A Chance at Making History
Choose from one of the Three Kingdoms; Wei, Wu, or Shu, and lead an army against the Yellow Turban Rebellion. This historic event in China is the setting of Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos. Once you’ve chosen a kingdom to represent, you’re to spearhead one of the three armies vying for control. The goal is to put down a peasant uprising.
If you don’t know your history, you’ll think the Yellow Turbans were just some lawless thieves. In Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos they’re depicted as brutal and bloodthirsty. However, what the game omits is that the peasants only militarized because of famine, exploitation, and over-taxation. This abuse was perpetrated by the Han dynasty, who you report to. The inaccurate spin on history will probably be a bummer for history buffs who would enjoy a reenactment.
Fluff Fights
As with any lackluster RPG, Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos was full of slow fights that were quickly decided. Even worse, the fights didn’t even have avatars playing out visually impressive attacks. Instead, the attacks are alluded to with a single dull sword strike. Alluding to attacks without showing any action is like playing the game Risk, but less interesting. Essentially, you see a robotic duel play out, where each side has a predictable chance of landing a shot. For an RPG about war and strategy, this is a sore point for any gamer expecting a proper battle.
When choosing between two armor clad characters, it’s clear that fighting is the point of the whole game. Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos doesn’t fulfill gamer expectations in either strategy or fighting. There is no blood, and the end of fight winning announcements play childish, sing-song tracks. Three stars always pop up at the end of each battle. The game has no shame and hands out constant victories.
Building a Bridge to the Past
Building your fortresses to protect against the Yellow Turbans and others takes time—especially if you’re playing the free version. While a free castle takes about three minutes to build, all this building is necessary, and the minutes add up. A main drawback is that if you’d like more time, then you’ll be hard-pressed to buy it. In-app purchases run from $0.99 and up to $104.99 for packs of gold ingots, the basic units for commerce and building.
The fact that a game like this even has in-app purchases is somewhat shameless. The game doesn’t exactly champion itself once you play it, despite the pictures on Google making it look very convincing. Because the game falls short of expectations, it seems unfair to include in-app purchases in a game so falsely advertised.
Games that come with geopolitical components (especially if they’re historical), can be incredibly intriguing. However, Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos didn’t bring the past back to life like it promised. The designers at Gacraze should take into consideration that developing a proper narrative is as important as coming up with in-app purchases.
Is it Hardcore?
Nope.
Three Kingdoms: Raja Chaos is a poor rendition of an interesting chapter in Chinese history. It’s not factual, action-packed or any other kind of intriguing. A hard pass.
