Played until 3rd city but will probably stop.
I actually tried to explain this through discord but seems like they are hardcore fans there and don’t listen to actual debate. Looking at the reviews, it seems like I was right.
The third city is extremely difficult to the point where it will become hard for newer player retention. Games should only be that hard gradually, but your city becoming too dependent on Hero’s you get by chance will become incredibly frustrating to new players. A game should be challenging, but fair too.
There should also be a better way to properly assign/unassigned survivors to accommodate specific needs. If for example one needs resting, you could send that specific survivor to sleep- instead of having to randomly un-assign survivors until you get the right one.
Also there is this very frustrating bug that happens whenever you put your phone for a couple of minutes. Specifically during the work hour there will be only a specific amount of food ready for survivors. I came back after a few minutes and only 8 meals were ready for 14 survivors. Which caused someone to die (as I locked my phone 3 times).
It’s also a little of a bummer to have to restart your city every time you complete the tasks- and mind you you don’t have to fully upgrade it either.
Very frustrating game in that sense. Challenge progression should come in naturally, not from 0 to 100. It will confuse players, and it will become frustrating to a lot of them.
The third city is extremely difficult to the point where it will become hard for newer player retention. Games should only be that hard gradually, but your city becoming too dependent on Hero’s you get by chance will become incredibly frustrating to new players. A game should be challenging, but fair too.
There should also be a better way to properly assign/unassigned survivors to accommodate specific needs. If for example one needs resting, you could send that specific survivor to sleep- instead of having to randomly un-assign survivors until you get the right one.
Also there is this very frustrating bug that happens whenever you put your phone for a couple of minutes. Specifically during the work hour there will be only a specific amount of food ready for survivors. I came back after a few minutes and only 8 meals were ready for 14 survivors. Which caused someone to die (as I locked my phone 3 times).
It’s also a little of a bummer to have to restart your city every time you complete the tasks- and mind you you don’t have to fully upgrade it either.
Very frustrating game in that sense. Challenge progression should come in naturally, not from 0 to 100. It will confuse players, and it will become frustrating to a lot of them.
Show less
Cash grab
Yeah, it is like FrostPunk so I gave it a try. It was ok for a day. After you get past the first area your production gets severely limited due to wether or not you have specific heroes. You can only assign an amount of survivors to a building that is unlocked with your hero (specific to each building). You get some starter heroes for free through progression, but a lot aren’t given for free. You can try your luck with unlocking them in the store though! But you won’t be able to buy anyone specific unless they’re running a deal on them. I got to a point where I had 6 buildings out of 7 that I didn’t have the heroes for. You know, the typical mobile game stuff. I almost gave it 1 star, but they have surveys in the game which makes me think that they at least want to improve with their feedback.
Show less
Great until 3rd City
I have the same comments as everyone else. This game is really fun, well done and with nice progression, and the rewards feel proportional up until city three. Then, instead of the heroes you need to being given out as you finish tasks, suddenly one vital hero is behind a pay wall. You can’t put more than one worker in a key building, no matter how much you upgrade. Progress grinds to a halt, and there’s no real point in logging in more than every couple of hours to grab your rewards and make hope is enough for one tiny upgrade.
I love supporting developers who make good games. I’m always happy to throw money towards them because I know how expensive it is to make and maintain a mobile game. But the Hero paywall feels bad; also, $10 a week or $20 per month to go ad free is outrageous.
Don’t respond to this and say you’d like my feedback on how to improve, because I’m giving it here: (1) don’t suddenly put heroes behind a paywall after you’ve led your gamers to believe that they’ll be handed out as rewards, and (2) lower the fee by about 90% for ad free (make it a one time fee or up at $1-$2 per month). Or don’t offer it at all, if ad revenue is so important to your income.
I love supporting developers who make good games. I’m always happy to throw money towards them because I know how expensive it is to make and maintain a mobile game. But the Hero paywall feels bad; also, $10 a week or $20 per month to go ad free is outrageous.
Don’t respond to this and say you’d like my feedback on how to improve, because I’m giving it here: (1) don’t suddenly put heroes behind a paywall after you’ve led your gamers to believe that they’ll be handed out as rewards, and (2) lower the fee by about 90% for ad free (make it a one time fee or up at $1-$2 per month). Or don’t offer it at all, if ad revenue is so important to your income.
Show less
Sad
I was enjoying this game for 3 days, and then they want money. You get stuck with only one worker in a building, unless you can get the hero you need… guess what, day 4 playing and now I am stuck waiting hours and hours to get enough of a resource to upgrade. The hero’s not only allow more workers, but give the workers bonuses too.
I get it that the point is to make money. But I’m a $1-$5 a month guy, and I certainly won’t pay $7 on day 4 just so that I have to turn around and pay $10 on day 5 cause once you get to the next level, you need new hero’s again.
My solution suggestion is to allow me to use a different hero in order to allow more workers, BUT they wouldn’t get the bonus multipliers until the correct hero is in place.
I get it that the point is to make money. But I’m a $1-$5 a month guy, and I certainly won’t pay $7 on day 4 just so that I have to turn around and pay $10 on day 5 cause once you get to the next level, you need new hero’s again.
My solution suggestion is to allow me to use a different hero in order to allow more workers, BUT they wouldn’t get the bonus multipliers until the correct hero is in place.
