Think Civilization. Much like Sid Meier's original strategy gem, World Empires Live is played out on a map of the world, with every country striving to conquer others, advance their technology level, and make money via trading and diplomacy. The difference here is that this is a streamlined online-only version of world domination, which is an interesting cross between turn-based and real-time strategy.

While a single player mode against the computer AI is available, the game is designed to be played online against up to eight other humans (with AI nations making up the rest of the globe). World Empires Live calls itself an RTTS, or real-time turn strategy game. What this means is that a game is divided into turns, with units only able to move and attack once per turn. However, the turns are timed, and if you don't move your armies, order unit construction and decide what technological research to focus on quickly enough, the next turn begins and it's a case of whatever you didn't get done, tough luck.

Think of it as speed chess, or indeed speed Civ, and furthermore movement and attacks happen in real-time within the turns, with every player ordering simultaneously. If there's a hex both you and an opponent want to move into, whoever clicks first will move there, and the slower party will be out of luck. This can be even more crucial when it comes to battles, as whoever is designated attacker or defender can make a big difference to the outcome.

The turns are fast paced - ten second turns are the standard setting, though you can slow this to twenty or forty - and a typical one will see a lot happen. Particularly if, for example, you've invaded one country and are defending against another. You'll have to skip between fronts, ordering attacks, shuffling defenders, thinking about whether you want to produce cavalry or legionnaires next, ordering that unit to be built, then perhaps moving a spy into a third country in an attempt to steal a technology from their capital. The level of concentration required is quite intense at times.

Indeed, the developer claims that World Empires Live is “easy to learn, but hard to master”, and the latter is definitely true. The former, however, definitely isn't.

In fairness, we understand what the developer is getting at. The game is nicely streamlined in many respects. There are no deep multiple branching tech-trees to pore over, because as you can imagine, that would be a nightmare in these tightly timed turns. A basic system of sliders prioritises whether a civilization's scientists research combat, construction or the economy. Trade is similarly simplistic, and just a matter of moving your diplomat unit into another country's resource hex to have a one-off chance of brokering a trade agreement.

However, not everything is this simple; such as combat. A unit has an attack and defence rating, and it's clear enough what that means. But it also has a shock attack, or some units do. The shock phase happens at the start of a battle, and if successful it reduces an enemy unit's effectiveness. That's another statistic an army possesses, alongside a survivability rating, and various bonuses against different unit types. And don't forget the quality factor of a troop. Vague mouse-over explanations are given for these stats, but how all the variables fit together, we're not exactly sure.

The manual won't tell you, because it only explains the very bare basics, and in a shoddily written manner at that. There's no help in-game, and no tutorial to speak of, which leaves the novice player floundering to begin with. You're pretty much left to play a couple of practice games against computer opposition to find out what's what, which is a pretty poor state of affairs. However, figure it out - or most of it - you will, given some time.

Unfortunately, once at home with the flow of the game, World Empires Live's interface will do its best to get in your way. The sluggish, clunky mouse scrolling of the map, for example, or the fact that it isn't possible to mouse-over tech upgrade icons to find out what they boost. Perhaps worst of all is the tiny alert text in the chat box which announces events happening. While an alert noise generally drew our attention to these microscopic messages, in the thick of a complex turn it's easily possible to miss an important event. You know, stuff like an opposition civilization declaring war on you. Stuff it might be handy for the leader of a country to know.

Throw in some silly bugs and annoying randomness, and it's fair to say World Empires Live definitely has its irritations. We had several games where the turn timer locked up and crashed the session, or the technology sliders broke so we couldn't use them, among other minor issues. The randomness comes in the form of events such as raiding pirates or roving bands of barbarians, which can be highly irksome when they happen to your country again and again, in quick succession at times. Constant “dark age” events which get rid of all the scientists you've splashed out on hiring also get quite tedious. There were just too many of these chance-based incidents for our liking.

The computer AI seems quite passive on the normal skill level (to the point where it generally won't have a pop at undefended cities), though it shows a little more aggression if you notch the difficulty up. It provides a decent challenge overall, however, although playing against human opposition is where your mettle is really tested, as with most strategy games.

Sadly, the game's population is rather thin on the ground at the moment, and the matchmaking lobby is often empty. Of course, it's still early days for World Empires Live. And the bugs we've mentioned are acknowledged by the programmers, with solutions being worked on for the next patch (which may be out by the time you're reading this review).

While the game is still rough around the edges, there are some good ideas here. The real-time/turn-based blend does work well, and the manner in which trade, science and diplomacy are allowed to happen swiftly within that framework is nicely implemented.

Verdict
World Empires Live is an interesting crack at a streamlined real-time, turn-based hybrid. It's not easy to get into, however, lacking a tutorial or in-game help of any sort. Moreover, problems with the interface, bugs and overplaying of random events conspire to muddy the fun. The player population is also currently very sparse, but it has some potential if the bugs are ironed out and more people start playing.

Company: Noble Master Games

Tags: sid meier real-time strategy strategy game artificial intelligence time-keeping systems in games single-player video game game strategy