Forge of Empires: Build a City Reviews

by Beherenow77

I keep looking for a good city building game, something fun like The Simpsons: Tapped Out and I was hoping this was it. But it’s not. My main issues are that when you are just starting the game people who have been playing for years and are way ahead of you are still allowed to attack you and plunder your city. This should only be available for people at the same level as you otherwise there is nothing you can do about it. Your army is never going to beat theirs. You also get so little in terms of land that you have to keep deleting buildings so you can build something else when you need certain goods. And the goods buildings produce so little in such a long time that you spend days and days trying to get enough to do anything. I get that this is a long play game but it’s too long for me. Just not enough to do to keep me interested.

Update in response to developer: 1. Plundering would be fine if in the game it tells you about it, however, you only find out once someone does it and then you have to google what happened. 2. Even after googling Neighborhoods it is still unclear what these are, how to determine which one you are in or what the purpose is. 3. The game also doesn’t teach you about city defense, had to google that too. Too much stuff you have to google which is what makes it not fun. I never have to google how to do anything in Tapped Out, a far superior game. If you’re looking for a true city building game this is not it.

by Jaymaxm

If you believe in playing a game that is fun, fair and enjoyable, skip this game!
I started playing this game 18 months ago, only to discover some major design flaws.
This game requires you to obtain blueprints towards gaining a Great Building, which provides you with different benefits. You are required to obtain 9 blueprints to build a Great Building. Often, you will get to a point where you are down to 8 of those blueprints and then start gaining multiples of the same one, where at that point you can choose to trade those multiples towards a “random chance” to obtain the one you are missing...Only problem is, the “random blueprint selector” feature rarely gives you the actual blueprint you need to finish the set of 9 required. So you end up spending days, weeks, even months of effort in saving up Forge Points to put down towards more blueprints, only to be held back over and over again by the “random blueprint trade” selection process! This “random” process really really takes a huge effort to get by, and just really makes it frustrating to say the least. Eventually you realize it’s no longer any fun to play a game that relies upon a “random selection” process. Progress is obstructed over and over...then the fun is gone...all that’s left is frustration because it inevitably just begins to feel like an entirely futile process altogether....is that really fun?
Make a better choice, I wished now I had! What a waste of time!!!!

by Diane Villela

This seemed like a cool game going threw the different ages I reached the Iron Age and realized creators are way too money hungry everything at some point costs diamonds I needed land to place things it costs 200 diamonds each for the first two which I felt was a little too much but I gave it the benefit of he doubt! I have to admit I spend money on this game but it didn’t last long at all. When I reached Iron Age I got two more slots available using diamonds and only one as free. I thought okay the first two were 200 diamonds each I’ll just purchase 400 diamonds and I’ll get these two nope I was wrong they charged 400 diamonds for one expansion. I’m going back to my other games because I wasted money time and patients on this game and I truely regret it. I have spent money in a games but if the Iron Age is 400 diamonds for one slot next Age is 800 diamonds and so on and so forth. You can’t really get a head without spending real money. I down right hate creators that purposely abuse their creation that could be cool but isn’t because they prefer making money but exploiting people just so people get a head in a game! I feel for it once but not anymore. If I could give 0 stars I would! I’m a person who doesn’t mind a few dollars here or there but I refuse to waste anymore time money or patients on creators and game who take advantage of people to this extreme.

