4 stars: Ya know, this is a truly no pay needed game! You can actually progress in the game without having to put money into it! The only downside is the lack of explanation of how to get some of the things done. It's a very detailed game so that does hinder you a little bit, unless you join a good guild of players who can help explain things. But so far the overall game is fun and entraining to play!
3 stars: Game has lots of good features and a variety of quests. Slow to progress. While there is no need to pay your way through, the league scoring for events is heavily influenced by users that do purchase more goods, so if you don't pay, you'll get bumped down to lower leagues even if you're always caught up on the actual event quests.
5 stars: Fantastic game, very well balanced so that you don't have to spend money to do perfectly well in the game. Long term game that is best played over months, but very rewarding. Many different ways to play; fighting, trading, questing. Frequent events to keep things interesting with nice prizes; usually able to get a maxed out prize without spending money.
4 stars: a great detailed game. Update: the plundering in the game is really annoying. You have players that just steal resources instead of learning to manage their cities. Any chance the makers can add a do not plunder mode? I.e. a mode where people like me cannot engage in the plundering mode, or be plundered. It really spoils the game when days of hard work is lost due ...