Notes / Goodgame Empire
Castle strategy · Goodgame Studios · since 2011
Goodgame Empire
Castle building with a war layer that works, and a shop that never lowers its voice.
- Per visit
- 30 min
- Visits
- Every few hours
- Round
- Open-ended
- Shop
- Rubies: time, troops; loud
- Where
- Browser, app shares the account
Rowan
- Time9
- Fairness6
- Depth9.5
- Polish8.5
- Weighted8.1
Recruit troops, pick tools for each attack, defend three walls, join an alliance that coordinates. Fifteen years of updates have left it with outposts, kingdoms and a siege system that rewards reading a defence properly. Timers run to hours rather than days, so an evening visibly moves things, which I value more than I expected to.
The shop is loud from the first hour and rubies buy troops outright. I knocked it hard for that. A free player enjoys the first two months and holds their own in alliance play; the summit of the server is a paying place and the game does not pretend otherwise.
Tess
- Time8
- Fairness8
- Depth8.5
- Polish8.5
- Weighted8.2
The most content of any castle game I have played and the only one where attacking felt like a decision rather than a dice roll. Reading someone's wall layout and picking tools to match is a proper small puzzle. The alliance I joined was active at every hour, which says something about the player base.
On the shop I am softer than Rowan. It is loud, but it is honest about what it sells, and I never hit a point where I could not play the game I was enjoying. Where you cannot compete is the top table, and I was never going to be there.
Where the fold closes
The fullest castle game in a browser, with sieges that reward thought and timers measured in hours. The shop is loud from day one and the summit requires spending; everything below it is a good free game.
- Time8.5
- Fairness7
- Depth9
- Polish8.5
- Weighted8.2
Opens the publisher's site in a new tab. Affiliate link; see about.
- Most content of any castle game
- Sieges reward reading the defence
- Timers in hours, not days
- Shop is loud from day one
- Summit requires spending