by Madsgrace

Just don’t bother getting into it. I don’t want to stop playing because I enjoy getting through all the Ages and I’ve gotten really far....... but it’s an endless frustration. It’s so pay-to-win it’s painful. I can’t afford diamonds, so if they’re needed, I wait until I win them. The community does not respect this play style at all. I was kicked out of a guild (that claimed to be “just for fun, no requirements”) because I didn’t finish more than one level of GE every week. If you invest time and forge points into a Great Building, people sitting on thousands of FPs will swoop in and steal the top spots
after you’ve chipped away at it for weeks. While these are player related problems, the bottom line is - other players who spend real world cash WILL take issue with or advantage of players who don’t. I’m far in the game and have a lot of expendable resources, but it’s not possible to advance in the community without diamonds. I’ll continue to play just because I like seeing the Ages progress over time. This is just the nature of the game, so this isn’t really me saying “change the game,” but don’t get into this game (if you want to advance in the rankings) unless you’re willing to drop some serious real world cash. Otherwise, you won’t compete with the many players who do, and it just isn’t a fun experience. So save yourself the trouble and find a different game to play.

by Ftooley77

At first I thought it was going to be a decent game, started off with good game mechanics, then as I leveled up it didn’t take me long to discover that the have designed the game to require the heavy use of real money via in app purchases, to be able to continue playing. They limit your growth without money paid, the limit your leveling without money spent, and they limit your quest ability without spending money. At first I even fell pray and thought of if I spend a little money, then I could get over the money hump and continue on with my game. But then I quickly found out that every little aspect required in app purchases, that at no level, no quest and no point can you continue in the game with out constant money purchases. There one early on research that specifically calls for in game currency purchases with real money, just to advance to another age. I know apps that are free have some in app purchases to speed things up, that help pay for development, but this game goes beyond having them for convenience, to making the purchase a mandatory requirement to continue playing. They have an event history list, that allows higher level players to have a permanent way to attack you daily and ruin the gameplay!

Update: in response to developer: highly unlikely as there are many things in the tree for diamonds, and I have yet to see any diamonds for fee in the game!

by Thomasjbs

This game has great graphics. It has a lot of potential and it’s great when you’re starting out. But when you hit bronze age or so, (level 3 or 4?) you begin finding that you don’t have the resources to research new skills. Although you may be able to trade for resources the barter rate is *1* resource that you want for 10 resources that you pay/build/create —> it takes four hours to create one resource and when you need 40 to advance it’s just not feasible. I’ve been trying to create / barter / obtain resources to research *one* skill for over two weeks and I’m still nowhere close. Of course you can purchase in-app resources for $4.99 but but you need to make two or three of these purchases and this is only one research topic. There are events you can participate in but cannot complete because you don’t have resources. If you like making in-app purchases two or three times per day and then three to five days a week this is ForgeofEmpires for you. If you don’t mind waiting two days to play the game for your resources to build up -And then logging in to click on the next-two day build and then waiting for two days again and again and again -then this is a game for you, but you’re not really playing at that point you’re logging in every two days to click a button and then waiting another two days.

by Jessica_1155

Guild battle grounds is quite literally one of the best features of this game. Once it was introduced it change the game completely and while over almost 3 yrs there have been a lot of ups and downs with how inno is changing GBG the most disappointing is the latest update. The new target and stop signs have ruined something that wasnt broken in the least. Now the flags are covered by this ungodly large hand and you cant see a competitor hitting. With the opd flag you could see flashes easily letting them get a head start on a sector without notice. Also this update and the last have made aspects of the game that used to run smoothly just janky and frustrating. Buying buildings in GBG now you get lag and get scrolled back to top of the list making you accidentally waste goods on somety you didnt want to buy. In a race this is going to slow things down taking 10sec to build camps can literally lose a race for you. The previous update buying fp with coin and medals in GE was ruined. Used to be able to click click click fast and be done. Now there is lag in between purchases.
Seem the new changes inno are making are doing nothing but destroying a game that was fine the way it was. Some aspects dont need to be fiddled with...plain and simple

by Jayg44706

I like games that allow me to construct kingdoms and civilizations, so I thought this game would be fun. It started out pretty fun, and my empire advanced in technology relatively quickly. However, you get to a point relatively soon (the Bronze Age, I believe) where the only way to expand buildable space is to purchase diamonds (with real money) which you then use buy land to expand on. There are very limited expansions you can use the in-game currency to purchase, even though building in-game currency happens quickly. And victory and research progress provides very little land expansion. Which brings me to a second issue that ties into the land expansion problem.

