Cultures Review

Offering something a little different from the usual empire building style games, Cultures is a little more tempting. Or at least it would be if it wasn't for the many timers that slow you down significantly.

You play a viking or samurai, depending on your tastes, as you build up a huge settlement of successful folk. Starting out, there's plenty of guidance as you'd expect from such a game. Soon enough, by following various missions you'll have placed a barracks, alchemist, and numerous other structures to ensure you've got the foundations set for something quite successful.

So far, so very typical of the city/empire building genre. Where Cultures proves to be different from the pack is the adventuring side of things. You can send your hero away to defeat enemies and gain experience. It's touted as a kind of MMO-style element but there's not actually much for you to do here. Instead, you send your hero off to battle and wait for a timer to finish up before checking to see how things went.

Still, there are some RPG elements in there when it comes to equipping new items or allocating skill points. Also you can hire new heroes; accumulating quite the force of characters with a bit more personality than the average F2P sim.

Later on in the game, besides the extensive PvP that's available, you can check out new dungeons and gain special treasures. The problem is the patience that's required in getting that far. Cultures is pretty stingy with dishing out the premium currency, meaning you're going to be waiting around for those timers for a while to come.

As charming as Cultures might seem (and it is pretty cute), the stop/start nature of progression is going to infringe upon the fun that can be had. Perhaps it's worth pursuing for the very patient, but don't be surprised if you find yourself eventually forgetting to check back.