell out of my pocket while trying on swim trunks.
If notifications were the only issue here, consider yourself lucky. The biggest issue for something this visually beautiful and crafted should be the purchasing part of the game. Free-to-play games, especially on mobile devices, tend to want you to purchase their items to get ahead in the game. Heck, Candy Crush’s entire monetary foundation was built from the pocketbooks of people with iOS devices wanting to get more turns quickly in the game. While you can certainly say that Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest has some paid aspects to it, and it doesn’t try to hide them, it doesn’t require you to pay to win, or at least enjoy the game. It doesn’t mess with the balance of the game, which is surprising considering you can be pummeled by your fellow human at any given moment. It’s simply an option that doesn’t get in the way of the gameplay.
Overall, Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest is a solid RTS that has a competent MMO component with it to make the game challenging and entertaining.
