# Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG — user reviews > 2,959 indexed App Store user reviews of Empires & Puzzles by Small Giant Games, rated 4.70/5 from 101,799 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/empires-and-puzzles-match-3-rpg/id1117841866/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/empires-and-puzzles-match-3-rpg/id1117841866.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 85,932 · 4★ 8,465 · 3★ 2,336 · 2★ 1,411 · 1★ 3,655 ## What do users think of Empires & Puzzles? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Addictive gameplay - 🤝 Great alliance features - 💎 Generous free rewards - 🎨 Awesome character designs **Cons** - 💰 Overly aggressive monetization - 🕰️ Slow progression for free players - 🎲 Unreliable gacha system - 🤖 Unfair matchmaking **Commonly reported bugs** - Frequent app crashes - Disappearing or lost heroes - Inconsistent tile generation - Inaccurate power level indicators **Most requested features** - Ability to trade or exchange heroes - Faster upgrade and ascension timers - More transparent drop rates for summons - Improved alliance chat and coordination tools ## Newest reviews (11 of 2,959) ### 4/5 — Money hungry *2026-09-07, version 88.0.2* Game is fun and all but damn they want money for every damn thing ### 2/5 — Hero Summoning and Energy: The Odds are Not in Your Favor *2026-09-06, version 88.0.1* I have been playing this game for months and have only pulled one 5 star hero. When you go online and research on the probability of pulling a 5 star hero, it’s pretty eye opening. The amount of money you need to spend, to even have a a strong statistical chance, is astronomical. Another thing that chaps me is that the energy needed to continue to play through storylines substantial increases. Starts at 3 then steadily climbs. I currently need 10 energy to play a single game. This also happens with food needed to play a single raid game, steadily been climbing the more I play the game. It’s a fun game, but if you want to be a regular player, be prepared for frustration and sticker shock. It will drain the bank account for sure. ### 2/5 — This game is rigged *2026-09-04, version 88.0.1* Do not waste your time with this game. Thought it was a fun game, but if you don’t spend real money on it, it will make sure you can’t advance very far. ### 2/5 — Long time player *2026-09-04, version 88.0.1* It’s on a downhill slide I wish they didn’t get greedy but still have fun just not worth starting now unless you’re rich. ### 2/5 — Ads ads more ads *2026-09-02, version 88.0.1* Can’t see the main screen and castle because there are so many ads. If you like to waste a bunch of money and grind through completely unbalanced raids forever this game is for you. I’ve played and have seen enough…and don’t spend a bunch of money. Endless grind through pop up sales and deals ### 3/5 — Can’t turn off the noise *2026-08-31, version 88.0.1* Couldn’t even give the app an honest chance because I found it incredibly annoying that I couldn’t turn off the music and noise. I feel like that should be an obvious feature. ### 4/5 — Fun, challenging pvp game *2026-08-25, version 88.0.0* I’ve found this game to be quite functional since I started a few months ago. Graphics are great and it doesn’t take too long to level up until about level 14 or 15. Then is where it takes a bit longer for building to finish. Only complaint that I have is that as you go along further into the game, the promo icons litter the screen by a great deal which is annoying in seeing a your whole game board. There are also notifications on said icons and all the same promos are on the daily reward page as well as where you could check your gems. It’s overkill. I’m fettering on deleting vs continuing on. It’s that big of an annoyance. ### 3/5 — Spend to compete *2026-08-24, version 88.0.0* You have to spend money to compete and even when you start to create a descent team you’ll still get beat by much weaker teams. It can be very frustrating! Ok game ### 4/5 — Too expensive *2026-08-23, version 88.0.0* The game itself is awesome and fun but a lot of things are just way too overpriced ### 3/5 — It’s way to complicated for bland gameplay *2026-08-21, version 88.0.0* I downloaded it through atlas earth and I’m a big game guy. This game takes candy crush to the extreme yet the actual puzzles are much more simple and boring than candy crush. I made it to lvl 20 before coming to the conclusion that this game was just not that fun and way to complicated. Sorry ### 2/5 — War seems rigged *2026-08-21, version 88.0.0* War boards are always considerably worse than boards for pretty much any other event. Pretty sure the algorithm intentionally limits the tile colors based on the heroes you bring. Happens way too often to be chance. Funny you win a couple of rounds with okay boards. Then couple of rounds with really bad boards. Then next couple of rounds everyone get okay boards again. It’s like the game intentionally keeps you from winning to often. