'We Rule' is Live in Canada - Hands On Preview For the Rest of the World
by Staff Writer
March 1, 2010
Your goal is to build a kingdom as vast as you can composed of your castle, farms, villages, and businesses. At the most basic level it shares qualities with Farmville, but farming isn't nearly as intricate to the whole experience in We Rule. It’s much more a kingdom building sim that is closer to Sim City, and could even be a new sim spin-off, sim kingdom.
The game loads into the main map which shows your kingdom as well as the kingdoms of all of your Plus+ friends. Once you jump into your kingdom it’s time to start growing some crops, and constructing buildings. As your kingdom grows more people appear, but you can’t control their actions though they wave, bow, or say hello on a tap.
The game is about earning money and experience points, xp. You earn coins through harvesting crops, collecting taxes from your villagers, and collecting the daily routines of your businesses. The crop system has many different crops that earn different amounts of money and xp, but take different times to grow.
Other games with similar mechanics require multiple menus, and taps to perform planting and harvesting. We Rule on the other hand has everything just a tap away. The experience points are key to the game as you earn new levels which unlock new crops, structures, and decorative items.
Also included is a magical substance known as mojo. You earn mojo with every level upgrade, but you can also purchase it with your own money. Mojo accelerates crop growth, construction, and jobs from minutes or hours to a few seconds, but you have a limited amount. Mojo allows you to level up quickly, and earn money a lot faster, but is by no means necessary, and more superfluous.
The in app purchases are the biggest question, and here's the breakdown. Mojo is the only purchasable item which as stated above isn't mandatory to play. Mojo comes in six packs, five units for $0.99, 30 for $4.99, 75 for $9.99, 165 for $19.99, 300 for $29.99, and 800 for $49.99. AdMob is also included for ads which appear as recessed banners in the main game map, and the store.
The biggest feature of the game is the social connectivity. You can see all of your friends kingdoms, and even visit them too. At friends' kingdoms you can see their layout, and how far they’ve progressed. That’s not all though, you can also place orders at your friends businesses, and they can do the same for you.
The ordering system pushes an alert to your friend, and they can chose to fulfill it or not with the end result of accepting, both of you earning money. The entire system feels very similar to words with friends or chess with friends which is definitely a good thing. The game requires a constant internet connection to play because of these social features.
The whole game is about simple little tasks in short bursts, and not something you play around in for hours on end. To do this effectively there is a push notification system you can chose to turn on and off so you can be alerted when crops are ready to harvest, or an order is completed.
Your kingdom will always be growing whether you spend money or not, and it depends on if you're patient or not. Everything progresses, and you always earn money & xp unlike not being able to play with your dog without food or earning credits without energy. This is your kingdom allowing for full customization, and redesigning your layout at any time easily.
If you have a Canadian itunes account, I welcome you to my humble abode. You can find my barely beginning pitiful kingdom on Plus+: 'mactds'. We will have a full review when the game is released everywhere which should be mid-week based on the similar launches of Eliminate and Touch Pets. See our hands on video below as well as the ngmoshow with a much more advanced kingdom.