In order to progress through time, you have to conduct research. This involves a combination of spending points that automatically accrue, production, and in-game coin. One concept to developing new research requires a number of different productions (e.g. dye and masonry). The problem is you don’t have enough land to construct these buildings to produce the goods you need to advance the research. And you also need available population, which can only be expanded by building more residences on land that you don’t have. See where I’m going with this?

The game is ok at best, unless you have real money you want to sink into it. As a passive Smartphone gamer, it is very rare that I spend any real money on a game. And when I do it is only $0.99. I plan to delete the game.

by Mac222nite

I did a review in game but just in case it doesn’t show up, avoid this game unless you like being ripped off. Player vs Player has ruined the game. Every time you get ahead a little another player takes your goods. If you have a lot of money you can BUY your way through the game or if you’re a thief you can take what you want. In my mind, the developers and thieves should be arrested in the real world. I spent REAL MONEY to get these goods and to progress in the game and they were taken from me by someone with a city and army so big that only a few players could defend themselves against. Before anyone thinks I’m a whiner, don’t worry I left and deleted my cities.

Update: I deleted the city that was being attacked daily and I’m trying one more time. I like this game but this is FOE’s last chance with me. If it doesn’t get better I will leave for good. I don’t mind attacks if they are FAIR!! Higher level players should only be allowed to attack other players at the same level. Otherwise it’s robbery. INNO you said you hoped I would come back. Ok..here I am. We shall see if you truly want a fair game or not. Make PVP fair or you will lose more players than just me. Read your reviews. I’m not the only one who feels this way and I’m NOT going to BUY my way to the top.

by Faelandaea

Unfortunately, this game is designed to force you to spend real money to succeed. Mind you, on almost every game I play that has a store, I drop money because I love supporting the devs. But to me there is a difference between choosing to support at my own pace and being halted in all progress unless I pay to continue. In this case, I am at a complete standstill unless I drop cash to buy supplies. I have to weave cloth to proceed with research to get a better army. But ... catch 22 ... I need a better army to defend my cloth. It takes 2 days to make the cloth I need and before that 2 days is up that is the one resource that keeps getting plundered. This is because others can tell where your research tree is at and what you are working on and successfully block you from proceeding by pillaging your most needed resource. So, even after dropping a couple of hundred bucks into this game, I am calling it quits because even that amount of cash wasn’t enough to let me slide in and just enjoy building a city. Kind of hard to defend your resources when you need those resources to create what you need to defend them. The research tree is designed for only veteran players to make sure newer players never make it past the early Middle Ages. Back to Elvenar for me, I suppose.

by Bbbbbb6868

I would love to say this game is for all ages but due to how competitive players can be parents probably need to safeguard their credit cards if kids do play because the temptation to spend money to buy game currency (diamonds) can cost big bucks. Kidding but there is truth about it being competitive. I have been playing for almost 2 years and love this game. I am astounded at the skill and detail of the design and the people who make the game possible. Game designers work behind the scenes so we players reap the rewards. From the very beginning a player must balance space, resources, team work and resist the urge to move too fast. I don’t want to write a book but seriously I love the game. I can spend hours redesigning my city to fit a new building while trying to increase my goods production, points or attack percentage. Or, working with my team (guild) to fight for points to reach a higher rank in the WORLD. I have friends from all over the world - Thailand, New Zealand, Canada, and all over the USA. So, just for fun, check it out either at the website or with ForgeofEmpires . Listen to your favorite music and get lost in your game. The only reason I gave it a 4 star is many of us believe a few simple changes could make it even better but Inno is constantly considering and implementing as many changes as possible for all players (starting and veterans) so it is now 10 years old while still growing! Thank you Innogames for creating this wonderful game.

by 🐰💕🐻💕

FOE is a great builder style game. It has enough group activities and events to keep you interested for years. There are only two problems with the game that prevent it from being a 5 star app.