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — I deleted it *2026-09-08, version 88.0.2* Played for years but the rigged gameplay, nerfing of heroes, and trash pulls finally hit a point that the game was unplayable. I deleted it and so should you. ### 1/5 — Don’t waste your time *2026-09-06, version 88.0.1* Played this game 7 years ago , here what you get, you invest in the game buying heroes and level them up. Soon later stronger heroes come along you need to keep paying. Do not listen it’s free to play. Yes . Free just play the puzzle. You can’t level your heroes up unless you wait for long time to get the material you needed. Raid is more ridiculous, Ai make it who will win even you have higher power team. When you not getting tiles and unable to fire, time to close it and move on. You just won’t win that team. Period. It’s all set in. Occasionally you get a good hero but then as soon you level it up, it’s useless . Just take my advised m all my teammate left because they spend thousands and in the end it just nothing. Don’t waste your money and efforts here . After 7 years playing and Invested your time , you will still played it because you spend a lot on the game and efforts to delete it. I a, almost done walking away, ### 1/5 — No way *2026-09-02, version 88.0.1* The best move is not to play. Don’t waste your time on this one. ### 1/5 — Avoid Zynga games *2026-09-01, version 88.0.1* All I can say is avoid all Zynga and Take Two games. The game is fully manipulated by the developers to keep you purchasing more. This is NOT a free game if you want to enjoy it at all. Beware, most of the positive ratings are their own customer service people who have admitted that they are encouraged to play the game. The game has gotten so bad that players have sued and filed complaints against the game but Take Two doesn’t care. It’s a cash machine. They will start by giving you some legendary heroes pretty quickly to get the hooks in and then you will see the true summons drop rates. It’s literally under 1% chance according to their own advertised rates. This is just the start of the deception and it only gets worse the more you play. I’d love to see more players but I’d like to see Take Two take ownership of their mistakes and make the play fair. I have over a half decade on this game and I keep getting more and more disappointed. ### 1/5 — Criminals *2026-08-31, version 88.0.1* Game aged at late teen market. Massively spams immature brains to exploit impulse buying for virtual success. Completely developed by low level rung criminals with 0% integrity or dignity. Slug life ### 1/5 — Pay to Win *2026-08-24, version 88.0.0* Game is just completely catered to the pay to win crowd. All you receive from this game is a long boring wait time between battles and inconsistent gameplay across all game modes, save yourself the time and energy AVOID THIS GAME AND DEVELOPER AT ALL COSTS. Would give zero stars if it was an option ### 1/5 — Х *2026-08-21, version 88.0.0* Жадные твари разработчики игры ### 1/5 — Caça nickel *2026-08-20, version 88.0.0* O jogo era bom agora virou caça nickel, ### 1/5 — Many useless rewards, progress is fleeting *2026-08-18, version 87.0.3* This game is fun enough at first, even though it is constantly bombarding you with ads. It seems to be trying to get you to pay real money for in-game things that aren‘t that valuable and aren‘t a sure thing. So even if you wanted to pay real money for in-game stuff, all the deals are gyps. And it‘s constantly throwing new overpowered foes at you, why your ability to get good characters is severely limited. ### 1/5 — Scam points on fetch *2026-08-17, version 87.0.3* Don’t play for Fetch points. They create a lot of bonus for reach level but never let you get them even you reached. So scam and waste time ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — My words *2026-08-29* This is a great game of noble team and power which I liked,I am able to build my own strong team without any money,rather than accepting monetising allures of developers who always force players to spend a lot of money just to give hard to get meta legendary heroes its satisfying to have our own team which slowly increases in strength and rarity,I have 1 legendary hero Azlar and 1 epic hero Melendor and all other rare heroes at my current player profile level 7,I am happy with these heroes,I reject the monetisation of developers and instead summon my own powerful high rarity heroes by my own skills alone. ### 5/5 — Fun *2026-08-28, version 88.0.0* This is a fun game. Challenging enough and lots of cool characters. ### 5/5 — Did cuz my boyfriend plays *2026-08-25, version 88.0.0* Now I play because I really like it! ### 5/5 — Amazing game do recommend *2026-08-22, version 88.0.0* This is the most amazing game ever!! I love this game as it is always changing and you have a sense of accomplishment when you win a raid !! Really recommend don’t listen to bad reviews ### 5/5 — Empires & Puzzles *2026-08-21, version 87.0.3* Whoa! I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like this game before and that’s saying something from someone whose whole life is about games!, I mean it’s so addicting and fun, I just cannot get enough of it, thanks a lot devs♥️🥰😭👍😎 ### 5/5 — Nice *2026-08-19, version 87.0.3* Decent game ### 5/5 — Игра классная затягивает *2026-08-18, version 87.0.3* Но проблема не могу зайти висит соединение потом пишет проблема с интернетом неделю назад все нормально было ### 5/5 — Empires *2026-08-18, version 87.0.3* I honestly love this game, it’s just amazing I can’t explain it enough but just play the game!! ### 5/5 — More Challenging than most *2026-08-18, version 87.0.3* Fun ### 5/5 — It’s good *2026-08-15, version 87.0.3* Easy fun --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-11.*