Price: Free Score: 8/10 Category: Games
If you’re a fan of strategy games, but often find the genre too time-intensive, then LandGrabbers for Android will be a great addition to your game library. With a mix of fast paced finger flicking action, and an easy to understand resource management system, LanGrabbers is a rare pick-up-and-play strategy title.
LandGrabbers for Android was developed by Nevosoft Inc, who also developed popular titles including My Kingdom of the Princess 3 and the Pirateville series. The developer notes that LandGrabbers was recognized as the “Best Casual Game of the Year at the 2011 Russian Game Developers Conference”, and you will quickly see why once you start playing. It’s not a sin for a game to be called “casual” these days and LandGrabbers truly captures the strategy gaming on a mobile device.
LandGrabbers feels like a mixture of Tower Defense, RTS, and Settlers-style games. The controls are incredibly easy to use, and you will find yourself mounting attacks from multiple locations within the first minute. The motion is fluid, with no noticeable lag even when attacking with large armies.
Despite the easy to understand controls, LandGrabbers will remind you a few times during the initial stages about how to complete certain attacks and tactics. If you’re quick to pick up on things, this doubling up on information can be a bit of a pest. Thankfully, the messages do stop and LandGrabbers only informs you of new information that’s required to progress through the game.
The graphics in LandGrabbers will feel familiar, but not stale. They work well for the game type and don’t distract from the action on the screen. The sound and music are solid, which is great because many developers don’t seem to take into consideration how much time you might devote to their product. Nothing can ruin a game faster than hearing the same theme song on repeat every single time you play.
In LandGrabbers you’re not just fighting the enemy, you’re fighting the clock. The clock is the ultimate bad guy, because it determines your ranking, and what perks you receive. Perks are gained through purchases between levels using blue diamonds.
You can earn these blue diamonds through gameplay, or you can purchase them to build up your army faster through an in-game purchasing system. This sort of pay-to-play system, while not always appreciated, has become standard for mobile gaming.
The game boasts 27 levels, five building types (which can be upgraded throughout the game), and three difficulty levels, giving the game good replay ability. Overall, if you’re looking for a great strategy game on the go, LandGrabbers is definitely worth the download.
LandGrabbers was last updated September 5, 2012. It’s available for Android 2.3 and up and is 29MB to download. It is rated E for Everyone. A small expedite fee was paid to speed up the publication of this Android game review.