destitute - to - play games often look appealing , but it ’s unmanageable to know at a glimpse whether the business model is pernicious and fun ruining , or reasonable and deserving pump a few sawhorse into . With Freemium Field Test , we ’ll take a recent free - to - play iOS secret plan , put it through its rate , and permit you make love if it ’s really worth your time ( and money ) .
I ’ll admit , I put this particular Freemium Field Test entry off for a while . Mobile Strikehas all the red flags : an absolutely generic name , a reputation as a mindless free - to - play grind , and a handsome - budget advertising run starring a fame — in this character , Arnold Schwarzenegger . That ’s the exact same playbook employed byGame of state of war : Fire Age , probablythe least entertaining gameI’ve cover in this column over the last year and a half .
The main function screen is uproariously cluttered , not only with mission timers but also changeless ad for in - app purchase .
Well , I finally bit the fastball … and my skepticism was well - set up . Mobile Strike actually is a direct clone of Game of War , repurposing the same user interface , gameplay design , and business modelling while switch out bland fantasy for a middling military premise . It ’s credited to Epic War , a subordinate of Game of War creator Machine Zone , and these are very much the same game at core : Menu - tappers that never transform into exciting or cheering experience .
Actually , “ Menu Strike ” would have been a thoroughgoing name for it .
The pitch
Mobile Strike is bill as a massively multiplayer online biz , but for the most part , it feels like a middling sterile metropolis - construction simulation . You start off with a mostly - desolate desert setting filled with empty plots , and the game starts telling you what to come in and when to heighten it . make an iron mine , quarry , hospital , or grooming grounds . kick upstairs your central office , outer bulwark or arsenal . Do this , do that . rinsing and repetition .
Here ’s what it looks like to be on a specialized mission . Yeah , it ’s just tapping a clitoris .
Like Game of War , there ’s always some mere objective lens to harness : A little bar at the bottom of the silver screen sharpen you to the next building to fire or kick upstairs , but the process never switch . It ’s always as unsubdivided as tapping the building or plot , tapping another button in a menu screen , and then waitress for grammatical construction to discharge . This can take minute or hours , depend on the building ’s level , but the rest of the mental process is absolutely very .
That ’s the bulk of the biz . You ’ll gradually meliorate your base with unexampled and improved buildings , all of which increase the amount of resource you generate or let you train and pump out more capable soldiers . But the problem here , as with Game of War , is that all of those resources and unit never funnel into some exciting second stage of the secret plan — that mindless building is the core gameplay loop .
Even going on commission is as simple as intercept a release , waiting for the timer to mark down , and then reap whatever resources come of it . you could set on rival bases , too — and be attacked if you do n’t have a carapace up — but there ’s no real ocular representation of that either . You ’ll need to have a vivid imagination to satiate in the space here if you ’re looking for anything more than just menu buttons and resource tally .
Mobile Strike ’s combat consist of your armored combat vehicle drive elsewhere on the mathematical function and then come back . upheaval !
Joining an confederation is well the most interesting look of Mobile Strike , just like Fire Age , as it lets you take in a little number of community amidst the drone tedium . The chat bar translate text from many different language into your own , allowing for world-wide communication and commiseration alike . As for strategical gameplay and teamwork , believe it or not , everything comes down to menus and buttons again . learn a movement here ?
The catch
Mobile Strike is a secret plan of who can amass the largest stockpiles of resource , soldier , and power - ups , so unsurprisingly , the entire business simulation is the catch . Spending money let you like a shot solicit into resource and abilities that come very tardily through free play , if at all , and there ’s a major advantage for bear thespian . Not an advantage in condition of playfulness or excitement , listen you , but rather in avoid timer and reave rival al-Qaida .
Every single clip you open up the game , you ’ll get a “ limited time ” go like this . Every single time .
Every time you start the game , you ’ll be prompted to purchase a sheaf of miscellaneous in - biz detail : gold , speed - up token , point crates , limited - clip admission to a 2d building waiting line ( to speed up expression ) , and more . Each full - silver screen splashing image is unlike and features a tick timerso you know it ’s a special offer , yet you ’ll get one just like it the next time you sign on .
Before I buy anything , every screen offered a $ 5 pack of item , sport sheer icons that promise it was the “ Most Ever ” and a “ Player Favorite , ” for illustration . Once I at long last bought one of those $ 5 packs to see what hap , then the game only offered $ 20 packs . What happens once you buy the $ 20 mob — do you alone get offer for $ 30 pack , or $ 50 packs ?
I did n’t bother encounter out because the $ 5 pack did nothing to improve the game experience . It granted me a small mickle of amber and tidy sum of amphetamine - up items to bypass the lengthy building and training timers , but the game never lam that olive-drab string of objectives … at least not in the several hour I played across two calendar week of Mobile Strike . You ’ll find pack of gold and items for as much as $ 100 a dad in the atomic number 79 memory board , but I have no ground to believe that you could buy your way to playfulness here with any stage of investment .
The verdict
Like its predecessor , Mobile Strike is a busywork simulator above all , but it ’s one that uses a glitzy advertizement safari to promise something more — something you have to act for . You ’ll keep plugging away at those edifice and rise , take up Mobile Strike will eventually reward your consignment with index and excitement , so mayhap you keep pumping more and more money in to quicken up that summons .
I find out it troubling that the game advertised in the App Store screenshots and on goggle box is n’t the game you actually wager ; as far as I can narrate , that experience either is n’t there or has been greatly misrepresented for promotional purposes . And if there is some semblance of that late within , following rafts or century of hours of attending , then it ’s surely not worth the hassle or defrayment needed to get to that dot .
Save the trouble . Maybe Pokémon Go is n’t your hurrying , but sure you could come up a more rewarding free - to - play game to dump your spare hour into . We have a few suggestions .
