Clash Royale
Clash Royale is a competitive multiplayer strategy game, based on Supercell’s blockbuster Clash of Clans. Enjoy one-on-one battles to defend your fort, in this action packed spin-off. Defend your fortified cities by destroying enemy units and turrets with your armies. And expect to see lots of familiar Clash of Clans heroes – from the Barbarian to the Giant. To win, you must distribute your heroes in the best way possible: place them strategically on the map to eliminate enemy towers and defend against incoming attacks – with the ultimate goal being to destroy the king in his central turret. In addition, your own towers to unleash special attacks from.
Clash Royale combat plays out in real time with hero deployment and attacks based on Elixir. You start with a set amount of this Elixir, and must use it to deploy heroes and attack. Run out of Elixir? Then you will have to wait for it to recharge before your next attack.
This game system doesn’t request any micropayments during in combat. Both players start with the same conditions, with the winner only decided by which player can better judge the pace of battle and uses their soldiers most wisely.
Clash Royale is a simple game that’s mechanic proves immediately engaging. With micropayments limited to elements outside of the gameplay itself, it could prove a good candidate Supercell’s next blockbuster.
Clash Royale Review
So why did I end up playing Clash Royale at all, never mind reviewing it? The fact that GameCentral doesn’t have time to delve into these games, so I am filling a gap in my fave gaming site? The need to try a different genre of game for a change to freshen the gaming palate? Dowser, Jr. and his addicted mates nagging me every five minutes to play it and join their clan? Maybe a little of all the above. But ultimately, the last one. I’m sure a lot of readers already know more about these games than me so I ask for patience, just like I asked dowser, Jr. for patience when it loaded up and I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Clash Royale is a Tower Defense game. Tower Defense? Is that a bit like… Rampart son? God I’m old. You are given a fantasy set of troops (ground, air, special) which you place in a simplistic arena and fight a timed battle against an opponent who has a similar but not identical set of troops. Your troops attack the opponent’s three towers and try to destroy them and vice versa. Destroying more towers than them means you win. Drawing means you go into golden goal territory – next tower wins. Lose and… well, not a lot happens really. I quickly realised you have to watch your defence and have counter pieces ready to play to thwart enemy attacks rather than simply going with all out attacks.
Yup, but there’s no energy system. There are wait timers on the chests you earn, which contain cards and coins, but that’s it. So long as you’ve got an internet connection you can jump in and smash as many faces as you want.
And you’ll want to smash a lot of faces. The compulsion loop here is dangerously tight. You can easily lose hours in the quick-paced battles, and hours more balancing your deck to try and make sure you can take on all-comers.