Good luck winning a game
Let me start by saying this game has potential- looks pretty stinkin cool. It is incredibly well-designed... except for the difficulty. The enemies are incredibly hard and upping the base's health doesn't help much. I have yet to actually win a game after numerous tries and I actually kindof dread booting it up, as there is this sense that you will always lose. Thus it will be one of those apps that gets lost in the depths of my phone. Save the money (I know I wish I did) and put it toward the board game- at least then you can create house rules that might level the playing field.
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Good so far, but...
The Good:
The game is fun, challenging, and has a lot of strategy. The VO is cool, and the graphics are great. Touch sensitivity seems spot-on.
The Bad:
The tutorial has a REALLY stupid bug, where they talk about the "DONE" button...but it's actually a "CANCEL" button (like THAT is intuitive :P). This is an easy fix that should NOT be in a professional level game (especially in a tutorial level).
The game was a bit challenging to grasp, until I played the tutorial. Not a big ding for that...but it seems weird not to direct first time players into it first.
The difficulty is REALLY high. When the game is on "EASY" it feels "HARD" and doesn't make me want to even see the "NORMAL" or "HARD" levels. I was playing a 1-lane solo game...but that IS something I can play so the game should scale to match. It doesn't. Beating someone down on their first try is *really* disenchanting.
I will revisit the game at some future point, and it IS worth getting if you like the theme...just be aware of what you're getting yourself into.
The game is fun, challenging, and has a lot of strategy. The VO is cool, and the graphics are great. Touch sensitivity seems spot-on.
The Bad:
The tutorial has a REALLY stupid bug, where they talk about the "DONE" button...but it's actually a "CANCEL" button (like THAT is intuitive :P). This is an easy fix that should NOT be in a professional level game (especially in a tutorial level).
The game was a bit challenging to grasp, until I played the tutorial. Not a big ding for that...but it seems weird not to direct first time players into it first.
The difficulty is REALLY high. When the game is on "EASY" it feels "HARD" and doesn't make me want to even see the "NORMAL" or "HARD" levels. I was playing a 1-lane solo game...but that IS something I can play so the game should scale to match. It doesn't. Beating someone down on their first try is *really* disenchanting.
I will revisit the game at some future point, and it IS worth getting if you like the theme...just be aware of what you're getting yourself into.
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Playable (and even enjoyable) but plagued by bugs
Clunky interface, terribly glitchy, and local multiplayer controls are unintuitive.
The game itself is really fun, but don't expect to finish every game you start. There is a very real risk of events occurring that the game doesn't know how to handle, triggering a freeze or an event loop. I've only played four games, but while I restarted two in the first wave to check out other divisions, the other two crashed in the last wave.
I'm hesitant to give a game as buggy and clunky as this one a rating higher than 1 or 2 stars, but honestly there is a great game lurking under those several aggravating layers, and I can't help but try and finish a game despite them. Bugs aside, the game has a rather high-quality look to it, and I can tell that a lot of effort has gone into making the game look (and in many cases even feel) good. With a considerable amount of debugging, I could easily see XenoShyft becoming a favorite multiplayer iPad game of mine. Though it just isn't yet in that state, I'd love to come back and give a more favorable review when this product has had some of the more problematic issues ironed out!
The game itself is really fun, but don't expect to finish every game you start. There is a very real risk of events occurring that the game doesn't know how to handle, triggering a freeze or an event loop. I've only played four games, but while I restarted two in the first wave to check out other divisions, the other two crashed in the last wave.
I'm hesitant to give a game as buggy and clunky as this one a rating higher than 1 or 2 stars, but honestly there is a great game lurking under those several aggravating layers, and I can't help but try and finish a game despite them. Bugs aside, the game has a rather high-quality look to it, and I can tell that a lot of effort has gone into making the game look (and in many cases even feel) good. With a considerable amount of debugging, I could easily see XenoShyft becoming a favorite multiplayer iPad game of mine. Though it just isn't yet in that state, I'd love to come back and give a more favorable review when this product has had some of the more problematic issues ironed out!
