Noblemen: 1896 17+

If you’re like me, a huge fan of war-themed strategy, FPS, and battles on a large scale with little to no compromise on the overall gameplay itself, then you should take a closer look at Noblemen 1896. Foursaken Media has masterfully created this game bearing in mind the theme, despite the noticeable twist. The content you’re getting as you play the game is vast, and the pace of progression and difficulty is fairly balanced for new and veteran players alike.

***READ THIS FIRST***

This game is free, and pop-up ads appear frequently. Therefore, I SERIOUSLY RECOMMEND that you buy the one-time special offer of 1000 gold for $1.39 CDN the second it’s available, as it will remove all pop-ups permanently and give you a good head start with the extra gold. This offer is the CHEAPEST and BEST IAP you’ll find to fully own the game. It’s also time limited so try to get it ASAP. (Trust me, you’ll be glad that you bought this IAP in the long run.)

PROS (Most Notable)

When you start the game, it provides a great tutorial for beginners, as it explains how the game works as a whole in 6 tutorial levels. The huge roster of tiered armies is quite incredible all on its own, ranging from a basic infantry division to a nigh impervious armoured division comprised of armoured vehicles and heavy weapons. There are a total of five different weapon classes to choose from, each with their own set of weapons and perks that suits your play style. You have access to a whopping 81 campaign levels (yes. 81 levels. Seriously.) for your Nobleman to complete while choosing one of three difficulties, with each level being unique in map size and layout to bring out your inner strategist. The Skirmish and Survival Mode in this game allows you to test your battle tactics further (Survival Mode also has Multiplayer, so you can team up with your friends who have the game!). The graphics, map detail during battle, VFX, and SFX are great and life-like, especially at max settings (This game also supports 60 FPS on supported devices for smoother gameplay). Lastly and my personal favourite, your Nobleman writes diary entries via the War Journal, with each entry describing life before and during the war, while more entries are available to read as you play the game!

CONS (Minor Concerns)

For those who want to face other players, there is no PvP mode in this game. It’s mostly single player, with the exception of Survival Mode in which you can play alongside other players via Multiplayer. The AI overall needs some work also. Units should move, react, and adapt based on the situation and environment in real-time during battle more seamlessly and accurately. Each individual unit should have their own AI, not each squad sharing one AI. That way, each unit and squad will behave more life-like during battle. AI should also improve with higher difficulty, which will add an extra layer of challenge for strategists. Late game does require a lot of grinding when upgrading your units, battle cards, officers, etc. (supply crates earned via Skirmish, Survival, Campaign, etc. help offset this issue), so expect to play a good hour or two minimum of constant grinding to maintain steady progress. Collision detection also needs some polishing. Units, even your Nobleman can seamlessly pass through enemy troops, vehicles, or armoured plating on heavy weapons by walking or running through them, as if they’re not there. This is less noticeable when passing through allied units as they have a bit of collision detection. Lastly, some environmental objects also have unrealistic collision detection such as trees found in the forest map. This is noticeable when your Nobleman walks or runs close to one of the affected objects.

FINAL VERDICT

Overall, this game has got to be one of my favourite strategy games I ever played so far. It doesn’t entirely feel like it was rushed, and it just needs some polishing on certain areas and a new feature or two for it to be nearly perfect. It really does stick to its theme of war strategy, FPS, and epic battles on a large battlefield, while the 1800s setting and historical twist further enriches the user’s experience and in-game atmosphere. Foursaken Media clearly knows how to make games like this work by choosing a theme as its base, and then creating a simple twist to not only enhance the theme, but to make it not seem like the games you’d usually find based on that theme. If I had to choose one game to play to pass time, I would play Noblemen 1896 with no hesitation. Therefore with all that in mind, I would also DEFINITELY RECOMMEND YOU to play this game if you’re a fan of war, strategy, FPS, and large-scale battles. (This game is so great in fact, I had to shorten my review in some parts, as my draft was actually larger than this review. Character limit prevents me from adding more.)

If Foursaken Media sees this, huge kudos to you for making awesome games such as this. The games you’ve made prove that you don’t need to be a popular game developer to make successful games. All it takes is hard work, dedication, creativity, teamwork, and constant support from gamers like us who enjoy games that don’t feel rushed or forces you to spend money the first minute you play just to be good in a game. I’m sure others who played games made by you guys would likely be agreeing with me right now.

“I became a Nobleman, and I intend to stay as one. Will you?”

~SPGaming, Nobleman Since 10/19/19

This game is nothing short of amazing, the graphics are great and the story is pretty good. I would suggest this game for anyone who wants to play a solo offline game, it does get a little slow after a certain point in time but the pace is fairly good - keep making great games!

I’ve played the game for several months, and I’ve finally completed the campaign on hard mode, collecting all chests as well. I’ll be honest, I was looking forward to a final journal entry, but there was no victory message or anything congratulating me I completed the campaign; let alone an epilogue detailing how the Nobleman goes back to see his family or earns recognition for winning the last battle against the United Corporations.

That said, the storyline was good and I looked forward to reading each entry. The world building, whether it be through levels or officer blurbs, was interesting to read.

There were a few technical issues I found bothersome, like the pop-up, but airplane mode solved that. Another issue was my phone overheating with higher quality settings, particularly when using Tesla weapons. I am on an iPhone 10 so it is odd it performed like that, but even the low quality textures serve their purpose and work in a good manner for their quality. The gameplay can get a little repetitive, especially with unlocks and upgrades taking a long time (particularly unlocking nobleman guns, levelling up the player level). I used my gold to get early unlocks for multiple units, and while it was free, it felt like a long grind to complete it. Hit registry was also wonky at times, with maybe 5% of the bullets that should have hit the target go through my enemy and do no damage. I lost a few battles due to my scoped rifle bullets going through the enemy nobleman who was shooting me.

For very hard levels, if you play, I’ll give you a tip. If you close out of the app right when you die and reopen it, you can retry the battle. Some levels, even using better bullets and higher tier guns, were almost impossible, with some leading to me surrendering and letting the battle finish with my death and the standard gear. The worst battles usually involved heavy weapons and the open plains on the wavy grass level.

Overall, I’d say this app was a cool way to kill time, and it always found ways to impress, but some time and graphics issues, as well as a sharp difficulty ramp, made it tedious to complete the campaign and unlock all troops. While I did not finish the entire game (I lack two of the guns and I haven’t completed the top tier of skirmish mode), I think I have played enough to give a fair analysis of the campaign mode and some of the issues I encountered along the way, as well as appreciation for some of the more beautiful aspects of the game.