A Bug’s Life
The Ants: Underground Kingdom is a city building game unlike any other. Developer StarUnion has taken the concept and tweaked it in a way that allows this title to really stand out from the crowd. The game is genuinely entertaining and a great addition to the city builder and strategy game genre. There is a plethora of content to make The Ants playable for a long time.
The Ants: Underground Kingdom walks you through developing an ant colony of your own. Players begin with a queen ant that they must build around. They have to first train worker ants to expand their tunnels and produce everything needed to move forward. Many different types of ants are available, each serving their own purpose.
As progress is made, nearly every building and the queen can be upgraded. This allows further progress through the game. These upgrades have a range of effects. Some allow players to obtain and house more ants, while others speed up production times and provide more money and resources.
Combine and Conquer
The Ants also features cooperative and competitive multiplayer. Players can create or join alliances with other players, which allows them to communicate and assist each other in different ways. For example, at times there are wait times as certain buildings are built or upgraded. If you have no available speedup items, you can request help from your guild. It can speed up any build for you. When in a guild, colonies can also send and receive gifts containing different items and money every day.
In competitive mode, you are able to go above ground and attack ant hills that belong to other players. Being successful in one of these attacks offers a lot of rewards. Attacks have a higher chance of success depending on the types of ants and upgrades that users have within their army. As progression is made, more ants become available.
Pest Control
However, The Ants suffers in quality as a result of its pay-to-advance options. While it is not necessary to spend money on this title, many players will feel the desire to when faced with some of the longer build times. You can also spend real money to obtain better items. While this is not a huge problem for players who choose not to go this route, it still can be mildly annoying for a few reasons like, for example, how frequently the pay options are advertised. After the first few chapters of the game are completed, players will be confronted with an ad nearly every time they open the game.
This becomes a big issue when the competitive aspect of the game is taken into consideration. With some spending excessive amounts of money on the game and others choosing to go the free route, the competitive multiplayer can become lopsided very quickly. If someone spends money to unlock better ants and equipment, they’re going to have a large advantage over those who choose to acquire every part of their army through playtime alone.
Another downside with The Ants is how long it takes players to get to real gameplay. The opening few chapters of the game are treated like a long tutorial. During this section, the game is almost entirely on rails. Player freedom doesn’t feel truly gained until the fifth chapter of the game rolls around.
The Ants: Underground Kingdom has a lot to offer despite its flaws. Tons of content and hours of entertainment are guaranteed as long as players can move past this Android game’s downsides.
Is It Hardcore?
Kinda.
The Ants: Underground Kingdom takes the basics of a city builder and gives it a very original flare. This creates an entertaining and time consuming game. However, pay-to-win options and an overabundance of tutorials takes a toll.
