Empires and Tribes

About

"Empires and Tribes" is a medieval city-builder and role-playing game hybrid, set in the 13th century. Oversee your city's growth, resources, and technology, while navigating political power struggles and raising a formidable army for protection. Experience immersive RPG elements, such as first-person perspective exploration, as you make critical economic and diplomatic decisions to maintain your position in this challenging world.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

67%

Audience ScoreBased on 338 reviews

graphics12 positive mentions

stability46 negative mentions

The game has a unique concept that combines city building, RPG elements, and first-person gameplay, offering a fresh experience in the genre.
Players appreciate the depth of the city management mechanics and the ability to interact with the environment and NPCs in a meaningful way.
The developers are responsive to player feedback and have shown commitment to improving the game through updates.

The game is riddled with bugs and performance issues, making it frustrating to play, especially during critical moments like combat or building.
Many players feel that the game was released too early and lacks essential features, such as a proper tutorial and clear instructions, leading to confusion.
Graphics and animations are considered outdated, and the overall polish of the game is lacking, which detracts from the immersive experience.

graphics
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
64%
14%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players noting that they resemble outdated visuals from the mid-2000s, often comparing them to titles like "Mount & Blade" and "Morrowind." While some appreciate the aesthetic of building upgrades and find the graphics acceptable for a non-AAA title, others criticize the bland textures, poor animations, and various glitches that detract from the overall experience. Overall, there is a consensus that significant improvements are needed to elevate the game's visual appeal.
- “The visuals of the buildings - watching your buildings upgrade from wood huts to fortified stone keeps is very satisfying.”
- “The graphics are pretty good (not amazing, but pretty good for a non-AAA dev team).”
- “The game shows great potential, graphics are great, nice idea, a little like the guild but a mix of survival gaming.”
- “Just bought the game, played for 10 minutes and asked for a refund. I think the game has a lot of potential, but the game designers obviously did not put the time into the game; the graphics are absolutely horrible, 1999 video game quality.”
- “I was taken aback by how crappy the textures and graphics looked in-game even at the highest settings and the horrible animations - it made me feel like I was playing a medieval Minecraft from 2008 and not a life/city simulator.”
- “Despite the promising concept, between the super clunky, unintuitive UI, lackluster graphics, and written content that is in desperate need of editing, this game veered quickly into the not fun™ camp.”
story
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
78%
6%
The game's story revolves around simple quests given by villagers and the king, often involving mundane tasks like fetching items or providing resources, which many players find repetitive and lacking in variety. While the game features a dynamic city-building aspect and RPG elements, the quest system suffers from bugs and a lack of polish, leading to frustration when trying to locate quest givers or complete missions. Overall, players express a desire for more engaging and dramatic quests to enhance the narrative experience.
- “The game does include quests which can come from your residents or directly from the king via his messenger.”
- “This is a very unique game that manages to have beautiful city building, quests, and combat; sadly, there are very few games in this particular genre to compare it to.”
- “You have RPG experience points-based progression, and quests that can be given by your villagers or by the king, that will ask for tribute now and then.”
- “The quests are simple and not fancy, and there is little in terms of variation.”
- “The quests your villagers give are boring; sadly, I hope newer versions of the game will have more dramatic quests, as for now it's mostly uninteresting fetch quests or characters asking for wood or food.”
- “I really only stopped playing because I hit the point of just mindlessly repeating quests.”
stability
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and game-breaking issues that significantly hinder the gameplay experience. Many players describe it as a "buggy mess," noting problems with AI, controls, and resource management, which can lead to frustrating gameplay. While some users express hope for future improvements, the current state of the game is deemed unpolished and not recommended for those who are sensitive to technical issues.
- “Honestly, I can't recommend this game because it's so buggy and crash-prone as it stands right now.”
- “This is an early access game; it's not finished, and at this moment, the game is filled with bugs and glitches. You'll probably encounter game-breaking bugs (it took me 2 tries to finish the tutorial because of game-breaking bugs), and many things are broken or yet to be implemented.”
- “This game is currently a buggy mess for me; as such, I can't recommend it. Only get this to support the development of the game at the moment.”
gameplay
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
80%
7%
The gameplay of this title is a mix of city-building, management, and RPG elements, offering a unique first-person perspective that some players find engaging and reminiscent of classic titles. While the mechanics are intriguing and provide a good foundation for replayability, many users report significant bugs, AI issues, and a confusing interface that detracts from the overall experience. Despite its flaws, some players see potential for greatness as the game evolves, especially if the developers address the current gameplay challenges.
- “Although this game looks outdated, gameplay-wise it not only clicks with me, it is a hidden gem I was looking for a long time — basically, this is a Guild 2 from a first-person perspective, with more autonomous and smarter AI, and less need to pause the game to decide something about production.”
- “The game mechanics and management style are interesting, and the replayability is there.”
- “The game mechanics allow for your style of play; e.g., you can run around and build everything you want or instruct villagers to go and build for you. It also allows you to engage in simple combat with animals and people.”
- “While it all looks very pretty, the actual gameplay is a confusing mess.”
- “Besides this issue, there are a massive array of other gameplay issues that render the game very low quality and quite boring most of the time.”
- “I do not recommend this game at this time as it's still riddled with bugs and gameplay issues.”
optimization
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
57%
21%
The game's optimization has been criticized for being severely lacking, with issues such as massive save files and frequent crashes occurring after 30-45 minutes of play. However, some players have noted improvements following performance updates, suggesting that while the game still has significant optimization challenges, there is potential for a better experience for those willing to overlook current glitches.
- “I think the performance update made a huge difference for me.”
- “Edit: performance has gotten better, thanks!”
- “Those willing to overlook the current (April 2020) glitches and performance issues will have an epic experience and both of their favorite worlds come together.”
- “The game is severely deficient in polish of the basic things such as optimization, character animations, and the quest pool, bandit encounters, combat in general, as well as having no mounts in a giant land and no siege engines, but magical ability to tear down stone walls.”
- “Save files are massive, optimization is so bad, and the game closes itself after 30-45 minutes.”
- “Not sure if it's related to memory/game optimization.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find humor in the game's quirky moments, particularly when witnessing the transformation of their village into a town from a first-person perspective. However, some users note that bugs, especially related to building multiple guild halls, can lead to lag and unexpected comedic situations.
- “It is very funny seeing your poor little village evolve into a nice town, especially from the first-person view!”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the repetitive nature of searching for hidden evidence in familiar locations, which can become monotonous over time.
- “Sadly, the court mechanics are based on looking for 'evidence' that's hidden in different parts of town, a mechanic I can see becoming tedious once you know all the usual hiding places.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express disappointment in the game's emotional impact, primarily due to subpar graphics and animations that detract from immersion, likening the experience to outdated titles rather than a modern life or city simulator.