Created by DevolverDigital, Reigns is an app that feeds players’ authoritative side.

In the game, players act as the king, making decisions that influence the kingdom itself, as well as the king personally. It doesn’t just focus on just one king though. After one king dies it moves on to the next one, creating a clever and well-designed loop.

The premise is that the king has been cursed, and is forced to continue being king for many generations.

There are four different categories that your decisions can affect, either increasing or decreasing it. These four are: the people, the church, the economy, and the military. There are bars for each of the factors, and they either fill up or empty out.

One great thing about the game is that it never tells players whether their decisions will positively or negatively affect these categories, so it’s up to the player’s common sense to figure that one out. Although that may seem easy, the hard part is to strike a balance between all the factors. If they fill up too much, then the king’s reign will be over, and if they are empty, the same thing happens.

There are different characters that can appeal to players, representing each of the different factors. However, there isn’t much diversity. The characters are reused every time and their dialogue stays mostly the same, which may lead to boredom after a few hours.

The game keeps interest piqued. There are different events that can happen. Players may end up following a dog to shady locations, including getting lost in a dungeon, or they might meet the devil. They may even go semi-deaf depending on the situation.

The game can be stressful at times. For example, when getting lost in said dungeon, the kingdom will end up in a state of anarchy and all the factors will decrease quickly, unless players escape. Similarly, there are the crusades. During these, some factors will increase rapidly and others will decrease rapidly. Even after the crusades the same situation occurs, albeit affecting different categories.

At $2.99, it’s a great time-waster, and allows for more hardcore gamers to take a stab at it too. The only things that is missing is more features in order to keep players hooked for days.