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Easy mode should be relatively easy to win...
but after playing for months I still haven't got past level 8 and have only reached level 8 once. I've gone from thinking this game is a challenge to this game is too frustrating. If 'easy' doesn't get easier in the next patch ( like 5 - 10 more starting points ) then this will go to my ' no longer playing ' folder for eventual removal. I have several deck builder games on the pad and this is the only one I've never beat.
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Excellent mobile adaptation
Great game, great deck building / puzzle game, great challenge and neat art.
I love "deck building games" and while this may not play exactly like Dominion or Ascension, it has it own style.
I've been very impressed with it so far, it's been surprisingly difficult to play a "solo game" on easy mode. The enemy deck is just so tough regardless. It was great learning how the cards resolve and learning how each "division" deck played differently.
I would be highly interested in seeing what the expansions add and to be honest this makes me want to buy the all the hard copy cards and play win my friends.
I love "deck building games" and while this may not play exactly like Dominion or Ascension, it has it own style.
I've been very impressed with it so far, it's been surprisingly difficult to play a "solo game" on easy mode. The enemy deck is just so tough regardless. It was great learning how the cards resolve and learning how each "division" deck played differently.
I would be highly interested in seeing what the expansions add and to be honest this makes me want to buy the all the hard copy cards and play win my friends.
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Good game. No players?
I've played a lot of card games and this one seems really fun, interesting and deep.
It'd get 5 stars if there was a single multiplayer game to join. But alas I have to sit and play solo.
It'd get 5 stars if there was a single multiplayer game to join. But alas I have to sit and play solo.
needs improvement
i love deck builders on ipad i own them all. this game looks interesting and it has some good concepts that make it unique. the interface seems super polished at first but after playing the game for a couple hours i realize its pretty clunky. easy things like activating abilities and choosing targets takes 3 or 4 clicks when you could just drag the card onto the target like many other ipad card games.
supposedly theres this elite demographic of gamers who love super hard games. for me i feel like if a game has modes from easy to hard then easy should at the very least feel achievable. i admit it might be because i don't know all the nuances and strategies of this game yet but after 4 solo play throughs i get one round into wave 2 and die always. its frustrating and its not clear what i am doing wrong strategy wise.
so 2 stars may be a bit harsh but i feel its fair at this time. the interface while pretty is slow to use and it doesn't present information in a great way. i think it tries too hard to preserve the table top experience. the game is also unforgivably hard and maybe this could be solved by an advanced strategies tutorial.
supposedly theres this elite demographic of gamers who love super hard games. for me i feel like if a game has modes from easy to hard then easy should at the very least feel achievable. i admit it might be because i don't know all the nuances and strategies of this game yet but after 4 solo play throughs i get one round into wave 2 and die always. its frustrating and its not clear what i am doing wrong strategy wise.
so 2 stars may be a bit harsh but i feel its fair at this time. the interface while pretty is slow to use and it doesn't present information in a great way. i think it tries too hard to preserve the table top experience. the game is also unforgivably hard and maybe this could be solved by an advanced strategies tutorial.
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Fun but impossible to win
I read some of the other reviews where people were complaining about not being able to pass wave 7. I thought, maybe they don't understand the mechanics or they didn't get it. I consider myself a very skilled gamer, and I can't get past wave 7 either, even on easy. Easy should be easy victory to help you learn the game and eventually take on the real challenges. It would be nice to win once in a while.
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Good overall, but...
I'm glad this hame exists and I'm very glad to see that the developers seem to be regularly updating it. That being said, there are some features missing. No local multiplayer; as of now you can only play solo (one lane) or multiplayer ONLINE. Online multiplayer is good and all, but this game is begging to just have a simple local co-op mode. Or just have solo play with 1-4 lanes. Either works. I'm a huge fan of the board game, and this is a good port. Just needs that one addition.
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More gamers but overall great game
The games great but there is no one else really online ever.
