Empire: Four Kingdoms

About Empire: Four Kingdoms

I honestly didn’t think I’d like a strategy game on my phone. My son-in-law set up my Samsung Galaxy S23 for me, and I mostly use it to check the weather and text the grandkids. But I saw Empire: Four Kingdoms sitting near the top of the free games list in the app store, and I figured why not give it a try. That was a little over a month ago. Now I find myself checking in on my kingdom every morning with my coffee. The whole idea is you build up a medieval castle, train soldiers, gather resources like wood and stone, and then either make friends or fight with other players. It sounds complicated, and at first it was a bit overwhelming, but the tutorial walks you through it step by step. I still mess up sometimes, like accidentally sending my army to attack someone I was trading with last week. That was awkward. But the game keeps me thinking, and that’s something I appreciate at my age — keeps the mind sharp.

Features & Highlights

There’s a lot going on in this game. You start with a small castle and a few fields. You build farms, sawmills, iron mines, and barracks. Each building takes time to construct or upgrade, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a full day. That’s fine by me because I can put the phone down and come back later. You can also form alliances with other players. I joined one called “The Old Guard” because the name made me laugh. We help each other out by sending resources and troops. The alliance chat is active, and people are friendly, though they use a lot of abbreviations I don’t understand. There are also events every week — like special tournaments or resource collection challenges where you can win prizes. I won a big pile of gold last Tuesday just by logging in and clicking a few buttons. The graphics are pretty too. The castles look like something out of a history book, and the animations for battles are fun to watch, even if I lose most of them. You can also customize your castle with decorations, which is silly but I enjoy it. I put a fountain right in front of my keep.

User Experience

For a game this big, the screen layout isn’t too bad. Everything has a label, and there are icons that make sense — a sword for fighting, a hammer for building, a hand for trading. I had to ask my granddaughter to help me figure out how to join an alliance because the button was hiding in a menu, but since then I’ve gotten around pretty well. The game does push you toward spending real money, which I’m not crazy about. Pop-ups for special offers pop up every time you log in. I just tap the X and move on. The game runs smoothly on my Galaxy S23, no lag or crashes that I’ve noticed. The only time it gets frustrating is when I’m waiting for resources to build up and I can’t do much except wait. But I guess that’s the point. It’s not a fast game. It’s a slow burn. The tutorial that comes with the game is decent, but I wish there was a way to replay some of those early lessons because I forgot a few things. I did figure out that you can tap on buildings to see what they do, and that helped a lot.

Pricing

The game is free to download, and you can play it without spending a dime. I’ve been playing for over a month and haven’t paid anything. But I can see how other people might feel pressured to buy. There are bundles that pop up at the bottom of the screen, like “Get 10,000 wood for $2.99” or special packages with rare items. The prices range from a dollar or two all the way up to $99.99 for giant bundles of gems and gold. That seems like a lot of money for a phone game, but to each their own. The in-game currency is gems, and you earn them slowly by completing tasks. I’ve saved up about 200 gems so far, which let me speed up a building once. I’ll probably never spend real money on it, but the game doesn’t force you to. You just have to be patient. And I’ve got plenty of that in retirement.

Updates & Support

The app seems to get updated every few weeks. I got a notification last Sunday that a new event was live called “The Great Hunt” where you collect animal pelts for rewards. That was fun. I haven’t noticed any bugs, so the updates must be working. As for support, I had to contact them once because I couldn’t figure out why my resources weren’t being delivered to my alliance member. I sent a message through the in-game help button on a Thursday, and I got a reply the following Monday. That’s a few days, which felt like a long time when I was waiting, but the person who answered was polite and explained that you have to wait until the resource cart actually arrives in the target player’s castle. I felt silly, but at least they fixed my confusion. The response was in clear English, not robotic. I appreciated that. For a free game, the support is acceptable, just don’t expect a quick answer on the weekend.

Security & Privacy

I’m usually careful about giving apps permission to things, especially on my phone. When I first installed Empire: Four Kingdoms, it asked for access to my storage and to send notifications. I said yes to notifications because I wanted to know when my buildings were done, but I said no to storage because I don’t see why a game needs that. It worked fine anyway. The game uses my Google account to sign in, which I like because I don’t have to remember another password. I read through the privacy policy briefly — not all of it, it’s way too long — but it says they collect gameplay data for improving the game. That’s standard stuff. I haven’t had any spam emails or weird activity since I started playing. The game does have a chat system, and there’s a report button if someone says something mean. I’ve never had to use it. Overall, I feel safe using it. Just don’t click on links from strangers in the chat, which I think is common sense.