For many modern gamers, online gaming is defined by such games as Quake Arena, Unreal Tournament, or Everquest. Commercially produced graphical games are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to challenging opponents over the Internet. A whole genre of games exist kept alive from years ago. Browser based games (BBGs) could be seen as the direct descendant of old Bulletin Board System (BBS) games such as Legend of the Red Dragon. However, over the years they have become more complex, more interesting, more interactive, and even more popular! Perhaps one of the most compelling advantages BBGs have over graphical online games is that they can be played from anywhere without the need to download a client.

When the term Kingdom Management is mentioned, most think of a complicated and confusing array of options, statistics, rounds, etc. However, Earth: 2025 is an extremely complex management game that is easy to learn and easier to play. You play the omnipresent leader of a budding country among thousands of others competing to be the best. Your "score" is summed up as your Net Worth and is a direct calculation based on your assets.

As your country's leader, you are responsible for every aspect from the ground up. You must explore for land, build installations, conduct trade, purchase and train units, research new technologies, and ultimately wage war on your enemies. All of this may seem fairly daunting at first, but it can be taken one step at a time with absolutely no pressure to be quick. Unlike real time strategy games, Earth: 2025 is played on the "tick" system. Every 30 minutes you are given a new turn. However, this doesn't mean you have to wait around for 30 minutes each time you want to play. Turns accumulate over time and can be played whenever you decide to login. If you haven't been on for a day you will find quite a few turns stored up to execute.

Each turn that you execute will set in motion your countries developments. You are then given a summary of what has been happening, your expenses, profits, population gain, military production, etc. There are many strategies when playing Earth:2025. Do you want to focus all of your resources and turns producing a ferocious army or do you want to play it safe and fortify your defenses and intelligence? Everything is available through the sidebar menu which then brings up the information in the main frame. Here, there is usually a quicklink if you need some helpful hints or reminders on what certain options do.

I was surprised at how easily I got into the game. Usually, I don't care for kingdom management games because I find myself faced with way too much information and half of it I don't understand. The manuals for these games are usually pages and pages long, which is almost always hard to understand. In the end, I'm left wandering through the site churning out random units, starting fights, and not learning anything about the game. With Earth: 2025, you can dive right in. One handy feature is the Advisor. Here you will be given advice on what you should probably be looking into, such as land production or exploration, military operations, intelligence, etc. Also, every section of the game has a quicklink to a simple help file about what you are looking at. For instance, if you forget what Enterprise Zones do for your country, you can quickly read an explanation. There is also a longer Instructions sheet to have a look at, but it is not needed to just work with the basics.

There are many ways to interact with other players in the game. To communicate, there is a full-featured mail system within the game. You can also put your surplus goods or units on the market. Here, other players can buy your extras, or you can buy theirs. It is usually cheaper to buy from the market than the regular purchasing menu. If you want to build a really strong nation, you have to also build relations with other countries. For instance, maybe you want to make a Defensive Alliance with another country. This way, your available troops will rush to your allies aid in case of an attack, and vice versa. There are 5 different types of alliances, each with their own pros and cons. Having the right balance for your nation is part of the challenge.

And of course, there is the military operations part of the game. With your produced units, you can lead offensive missions on other players in order to cripple them. Different attacks will do different things. For instance, a bombing run will send your jets to carpet bomb the enemy buildings. Your jets will have to face only the turret defenses of the enemy, but if successful will destroy civilians and buildings. A standard strike, however, will capture land and resources that your troops have pillaged. However, you also face the full defensive force of an army. Obviously, combat can be fairly complex with multiple waves of different types of attacks.

One of the bad things about games like these is the time-frame. A round of Earth: 2025 lasts about 2 or 3 months, with other game types lasting different times. Normally, this would mean that you would have to start playing on the very day the round begins if you didn't want to be at a disadvantage. However, turns are pro-rated in Earth:2025, which means you will start off with the number of turns you are behind if you start after a round has begun. After 75 turns have accumulated (which takes over a day and a half), your turns will start to go into storage. These turns are released to you as you execute existing turns. This system makes it much more appealing to start playing in the middle of a round than any other kingdom management BBG I've tried.

The only complaint I have, albeit a trivial one, is the lack of polish to the look of Earth:2025. The game is truly an old-school looking BBG. Aside from the banner ads, there are absolutely no graphics or artwork in the game at all. However, with the amount of loading that is done when tens of thousands of players are playing has got to put a large price tag on server costs. With pictures loading each time it would increase that dramatically. For a game running solely on advertiser support, this is something to avoid.

Earth:2025 is played on the swirve.com network, totally supported by Ads. This way, players can play absolutely free without having to pay a monthly fee. This with the fact that it can be played from absolutely anywhere with a web browser makes it a very appealing game for those who don't have hours each day to commit to a game. You can spend a small amount of time every two days or so and be at no disadvantage compared to those who spend their turns frequently. The game is also very novice-friendly with an easy to learn interface and design. There's no reason not to give it a try, especially those who are fans of this genre. Compared to others like it, I found it to be very easy to play, far less confusing, and really fun. There are many worse BBGs out there that are charging per month to play, while Earth:2025 provides excellent strategic gameplay to players at absolutely no charge.