Massacre & Conquest is another simulation game powered by Gamebox after AD 400. It is not introducing any innovative or original ideas as claimed.
It is not that sanguinary as the name suggests. “Massacre” covers only the beginning of your gaming experience when there is not a piece of land for you and your clan to live on. As a matter of fact, you defeated a bunch of enemies and occupied a random land.
There are three species in Massacre & Conquest: Werewolf, Vampire and Mutant. The choice of a certain race wouldn’t provide you any special abilities in either battles or constructions. There are only visual differences in buildings and troops you created. It is the same situation in AD 400.
Due to its Sci-fi theme, the user interface is designed stylish. The mini map acts like a radar continuing scanning and highlighting units and buildings nearby. Hover your mouse on the sparkling spots and you can check the coordinates or go directly to the territory.
There are always rules that restrict the quantities and speed when you are constructing in games of the similar genre. Developers of Massacre & Conquest claimed that they have eliminated the tedious waiting time for constructions. Each building and upgrading process requires some time, the time will be add up and if the result didn’t go beyond the limitation, for example, a total of 2 hours for constructions, all the buildings and upgrades will be finished immediately. The mechanism M&C invited does save time but it is not an original idea.
No seams are to be found between maps of this game. Players could keep dragging the map and check information around without being interrupted by possible loadings. However, I found this mechanism insignificant in a slow paced SLG.
One feature that I seldom come up with is the resource harvesting. The amount of the resources you could redeem each time is bound to the lairs and grid levels. You could possess 5 lairs at most and each lair has 25 grids. Make the best of your lands and rich harvests will be waiting ahead. It reminds me of the gold redeeming rules in Wartune, which also allows you to collect 10 times a day.
Battle scenes failed to surprise me. After you have sent your troops to the battle field, the command is all AI’s. Upper class troops in large quantities would without doubt guarantee a clear victory.
