Ahhh, the swish of a scythe to gather the cut the grown crop, the hammering of wood as new abodes rise up in your burgeoning fiefdom, the cheery barks of workers as you assign them labour; Historically themed strategy games are one of the most enduring genres in PC gaming—from the isometric charms of Age of Empires through to ambitious modern indies like Manor Lords and Banished—and now developer MetaKing Studios is marching the genre to that wildest of frontiers, web3, with its new MMO strategy game BLOCKLORDS.
Set in a medieval world of feudal kingdoms, lords, heroes, and town management, on a macro level BLOCKLORDS resembles a grand strategy game, presenting you with a vast world map from which you can plot your next move. Start cross-region trade, suss out your neighbours, and get a feel for who your friends and foes might be. Zoom in on your kingdom (or, initially, village), and you're presented with a picturesque town management view, from which you get to build out your village in real time, plotting farmland, optimising yields, and dealing with world events as they pop up.
'But what about war,' we hear you shout with your sword raised above your head. Well, that's what we're here to talk about, because a battle system has just been added into BLOCKLORDS, along with a dedicated battle season to motivate players to test their mettle against foes. Experiment with formations, perform flanking maneuvers, and use the terrain to your advantage as you lead your troops onto real-time battlefields. Even though the battle system is in its early stages, it clearly isn't some auto-resolve clicker type deal, but a tactically rich experience reminiscent of Total War.
A team of gamers itself, MetaKing is aware of the wariness surrounding web3, and is drawing its inspiration from the likes of Crusader Kings and Age of Empires rather than some of the wild-west practices of web3. "We get it. Over the past year especially, we’ve seen countless examples of teams whose core game loops, tokenomic structures, and asset distribution focus only on short-term adoption and extracting as much value from players as possible," says the developer.
"There’s nothing more important to us than creating a fun and accessible experience that will not only stand the test of time, but empower players by giving them full ownership of their assets." In short, that means that the hero you grow and the land you own are all stuff you own on the blockchain, not just in-game.
BLOCKLORD's game world will shift and evolve based on player decisions too. So what does that mean, exactly? It means that the economy is player-driven, so you can, for instance, rise to the status of Lord, then take a tithe in the game's currency from other players who use your land for farming, battle, and other feudal activities. Or you can…
With a battle system and hero upgrades now implemented, BLOCKLORDS achieves a new milestone in strategic depth, adding the layer that battlefield commanders have been waiting for. So if your ideas of medieval rulership involve the sword as much as the sickle, and you're ready to rule in times of war as well as peace, now's the perfect time to raise your banner and try out BLOCKLORDS, which you can grab for free now on Epic Games Store. You can also keep up with the game on its X channel.