1st is the 24hr world timer on your daily resource collection. The timer makes you wait 24hrs from the time you collect to respawn those resources. For example if you are playing on your phone and want to collect your daily resources during your lunch break but someone tries to chat you up for 5 minutes you have then lost those 5 minutes because you must wait at least 24hrs to collect again. And well if this happens again and again you can see how eventually you will lose entire days worth of resource collection. Other games I have played used 20 or 23hr world timers to give players more freedom but as FOE is roughly 4yrs old at the time of writing this they clearly intend to stick with this format.

2nd as you can trade resources across the “Ages” it means you can obtain the best buildings (great buildings) at any point in the game provided you are able to farm enough expansion tiles to place them. This leaves players little incentive to move up to next age. Indeed it actually makes many features of the game harder. Which is really a shame because the art and the work in general that they put into these ages is kinda amazing.

by Cntthnkfnm

Well, it was a good game. I played up until the colonial age and i built the SoZ (people who play the game will know what I’m talking about) but i had just built that i also had the CdM, LoA, ToB, and the colosseum but right after i built the SoZ i got off the game and I tried to get on it a few hours later and the game refused to log me in. Like it just wouldn’t let me. I tried restarting the internet to see if that was the problem, nope, found out it needed an update. So I updated it like usual thinking that was the problem but it still wouldn’t work. So I tried changing the country i was in to see if that did anything, it made me login with my apple id but then none of the worlds i had (i had 2) showed up. And it’s a real bummer because i was doing really good also, getting 30 FPs every day, was in a really great guild and i had a group chat with all the friends i have on there and it was really helpful because everyone helped one another it seemed like people had everything you needed to make a GB. But the game crashed or something, I probably will play it again but not for a real long time.

Edit: like a day after i made this review the game fixed its self soo yeah good game 👌

by 7 Year Player

I have been playing for 7 years and considering discontinuing due to the increasing expense needed to play the game. The #1 trick they use to consume yourDiamonds is the cost to auto click and eliminate 100 plus moves. No big deal to not spend 5 diamonds sale on and click your self but by the time your in the Arctic phase you have to click 100s of time. even if you do pay it still makes you click 100 times because the auto clicks is too simple and does ask a few basic questions that would allow them to do more of the work for you. There seems to be also fewer player than in the past so there is less available trades. Another reason to finally call It a day. I think they have gotten 100s of dollars over 7 years most in the past year. I don’t mind spending some money but I would have expected logical improvements to like I described above in return for my funds. As one of your most loyal clients I am guessing I will not get a response or taken seriously but I am likely a conduit for many other original players who are thinking of bailing.

by Thewurdninja

I love what they have done with the recent update. The z’s for buildings not in the process of production are now stationary making them much easier to see. I am a huge fan of the daily quests. Side quests and event quests have been greatly improved, causing me to play more frequently. Overall, I love this game. I have been playing for a few years now and have seen some ups and downs. I am looking forward to the new ages to come. The only thing I would like to see improved is will you PLEASE fix the fact that ForgeofEmpires now asks me to sign in through Facebook every single time, even if I was just using it. It redirects me through the Facebook app and I have to click continue, okay, I accept, go, blah blah blah every time just to get to my city. It’s kind of annoying and makes it hard for me to quickly pick up productions or something while I’m not really actively playing at the moment. I find myself checking in less and less because of this added time for log in. Otherwise, great app. I would recommend it, just don’t ever click the log in through Facebook button or you are doomed to navigate through the outside app every time you log in.

by Free2play_player

I played this game twice once a few years ago and the other I started 6 months ago.
I have to say the modern incarnation of the game is amazing and the older version bot ad much. The problem with game is that it is meant for higher leveled and more hardcore strategy game players. This means that most players that find the game bad is because it is to complicated. This is not to say that not investing every time and moment means it is not fun but looking for helpful guilds will allow you to learn all the game mechanics and advice. When I started playing the game I hopped around different guilds and until I found an active one that was not only helpful but required little to nothing to be part of. To this day I’m still in this guild and even though I’m in the top percentile of my server I still find the game not that taxing in time requirements. In fact I find myself playing the game to much which I have to say if played enough the game becomes very addictive.

