This game got a fair about of hype of few months ago in American media, and looks to live up to much of its praise. You play a single person in a world much like our own. You get a job at a local company, can fight in a war, and even run for president of the United States.

I named this review Erupblik v1, because the admins have been talking about releasing a new version of the game (v2 for those of you who couldn’t follow) which will change most of the current facets of the game. I haven’t seen a release date for it yet, but I get the idea that we’re looking at a low number of months.

One of the interesting things about this game is some of the realistic features: You’re character must eat everyday, or lose Wellness, if you eat during the day, you gain Wellness, if you have a House, you gain even more Wellness. Both working and training take a few points of Wellness, and increase your stats in that area (gathering, construction, fighting, etc.). Everyday you can go to war (if one is going on) and fight for your country. You can even boost your attacking power by bringing a weapon with you! Working, training, and fighting all boost your XP points which help you level up. Early on, most of the benefits lie in unlocking new things to due, later on they become less important (once you’ve unlocked the ability to run for president) and they mainly become a source of getting free Gold (which can be used to buy various things in the game or sold for cash).

The main bad things about this game are exactly what the admins are targeting to get rid of in v2: Low graphics and confusing battles. In the current version, there are very few graphics and all of them are static. The battles in v2 (according to the screenshots) look more like something out of Command & Conquer (an offline computer game, if you don’t know it, google it), with each side having turns during the battle and having to control certain strategic points (instead of just “Who can rack up more damage?”). Also, if you’re trying to free your homeland from foreign invaders, you have to start what is known as a resistance war. Unfortunetly, the screen for fighting in a resistance war is so confusing that many people end up fighting for the wrong side.

Overall, the current game is decent, with a community that brings it up a bit. Watching the US Marin Corp turn the side of a battle with only twenty people is an amazing thing to watch. I’m looking forward to v2 when it launches, and I plan on doing a review for that module as well.

Overall rating: (4 stars)

URL: http://www.erepublik.com/en/referrer/Apollo+Fireweaver