Ikariam is a web and mobile-based strategy MMORPG game that takes you through numerous Grecian-like islands. Start your journey on an island, raise an army, and grow your wealth. When your island becomes too small, take your fame to another level by building new islands with your resources.

The game features the traditional elements of a strategy MMO, such as resource control, multiplayer encounters, and city development. It also has a mobile version, Ikariam Mobile, allowing Android and iOS users to ,enjoy the game on their mobile phones. With the short tutorial at the beginning, you can learn the dynamics of the game to aid gameplay.

When it comes to graphics, Ikariam makes an impression. It has pleasant visuals and well-animated movements of citizens as they gather resources and construct buildings. As you steadily move through the levels, Ikariam offers enough dynamics to make your experience enjoyable. 

Build Your City and Gather Resources

The game has a simple interface, with viewpoints that lead you to different dimensions of the game. There’s the world view that shows your island’s location among other islands. The island view lets you see the dwellers of your island, allowing you to note the neighbors and other residents you can plunder. Lastly, there’s the town view that shows your town, letting you work on your town, erecting structures, and managing resources.

Buildings are an essential part of gameplay, and the game’s beginning presents with empty plots for construction, and there’s a variety of building choices to make. From large production factories to elegant research centers – there’s enough to stimulate your wits.

Another fundamental aspect is resource accumulation and management. Like in every strategy game, you need resources to recruit workers, construct buildings, and conduct research. While there are six different resources in the game, Building Material takes center-stage. You’ll need them for most of the work you’ll be doing in Ikariam.

Getting your villagers to work and pile up resources for you offers some tasty excitement. With the game’s 2D graphics and character animation, you get to see the villagers moving about and do their job. This isn’t something you find in most browser games. You can train your citizens to be soldiers, researchers or send them to perform a variety of tasks. They, in turn, receive payments for the task or job they perform.

Keeping your citizens happy is an integral part of building a robust town. Making a tavern, for example, increases the town’s happiness by 12 points. Serving wine in that tavern raises happiness by 60 points. You can also increase the town’s happiness through research and good government policies. It all works in your favor since a high happiness level means your citizens have little reason to abandon the town.

The Island is Yours to Conquer

Game progression does depend on buildings and resources, but not only that. The island that houses your city is yours for taking. However, there are several cities owned by real players and villages with NPC barbarians to dig it out with. These neighbors, while posing as obstacles, are your opportunity to amass great wealth and expand your influence.

To successfully conquer the island, you need a naval unit to build formidable ships and an army of soldiers to send on these battles. Moving from one village to another on these conquests does take some time, adding to the game’s slow movement. The battles are automatic, with reports that show how things went down.

To aid conquests, players get four different advisors – Towns, Military, Diplomacy, and Research. Each advisor offers a specific guide to help the player make the right decision. For example, the military adviser shows you the naval fleets on sail and allows you to cancel any expedition. You also get to see the progress reports of your many battles via the military adviser.

At the end of the day, you take over the island when there’s no village left to plunder or no land left to build. When you get to this point, it’s time to take your army and set sail to other islands. There’s no stopping till you reign supreme over all the islands.

Research Your Way to Victory

In addition to managing resources and executing raids, another crucial part of the game is research. Ikariam has 18 subjects for research to gain bonuses and rewards that enhance your pursuit of domination. As you improve in the game, your research will grow simultaneously with the town.

The research adviser helps you conduct research when you gather enough research points. You get to see the number of research points available, the number of scientists working their brains out, and the pending research.

Build an Embassy with Alliances

Players can either found or join an alliance comprising of other players seeking a partnership. As an alliance member, players get protection from other players. In the case of offense, the entire coalition goes all out together to defend you. As the alliance leader, you can assign three jobs – Home Secretary, Diplomat, and General – to other members. Members of your alliances can come from any part of the world; what’s important is a common interest to build prosperous empires.

Bottom Line

Ikariam has addictive gameplay that continues to attract players all over the world. In addition to the traditional PvP battles, there are tons of resource management activities, building construction, and research activities to keep gameplay alive.

We can easily forgive the game’s lack of background music and dependency on the cash-shop because of the overall experience the game brings. Even if you’re not with a PC, you can play the Ikariam Mobile anytime, anywhere on your mobile phone. With more experience under your belt you can jump into any of the game’s nineteen servers and break new frontiers.