With games like Kingdoms of Camelot and Glory of Rome, developer Kabam is clearly courting the more hardcore gamers on Facebook. And that trend continues with Global Warfare. Currently in open beta, the game blends elements of a traditional social strategy game with a massively multiplayer experience, with deep gameplay mechanics and a terrific presentation.
With games like Kingdoms of Camelot and Glory of Rome, developer Kabam is clearly courting the more hardcore gamers on Facebook. And that trend continues with Global Warfare. Currently in open beta, the game blends elements of a traditional social strategy game with a massively multiplayer experience, with deep gameplay mechanics and a terrific presentation.
Global Warfare takes place in the not-too-distant future, where all the world’s governments have collapsed and warring city-states have arisen to take their place. And that’s where you come in. It’s your job to build up your city by collecting resources, forming alliances, waging battle, and much more.
One of the most interesting elements of the game is that, as opposed to most Facebook games that focus on asychronous gameplay, Global Warfare allows you to play with others simultaneously. There’s a persistent chat window that lets you coordinate your strategy with other players in real-time, which gives the game a real MMO-like feel. And those relationships are very important. As Kabam’s general manager Bryan Bennett told Gamezebo, if you play alone you won’t stand a chance.
And the rest of the experience is just as deep and complex as you’d expect from a Kabam game. There’s a wide range of untis to purchase and utilize, you can craft items and collect resources, and even build advanced weaponry like the Hellfire Tank.
The game has also been tuned in such a way as to encourage exploration in combat. Since your experience level and military strength are separated into two different categories, there’s no need to worry about losing rank because you were defeated in battle.
Bennett also told us that, in addition to the core game experience, a lot of effort was also put into the game’s presentation. And it shows. You’ll be greeted by occaisional cut scenes and the character and environment art just looks great. The user interface, meanwhile, is surprisingly intuitive considering just how much information is on the screen, and sports a futuristic look inspired by games like StarCraft II.
Global Warfare is currently in open beta so you can play it on Facebook right now. The developers are still tweaking and refining the experience and hope to add new content on a weekly basis. And from what we’ve seen, they’re off to a terrific start.
