Shadowland Online
The game’s has a fantasy based theme to it as you play as a surviving human faction that has to fight off a dark force that has been unleashed onto the world thanks to an opening between the real world and the undead world. Because of this, the citizens of “God’s Continent” have to search for a new homeland. After taking refuge in certain new areas, your goal now is to fight off the dark forces and build an army strong enough so that you can take back God’s Continent for all of humankind.
The game starts off with an interesting animated cutscene that clearly explains Shadowlands Online’s story. It’s a great introduction and it’s nice to see a free to play video game that features a main storyline. Most free to play video games I’ve played just has a brief background of the setting and you are immediately forced to play the game the moment you load it up.
After introductory cutscene has ended, you then need to choose which human faction you will like to play as. There are three factions in all and six characters that you can get to play as. The factions include the following: Tribal Union, Empire of the Nobles and Mercenary Cooperative. After you have chosen a faction, you can then choose the class type you’d like to play as too. The classes that were available include the Shaman, Beast Riders and Hatchet Troops. Once you have chosen a class type, you are then ready to officially play Shadowlands Online.
It’s worth noting that Shadowlands Online has pretty fast loading times. This isn’t like some other free to play browser based video games that demand a lot of power in order to be run. This will come as great news for gamers that are looking to play a game that is quick and fun.
The game starts off with a short tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game’s mechanics. You start off in a humble looking village with not many citizens or buildings either. It’s now your job to build this little village to a living and thriving city that can train troops so you have an army that can challenge the dark forces that stole your homeland.
As it is with most RTS video game, Shadowlands Online initially starts off pretty slow, but the overall gameplay in this game has a faster pace than in other games in the RTS genre. For starters, players are not required to always collect resources and wait for buildings to be constructed all of the time. The main focus of this game is keeping your army strong and battling enemies to gain more rewards to make your own army stronger.
The combat system in this game is quite fun to view. You don’t get the chance to control your troops in battle, but you can at least see them fight in battle. Battles are automated and all you can do is watch to see if your current set of troops is strong enough to dispose of the opposing side. The more enemies you beat, the harder the game is going to get. If you don’t train your troops often to make them stronger, you are only going to see your own army die off every single time.
Graphically, the environments in Shadowlands Online look nice and clean, although I would say that the character models during the combat sequences look a little too small for my own liking. Still, the layout and design of the game overall is great to look at. This is not one of those RTS games that have small buttons and buildings that make it unplayable. Another thing I loved about this game is the music. The music sounds something that would appear in The Lord of the Rings movies more than anything else. It may feature only one song, but it’s great to listen to while playing this game.
All in all, Shadowlands Online is a pretty decent MMORTS with fun fast paced style of gameplay that is usually not associated with the genre. The combat system is fun to look at and it motivates you to get stronger in order to beat the opposition. Not to mention you have the chance to team up with allies and become even stronger the further you progress into the game. If you’re looking for a great RTS title that is free to play, look no further than Shadowlands Online. It might not be the best ever RTS game ever made, but it’s one of the more fun ones to play thanks to its fast style of gameplay.
