Rating: 2/5 stars
Clash of Clans is supposed to be a "free multiplayer strategy game" in which players build their own bases/villages with resource production buildings, army camps, barracks, builder huts, cannons, archer towers, walls, and all that kind of stuff. It's the same kind of thing as most "massively multiplayer online" strategy games (MMOs) and for some crazy reason it seems to have got really popular. Apparently, it's one of the "top grossing" apps in the Play Store.
So, how much do you think it lives up to all this? The answer: not much. This game really deserves a 1 star rating, but it's much more rewarding than Dungeon Keeper Mobile (reviewed on a separate page) so I gave it 2 stars.
Buildings take ages to upgrade, usually from 1 minute (reasonable) to several days (ridiculous). I haven't got that far yet, but apparently upgrading your town hall to a really high level takes something like 10 days. TEN DAYS? What is this? I mean, as I've already said before, this is supposed to be a game. To quote another article I read:
Playing a game means you have fun. It doesn't mean you sit around and wait for the game to annoy you so much that you decide to pay credits to speed it up.
That's Clash of Clans in a nutshell, really. The amount of defenses you are allowed to have is capped by the level of your town hall. Built some walls? You can't build any more until your town hall is upgraded to the next level. Have just one more soldier in your camp? You need a better town hall. Want a better gold mine? You need a better town hall.
Personally I don't see the logic in that, but I can't change it. Town halls take RIDICULOUS amounts of resources and time to upgrade. As in, we're getting into the millions by the time you hit level 5 or 6. With the limited amount of resource buildings you're allowed to build before you upgrade the town hall, that amount will take literally weeks to earn.
This all adds up to the zero-strategy, pay to win identity of this so-called strategy game.
This game is practically RULED by the in-game virtual green gems. You can only earn a small amount of gems by playing the game for a really long time. After that, you have to buy them with real money. It goes up from £3.99 to £79.99. Just how many people will cash out as much as some people's daily income on gems?
I think you'll be as amazed as I am. Supercell (the developer) is literally making millions every single day through JUST people buying green gems. Yep, that's right. And that's not to mention the whales at the top of the leaderboard who have won everything by spending thousands of pounds of real money on this game.
The gems aren't just for small jobs. Need another 5 billion gold for a building and don't want to wait 6 months to earn it? Buy it with £500 worth of gems. Want more soldiers? Buy it with gems. Want instant attack protection? Buy it with gems. Want to skip the 10 day wait time? Buy it with gems.
And the worst thing of this game is that there is no strategy. All you do is deploy a bunch of soldiers by tapping on the enemy's village, and then they just go ambling off and swinging swords at whatever comes their way. You don't have any control over them whatsoever. Since when has an army general won a battle by "commanding" their troops to just go wandering around and swing their swords aimlessly? Can't they at the very least put in buttons that you can use to command them to retreat, break rank, all work on destroying one defense, go in round the back, or even change target priority? If they'd all worked on destroying the mortar, the battle would have been won easily enough. But just go ambling around aimlessly? No way.
If you want actual strategy, don't bother with Clash of Clans.
And one final note: it seems like every single "strategy" game I've played has to be pay-to-win with crazy waiting times and in-app purchases, and you don't have any control over your soldiers. 99% of the time strategy = crazy pay to win monetization with no fun whatsoever.