Be the King (iOS) review "In case the invading zombies and the presence of William Wallace in ancient China didn't clue you in, parts of the story told here are fictitious."

Sometime in 2018, early in the game's life, I began playing Be the King. Today, I signed on and received my rewards for my 919th day. That's roughly two and a half years of regular logins, spread out over a longer period of time because the game does tend to get old from time to time.

If you've played a lot of online mobile games, you have almost certainly played something like Be the King. It's a free-to-play title from PooU Technology and Chuang Cool Entertainment, one that tells a decidedly fictional tale of ancient China that even includes zombies (because why not?). You have your own little city to monitor. And there are alliances, and wars with other groups, and lots of attractive "confidants" to woo and children to raise and stuff like that.

The ads that finally attracted me to Be the King showed a side of the experience that didn't become a reality until only just recently. I would be playing some other mobile game, and there would be an interesting ad where you had to make decisions to affect the future of miserable citizens. Some of those decisions included whether or not a man should be punished after he behaved inappropriately toward a beautiful damsel, or there might be a question of someone evading taxes or in general behaving like a scoundrel. In the ads, which I quickly found had very little to do with the actual game (as is all too common in such matters), it looked like I could make choices and impact my nation's growth and prosperity.

The reality is that a player logs in every day and completes menial tasks, then waits for energy to refill so he can perform those same menial tasks again. The rewards allow him to improve the strength of his retainers, who will fight on his behalf in battle and win still more prizes that might improve the confidants (romantic interests who will each go on to bear dozens of children) so that progression follows more quickly. If the pace starts to drag a bit, you can always spend real-world money to do all of the above much more efficiently, through one-time bonus packs or by purchasing a month's premium access or whatever. Or you can take a lot longer and do it all for free. A long time ago, I actually spent money on the game, so now I am a V.I.P. even though I haven't been so frivolous in ages since.

So do you see? I told you that most people who have played a lot of online mobile games have encountered something like Be the King, and I meant it!

I also don't know why I didn't stop playing right away when I discovered what sort of game I had downloaded. Perhaps it was the artwork, which is actually very good. The lovely ladies are rendered especially nicely, and they look very fetching when you visit them in their chambers and they turn a bare shoulder toward you and say nice things such as, "All I want is to hold tightly on to you," and, "If every man is like you, it won't matter even the dynasty changes!" English isn't their first language. But they do try and they call you "Darling" a lot, so all is well.

Another attraction is the community that tends to spring up on a server over time, which is what has happened on the server my kingly character (do they even have kings in China?) occupies. Over the years, I've met a number of players from around the world, and we've had fun getting to know each other on Discord and in the in-game chat as we complain about long-time pains the developers have failed to address. Players have come and gone over the years. By simple virtue of the fact that I play pretty much daily, I've managed to join the most dominant alliance on my server, so that I get a few extra rewards for my effort.

Unfortunately, some of the elements clearly designed to keep players engaged and striving for self-improvement become just plain annoying over time. For example, you can use an item to host a "table" at an academy. There, you slowly earn points for studying that depend on your player rank. Up to three other players can join, and they also receive experience based on your rank. If a weaker player joins and tries to do a bit of learning, a stronger player can "kick" that player from a seat and get all scholarly. There tend to be a lot of squabbles on servers as a result, and definitely there are some hurt feelings. No one likes being kicked, and yet it's a game mechanic that exists for a reason. A year or so back, I remember "No kick Sunday" was a thing, implemented by some benevolent players who were bullies most of the week but still wanted to nurture newcomers. But everyone would forget about half the time that it was Sunday, and then there would be angry accusations and such in chat and people taking revenge and it was all just very, very stupid.

Games like Be the King either continue to evolve over time--to keep long-time players and especially whales interested--or they slowly fade away and are forgotten. Despite efforts on the part of the developers, I've been witnessing the latter occur. Players regularly complain about multi-day events, which they find "boring." And I can understand that complaint, because it's the same few dominant players all the time and they just tap their screen once and everyone else has to fall in line behind them when rewards are given. There is a terrible imbalance in power that even slight interface tweaks (ooh, a new font!) can't address.

The developers have tried to counter growing apathy by offering still more ways to spend money so you can improve quickly (how very accommodating of them), and by adding genuinely new events. In one of the new additions, for instance, you actually hear complaints from citizens and must conduct an investigation that awards more points if you proceed wisely. It plays out about like the old ads that piqued my curiosity in the first place, but the translation is laughably bad in places (as is standard for the overall game and support files), so it often feels like guesswork. In another new mode, you can buy supplies and then go sailing to other cities to resell those goods and make a sizable profit, assuming other players don't find you and rob your vessel along the way. And there is another diversion where you patrol city walls and improve them to fend off eventual invaders.

A problem with these events is that they tend to last three days at most, which means they have little lasting appeal. To make real progress and earn the best rewards, you must first build up your power, and even then it's not long before repetition comes to roost.

I don't want to give the impression that Be the King is a bad game, but neither is it particularly great. Instead, it's an acceptable way to waste your time for a few minutes at once, here and there throughout the day. I haven't touched on all sorts of systems in this review, but there are numerous overlapping mechanics to reward those players who enjoy seeing how they can optimize their play to earn better rewards for less time invested.

With server mergers now a common occurrence, and with players often grumbling about events and progression and any number of minor headaches, the writing is on the wall: Be the King's days are numbered. But I'm kind of glad I got to experience it during the peak of its success. Even as it slides toward irrelevance, it hasn't yet stopped being a decent way to waste some time when I'm on break at work, or trying to pass a few minutes at home before something more interesting comes along to catch my eye. If you've always wanted to rule an ancient version of China with William Wallace and Leonardo Da Vinci and Isabella (the Spanish queen, I think), well, you've found your game! Otherwise, you're probably better off looking elsewhere for your entertainment. It's not like there aren't tens of thousands of other options at this point...

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Staff review by Jason Venter (December 05, 2021) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.