Overall this game is fair, rewards you, and I have yet to spend a SINGLE dollar playing it.

by Ghecrheccw

I messaged support for some help because there’s a glitch with the mass supply rushes not working for all of my supply buildings. They used to work just fine but now they only work on one out of my 4 buildings that only produce supplies. It’s very frustrating when your in an event and the things that are supposed to help you with the event don’t and then it’s worse when the people you send a message to refuse to even admit there’s an issue. They instead choose to talk to you like your stupid or lying. I don’t understand what the issue is myself there is a glitch, saying thank you for making us aware of the issue, we will work on fixing it sorry for any inconvenience or unnecessary frustration it has caused. Thank you for your patience while we fix the problem so you can keep enjoying the game. I don’t think saying something like that is to much to ask of anybody. And in my opinion is far more professional then avoiding the glitch and acting like I’m lying about it or that I don’t know what I’m talking about. What could I possibly gain from lying about a glitch and if I wasn’t 100% sure about something I would ask a question not complain.

by RandomPlayer90

I have been playing this game for over 2 years and I really enjoy the game. I was surprised by some of the other reviews/comments. Yes, there are optional in-app purchases, but that makes sense because the developer needs to stay in business. Of all the games I have played, the in-app purchases in this game are some of the least offensive I have ever seen (no annoying ads, etc.). I only use the in-app purchases when I want to give back to the developers, and spending money is definitely not necessary to be successful in the game. Also, this is a strategy game, and aspects of the game are challenging, which is why I am still playing. You won’t be able to ‘beat’ this game in a day or a week. To be successful in the game requires players to develop a strategy. If you are running into a challenge within the game, and what your doing is not successful, you might just need to change strategies. A little bit of thinking and planning is necessary. This is not a game I turn my brain off to play. Also, being part of a good guild really makes a difference. Supportive players in a guild help each other get the resources/blueprints they need.

by Ballsdeep111784

Forge of empires is VERY fun, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to get good! (Although you can.) You create a city, town, village, empire, city-state, or whatever you want to call it, and you can create your looks, or profile picture. You can design your town - but don’t worry, there are still challenges. You can take over other empires and kingdoms, even plunder, or steal supplies, and other stuff you need from them. You can create an army, go on quests, and do all of that as you go through the ages. Forge of Empires taught me all about the ages and eras, which helped me a lot in school, getting me better grades in social studies. If you don’t like educational games - well, it doesn’t directly teach you, you just find out on your own. This game has many qualities that help you in life, and is very fun while it doesn’t directly teach you those qualities. However, it would be almost impossible to miss them. This game is by far my favorite game, and you can also create your own guild - for free! Anyone who doesn’t play is definitely missing out.

by Mcbusa

There are reviews stating oh this game you have to pay for expansion space and oh it’s to hard or long for productions. Those people are bad at games and no patience as well as just saying things that are untrue. If you actually play the game yes it’s a slow start but it is totally free. The diamonds they speak of you get for free too… I get roughly 1000 diamonds a week from different in game fighting things and quests which the land expansions there are only two in an entire era and cost 200 diamonds each so that is easily affordable without spending any money. Forge points the main growth currency is very expensive to buy with money but the GbG guild event that basically is always going on is free and the by far biggest source of forge points just depends on how much time you play and getting in a good guild no money at all. People just want instant everything. This is a long term game like a marathon not a week sprint to beat it.. I’ve been playing for two years now and still growing and moving along. And best customer support I e ever seen too. They actually respond and help with even small things.