The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth Review

I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I downloaded The Hobbit: KOME from the Android Market yesterday.  Let’s just suffice it to say that I was up until around 3 a.m. this morning and barreling my way as far into the ranks as possible before my eyes forced themselves shut on me.  The app is, at first, a great game.  But then we ran into a few issues.  Nothing big and certainly nothing atypical for this kind of game app.  Let’s jump right into it!

Features of The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth for Android include:

When you first begin and download this app you’ll be given the choice of Dwarves of Elves as your faction.  It really doesn’t matter which you pick, but I have noticed that some alliances that are forming are strictly Elven or vice versa.

Gameplay begins with a short tutorial which shows you how to access the different screens and tabs, as well as how to build, train,

Screen shot of my game

check/use items etc.  Remember, much like Kabam’s Kingdoms of Camelot, the main part of this game is to build up your Kingdom, conquer plains and kill goblins.  To be honest, The Hobbit is just the “theme” and the story line is pretty much non-existent.

Actually following the quests that are advised to you in the quest tab is highly recommended, especially if you’ve never played a game like this before.  You are only protected from outside attack for 7 days…after that it’s game on.  So, be sure to build as much as possible in the way of offense and defense while still upgrading and building resource makers and researching for more powerful weapons.  Joining an alliance just in case some jerk wants to attack as soon as your grace period is up will provide some good clout as well.

The game play itself is pretty smooth.  Pulling the map back and forth zooming it in & out with pinch capability is okay, though there isn’t much zooming to do.  It’s responsive though.  Phasing between tabs and screens lags as well.  Sound is good.  You get theme music and sound effects of building.  Some sound is good for these kinds of apps…ever played Marvel: War of Heroes?  The silence in that app is maddening!

I was able to join an alliance pretty quickly.  I’m not sure when I’ll need them but I’m sure I will at some point if I continue to play.  The social feature of chatting gave me a headache, though.  Waaaay too much going on there.  Alliance chat works okay, though, and it’s not as busy. I always find it comical to see online players trolling chat with “anyone a girl”…  (Sorry, I digress…)

Main gripe with the Hobbit Kingdoms of Middle Earth is this:

Just like Kingdoms of Camelot for iOS, you’ll reach a point where buildings, upgrades and training will take days to complete.  Sure there is magic and “hour glasses” to speed things up but unless you’re willing to throw money into the game (and purchase the app currency of “mithril”)…that kind of assistance will dry up.  So, once you advance far enough it is completely plausible to go to the app, spend five minutes starting some training and building upgrades and not have to come back to it for a longer than 24-48hr period.  Eh…  Also of note, while you can build, upgrade and train at the same time in most cases, you cannot do two of the same concurrently.  Ugh…

In-App Functionality Issues:

The app has caused my Samsung Galaxy S3 to lock up a few times; twice when the app was running in the background and once when I was trying to transition between the game screen and trying to pull down my alert bar at the top of Android phone screens.

Also, BE AWARE!!!  The Hobbit is HUGE.  I just checked my applications manager (Android\Settings\Application Manager) and the app is currently occupying 30.42MB.  Damn!

Final Analysis:

It was loads of fun for the first 4 hours that I played, but then everything slowed down and it took longer and longer to build/upgrade/train.  The app itself is functional and detailed.  I’m going to have to this app a 3.5 out of 5 Star rating.  I could give the Hobbit a “5″ rating if the in-app functionality issues were fixed and if you could do

Download The Hobbit on Google Play!