The Alliance Alive’s recruitment process is addictive and practical

Games with recruiting mechanics have a difficult line to walk. Giving players an opportunity to collect people for their force has the possibility to offer an addictive gameplay mechanic, but there is also the concern whether or not these these people will provide enough merit to make the chase worthwhile. The Alliance Alive not only makes the recruitment process appealing, it also provides ample reason to keep investing your time in the mechanic with its guild towers.

After a point in The Alliance Alive, players will find themselves with an Ark and a resistance force. This means people you met in earlier chapters and new folks could have a chance of becoming helpful friends who can make each of these guilds better. Your telegraph network lets you get information no matter where you are, and the boons from having guild towers built around the world make battles more efficient. The way all of this is executed can be quite entertaining.

Part of this comes from the recruitment process. Each person has varying degrees of difficulty relating to his or her quest. The easiest ones are volunteers. In the spirit of saving people time, something The Alliance Alive is good at, some people will just be ready to go with you without any persuading. Some people join as part of the story. Others will come aboard after you speak with them. It lets people who do not want to invest a lot of time into this mechanic still benefit from building more guild towers around the world.

But, to keep things from being boring, too easy or feeling like the whole affair is unnecessary, there are more standard recruitment processes. Revisiting places or heading to new spots could result in you meeting new people who will task you with sidequests or assignments to prove your worth. There are even multiple optional bosses that can be recruited, in exchange for abandoning the loot they may have offered after a fight. The variety is beneficial. It gives us the element of choice.

The nature of each NPC makes the thought of building up your The Alliance Alive ranks attractive. Each one of these people has their own talents. Once they join, you can see if they would fit well in the Blacksmith, Library, Recon, Signimancy or Tactics Guild. Each person will definitely fit in three different places, giving you options as you build up guild towers around the world to meet your battle and crafting needs. This means it is easier to get the guild levels increased for different areas, increasing the odds of receiving support, adding new items or spells to purchase and variety of support skills. While every NPC may not be memorable, each one is a helpful building block.

The Alliance Alive is big on rewarding people for their efforts. The recruitment system exemplifies this. Every time you end up getting a new NPC, this person puts you in a better position. You see the progress, which makes looking for more people and managing your ranks a more attractive time sink.