Show less
Frustratingly slow progress
This game was fun at first with moderately fast progress but when you get to the 3rd city and need all new heroes and progress basically stops. It’s frustrating not to get the ones you need and get the same ones over and over. Even if you collect the diamonds you need to buy another chest when you don’t get the hero’s you need it’s very frustrating. I spent a small amount of money to try to advance but when the hero draw is random and I still don’t get the hero’s I need, it just starts to feel like a scam. My suggestions is make it possible to unlock the heroes through completing the tasks and an option to buy a specific hero card with diamonds not just random.
Show less
Fun Game quickly becomes Frustrating
All games are gonna make attempts to incentivize paying real money but this one get pretty odious for what is a fun lil game. After you move up in cities, you get into a gridlock cause you either don’t have the necessary hero or their level is not high enough to allow you to put enough workers to keep up with production. If you want to keep people playing it wouldn’t even be hard to make it easier to justify by:
1. Making the basic loot box available 4 hours after each open instead of 8. You rarely get the card you need anyway but atleast you have more opportunity and you could even get more ads in that way.
2. In adventures, reduce adventures cleared needed from 50 to 25. You are likely only going to clear at most 10 on a good run and then you have to wait 24 hours to try again. It will still take a few days but better than waiting up to a week.
3. Make schedule for workers meals, breaks, and work time adjustable. People in their discord have argued for this but dev’s think it would make the game “hard” but would give players more freedom in how they want to can play.
4. Fix the issue where workers aren’t at stations or at mess hall when opening game. How is that still an issue?
1. Making the basic loot box available 4 hours after each open instead of 8. You rarely get the card you need anyway but atleast you have more opportunity and you could even get more ads in that way.
2. In adventures, reduce adventures cleared needed from 50 to 25. You are likely only going to clear at most 10 on a good run and then you have to wait 24 hours to try again. It will still take a few days but better than waiting up to a week.
3. Make schedule for workers meals, breaks, and work time adjustable. People in their discord have argued for this but dev’s think it would make the game “hard” but would give players more freedom in how they want to can play.
4. Fix the issue where workers aren’t at stations or at mess hall when opening game. How is that still an issue?
Show less
Good game but it’s basically pay to play
The theme is great, very frost punk and it is fun to play. However the game is often pay to play. I don’t just mean watching ads or buying things to advance faster/easier but you actually have to buy heroes on certain levels just to be able to play.
Each city “level” require specific heroes to run production buildings. In the first 2 cities you are give these heroes by completing tasks. However in cities 3 and 4, Plain City and Ice Lake, you aren’t given the heroes to operate key production buildings. So you hit a huge roadblock that makes the game frustrating.
One example, in Ice Lake there is a farm building. Which is the only food source for your city but without Andrew, you can only assign one worker which doesn’t produce nearly enough food so your survives constantly die. And it’s not just because the level is difficult and you have to play smart to advance, you are held back completely by the fact you didn’t buy the hero pack for that level.
Each city “level” require specific heroes to run production buildings. In the first 2 cities you are give these heroes by completing tasks. However in cities 3 and 4, Plain City and Ice Lake, you aren’t given the heroes to operate key production buildings. So you hit a huge roadblock that makes the game frustrating.
One example, in Ice Lake there is a farm building. Which is the only food source for your city but without Andrew, you can only assign one worker which doesn’t produce nearly enough food so your survives constantly die. And it’s not just because the level is difficult and you have to play smart to advance, you are held back completely by the fact you didn’t buy the hero pack for that level.
Show less
I want to love it
The first few cities were fun, but needing a new hero when you have one that does the same thing is ridiculous. It would be better to have the same heroes each level that you just have to upgrade throughout to get better perks. Otherwise heroes should be able to be unlocked more easily without having to spend money. It’s also built to where you have to keep the game up on your phone or your survivors will either starve or freeze to death, who has the time for that? It should be an option to start over in a city from the beginning if you want to do things differently. I get that each city is progressively harder but after the third it’s basically impossible to progress.
Show less
Addicting but glitchy
The core gameplay loop is definitely fun, but you run into some annoying issues a few hours in. Everyone’s complaining (understandably) about the monetization halting progress in its tracks, and I’d agree that that needs some tinkering. So yes, the paywall is pretty serious, but as someone who’s fine doing some micro-transacting, the game needs to be fixed before I’ll drop any real money on it. Half of my settlement is starving because they can’t get through the kitchen line in time. If I log in during a work period, the survivors all scatter from their homes because they hadn’t left them yet. A game with an idle timer that people can pay to extend should actually work during that idle time! Lastly, making the buildings farther apart in later cities just to cut down on usable work hours is bad and predatory game design. Bottom line, fix your AI because it’s hindering an otherwise decent experience.
Show less
So / So
The game is fine and progression is good until the 3rd city. The game basically forces you into buying crates to get hero’s. My issue with the hero’s is that they stop you from having more workers to gain more in production. For one factory from the 2nd city I had a Hero at level 10 with 5 or so workers to now in city 3 have max 3. Once I upgrade my guy to level 15 then I’m allocated 1 more guy. The same amount of workers to hero level should carry over. Lastly, the game adds more hero’s in level 3 but you do t have there cards. Now I have 3-4 factories that can only have a max of 1-2 workers until I find that hero or buy enough crates to find it.
No better than EA for micro transactions. Give the players a free way of possible earning more hero cards.
No better than EA for micro transactions. Give the players a free way of possible earning more hero cards.
Show less
