* This article is part of an ongoing series of blogs which detail our correspondent’s experiences with the free-to-play RTS MMO Heroes of Might and Magic: Kingdoms. To gain context and a grasp of this blog’s content readers are advised to check out the first part linked on the right.*
It has been four weeks since I last reported on my experiences with Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms and a month is a long time for any MMO, but in the fast paced world of browser-based RTS games it is safe to say during the preceding weeks the poop has really hit the fan.
The Dragon Legacy server has transformed from an peace loving environment where everyone used to get along – slowly building their forces, forming new cities and trading with one another – into a hot bed of battle activity where some alliances are aggressively expanding in every direction they can, no matter whose little old city stood in their way.
Unfortunately this is exactly where my modest kingdoms of Fareham and Pardon stood with only a handful of heroes, led by Gribby, to defend them. My inexperience led to expand too quickly and soon my forces were stretched too thin to maintain my defences against the constant bombardment by a large guild which had blossomed at the border.
Raids became a daily occurrence and the gridlines which indicate movement on the map were constantly leading from the enemy heartland to the gates of my cities. It wasn’t always this way, there was a time when my guild was allied with the neighbouring scoundrels but no longer, they had tricked us into being ill-prepared for their attack and it was now open season, with my alliance brethren too far away or too ill-equipped to compete with the marauding invaders, it was looking very bleak.
Thankfully having cities and mines attacked on a daily basis isn’t the apocalyptic scenario you might think, with raids only resulting in income generators experiencing downtime and some resources being stolen. Slowly but surely one of my cities began to create enough of an army to fight back, although it did seem a little odd that the aggressors couldn’t invade my city. The only way cities can be stolen is when players decide to disband them, which made the aggression shown towards my merry kingdoms even more filled with hate.
There was only one grid square between both our territories. Surely our way of life wasn’t so different from theirs? Regardless the attacks continued despite my somewhat desperate pleas to my neighbours asking for assistance, all of which fell on deaf ears.
I was literally stuck, nobody was in a position to help and if I threw in the towel now it would be declaring defeat. Sod that! I’ll be the annoying blip on the map of the Together We Stand Alliance, the sole territory which persevered against their relentless persecution.
In reality, all of this anguish was over two flash-based graphics in a browser, but because the game is drawn out in real-time and all my progress was under threat, the events inspired feelings of honour, justice and perseverance against an inherently evil enemy. In all of my online gaming experience, few efforts have ever inspired such good versus evil motifs in a game world, but Kingdoms is overflowing with these classic archetypes and political intrigue.
In terms of progression, my territory had grown from one city to two and the world had evolved dramatically with many alliances beginning to clash with each one another all over the map. Tensions were reflected in the in-game chat and this morning the first gauntlet was laid down to the community, the introduction of the endgame – the rush for Dragon Tears.
Every season lasts a few months and to initiate the endgame a limited number of rare artefacts, known as Dragon Tears, are dispensed throughout the world for any alliance, regardless of rank or status, to find. This announcement comes with an animated cutscene flanked by an email which appears in the inbox of every player declaring that a certain alliance, in this case Deus Ex, has triggered the endgame.
For the MMO genre this isn’t unique, however it is fascinating to see which groups ally themselves with the server’s top dog, who has unwittingly triggered the end of the world, and who decides to upset the balance of power.
Season 1 still has plenty of weeks to run, but at least Dragon Legacy has the bragging rights of being the first world in the UK to experience Kingdom’s endgame, which will only last as long as it takes for one alliance to possess all of the Tears. That substantial undertaking should take gamers until the end of the year, but if being part of this online community has taught me anything, you really can’t predict what is going to happen next.
We’ll have more tales from the frontlines of Might and Magic: Kingdoms Heroes soon…
Tags: Heroes of Might Magic, Heroes of Might Magic Kingdoms, Might and Magic, Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms
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