Imperial Island 1: Birth of an Empire

Imperial Island: Birth of an Empire
by QuickClick - August, 2013

Series links:  Imperial Island 1: Birth of an Empire, Imperial Island 2: The Search for New Land

Available at:
Alawar
Big Fish
GameHouse
iWin



Help Emperor Omadan rebuild a prosperous empire in Imperial Island: Birth of an Empire! The wise Emperor Omadan once ruled over a great empire. The territory flourished, bringing joy to its people and arousing envy in Omadan's enemies. After many years of prosperity, the enemies of his great empire launched a relentless invasion. To avoid the destruction of his people, the Emperor made a difficult but wise decision. He fled along with all of the survivors to seek a land where his empire could begin anew. Help Emperor Omadan on his quest to reconstruct his lost empire in this gripping Match 3 game!

• Discover over 60 unique buildings
  
• Enjoy brilliant artwork
  
• Unlock all of the achievements!
  

Click images to enlarge
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Imperial Island: Birth of an Empire (Match-3)

From the screenshots, I had thought that this was a true hybrid of match-3 and SIM.  I think that would have been really fun, but alas, 'twas not to be~

Options include separate sliders for music and volume, custom cursor, full-screen, tutorial, and RELAXED GAME MODE.  You can change your game mode at any time during gameplay.  I am of course playing in timed mode, 'cause I enjoy the challenge of beating the clock   Speaking of which, the game records the best time per level, so you can play to beat yourself!  Very nice  

This is a true match-3 reminiscent of Cradle of Rome, with the matching done via swapping tiles.  Doing the matching scenes will earn supplies, which you use to feed your workers and/or make new buildings, which then give you new supplies to collect, etc.

There are 21 trophies that you can earn, and each one has three tiers, from bronze to silver to gold.

We have some new game mechanics in this one that I have not seen before.  For instance:

• Make a match beside a keyhole to open up new areas of the match-3 screen. 
  
• Matching four items at once gives you a bonus bomb that will explode in 5 seconds, or when you move it (strategy!  Nice!)  There are other bonus bombs and helpful mechanics that you can earn, as well, but I think just that one is timed. 
  
• Bring a boat to the bottom of the screen to place it in the water, then continue to make matches to load supplies on it.
  

You have 60 buildings to build, and you can do things at your own pace -- if you just want to play levels for a while to earn supplies, you can do that!  If you want to wait to gain the supplies to build a different building, you can do that, too!

The graphics are very nice, and I like the animations they put in to show us the buildings as they go into the scene.  The gameplay is nicely addictive, and if you like match-3's, I recommend giving it a try~

This was my review when it was first released. I don't play match-3 games very often anymore, so I just looked at this one out of curiosity.

Funfilled Match 3 Mixed With Building
  

BASED ON DEMO

Primarily, I guess, a Match 3 game, it is some interesting twists borrowed from the building genre. Some of these are new to my admittedly limited experience, so bear with me if you’ve seen it all before.

The Emperor is founding a new empire, which means finding resources, refining them and using them. As we progress we have more and more options on what buildings will be available, and each has a certain price, and will produce certain resources.

At this stage, the Emperor is controlling the building plan, so you must put up what he says, but we soon get alternatives that we can choose between. We don’t get to choose the site though. Buildings can also be upgraded.

In order to get the money and resources we need to build, we play Match 3. These come with the usual patterns and power ups, but each level is made unique by including different tasks. So, in one level, we must clear the tiles, but also have to get the ship to the bottom of the grid, then fill it with a specific number and type of resource by clearing these items. I’ve not seen this before.

Also, some levels are “Events”, where there is a specific goal. For example, ‘we need to get that whale gone, it’s eating all the fish’.

The graphics are colourful and detailed and very imaginative. There is a constant dialogue between the Emperor and his minions (skippable speech balloons). The music is mostly nautical and a bit repetitive.

There are achievements to be had, including some I’m not so proud of – going 3 levels without a trophy, for example. And each level can be replayed to improve your score.

You have the choice of timed or untimed, and even on untimed, I felt the pressure. The Match 3 levels seemed quite challenging, especially since they were just the first few levels.

There is a tutorial, which while it covered the basics, actually confused me more.

I really enjoyed playing this one, which says something, because I’m hopeless at these sort of games, and they are not something I’d normally choose.

Best measure, I ran out of time on the demo before I was ready for a break!

I Recommend This Game!