MMObility: Innogames' Fabio Lo Zito details Tribal Wars 2

Tribal Wars 2 is the successor to Innogames' oldest title, Tribal Wars. The original is (to put it gently) ugly as sin, but that has never stopped it from being one of the most popular titles the German publisher produced. As a matter of fact, 2013 was the biggest year for the original game... after a decade in existence! You might have heard of some of the other titles in the Innogames lineup or watched an advertisement for two of its largest games, Grepolis and Forge of Empires. So how does Tribal Wars 2 compare to these other games?

First of all, it offers much of the same intense gameplay as the publisher's other, larger titles. Grepolis is sort of the spiritual successor to Tribal Wars and features water-based gameplay that makes ships and deities an integral part of play. Grepolis also offers a more wide-ranging playerbase, thanks to television advertising that helped to pull in more casual players.

Tribal Wars is much more hardcore, and Tribal Wars 2 will be no different. It will look a heck of a lot prettier than its earlier sibling, though! I sat down with Fabio Lo Zito of Innogames to talk about the changes.

Don't worry, old school players; you can still play the original game if you'd rather. In fact, the second version will truly be an entirely new game even though it will be using most of the same systems and mechanics. Both games will use an entirely separate funds system, as well, so buying speed-ups in one game does not apply them to both. Innogames likes to stay away from pay-to-win gameplay, and this will continue with Tribal Wars 2, since the studio wants to retain as much of the original game as possible.

The recent success of the company's move into mobile with a mobile version of Grepolis and the original Tribal Wars means that this second version will have its own mobile client. A small percentage of players access Tribal Wars through the mobile client right now, but those numbers will likely rise with this new attempt. The team is even dividing itself into three separate parts to take proper care of each of the markets: iOS, Android, and browser. This way it can plan on having them all release around quarter one or two, at the same time. As I watched the browser version being played by Fabio, I couldn't help but notice how polished it already is. If the success of Grepolis' mobile version is any indication, there will be many reasons to switch to mobile -- or at least, to use it more.

We'll see some great new buildings added to Tribal Wars 2, such as the tavern, a place to find and hire spies. These spies unlock a few different abilities, such as a camouflage ability that lets you lie about a building's level. If an enemy spies on your city, she might see a level 21 building even though it's only level 10! A late-game building called the Perceptory unlocks high-level units, brotherhoods, and other different perks. The fortress will allow a player to take the role of an area's king, someone who can assign guild members to different roles like "Master of Spies" and can unlock a Spy Grandmaster. It sounds great for organization, especially in larger guilds.

Another interesting feature being added to Tribal Wars 2 is the ability to share one account across three different people. That means that if you play the way I do and skip a week here or there, you can ask a friend to babysit your city, to keep it going and staying alive while you're gone. Innogames noticed that a lot of players did not want to come back to the game only to find that they had to start over after they were completely destroyed by someone else. This new system does not allow one player to have multiple accounts but does allow players to work together more closely than they have before.

Innogames has already been playing on in-house speed servers (servers that feature sped-up gameplay) with some select, hardcore players from the community. The team has been happy to find that other than the mountains of suggestions they received, the players did not complain about the game becoming easier or any less hardcore. In fact, there have been over 100,000 pre-beta registrations so far, the greatest response for a beta that Innogames has ever seen.

You can sign up for the beta on the official site, and be sure to keep an eye out for more information on the game right here. I've been enjoying the mobile version of Grepolis, so I can't wait to get my hands on a new version of Tribal Wars. The original is a bit hard to take in because of its mountains of text, but Fabio showed me a version that should appeal to the hardcore players while drawing in players like yours truly. Every game eventually needs a bit of an update. Tribal Wars is no different.

Each week in MMObility, Beau Hindman dives into the murky waters of the most accessible and travel-friendly games around, including browser-based and smartphone MMOs. Join him as he investigates the best, worst, and most daring games to hit the smallest devices! Email him suggestions, or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.