Free - to - gaming games often look appealing , but it ’s difficult to know at a glance whether the business model is pernicious and merriment wrecking , or reasonable and worth pumping a few Pearl Buck into . With Freemium Field Test , we ’ll take a recent free - to - play iOS secret plan , put it through its paces , and let you know if it ’s really worth your sentence ( and money ) .
Each side picks an attack card , and then the results play out . There ’s also a quick tap - based timing challenge that can increase — or belittle — the damage of your card .
Monsters eat up My Condokicked off Adult Swim ’s colorful roving serial publication in 2011 with a fun Modern take on the match - three puzzle plot : It had you feed floor of an unstable tower to the elephantine fiend attack from either side . And thenSuper Monsters Ate My Condotook that premiss and simply made it faster and sillier . Also detached - to - turn — and with a pretty friendly designing , at that .
Given the serial ’ oddball tone , dislodge to a totally novel kind of gameplay seems totally sensible and appropriate here , and Adult Swim and developer PikPok make it work inMonsters Ate My Metropolis . See , Metropolis is no mystifier : It ’s a militant card game , only you ’re playing alone and your opponent is a great city . And like most competitive lineup game — which are built on the premise of bribe cards to expand and empower your deck — there are frequent opportunities to spend real money .
The pitch
The player who picks secondly has a select chance to select an advantageous calling card color — but you could still make fresh choices even if you ’re first .
The brilliant and goofy demon from the earlier games return , only now you ’ll choose one and guide its path of death . You ’ll do so by building up a pack of cards of card , each colouration - coded and unique in its attack style , force , and upshot on the residue of your card . As anyone who played Magic : The Gathering or any other collectible placard plot ( CCG)—physical or digital alike — knows , there ’s a science to concocting a quality deck of cards , even one with just 12 cards as in Metropolis .
And it ’s not the only deck you ’re building : A second one is needed to protect your own urban center . When you represent a match in Metropolis , you ’re really toy against another player ’s deck , albeit control automatically by the computer . This means that other player will also gainsay your metropolis deck of cards from time to time , so you ’ll have to make certain both deck have caliber cards .
The existent battle have a reliable back - and - Forth River function . You beak an flack poster from the three drawn from the pack of cards , the city you ’re face picks its own attack batting order , and then the attacks run out and each side ’s wellness bar is diminished . You ’ll keep doing that until one of the English collapses in defeat , although with each turn , the game alternates which player prefer first .
Choose your posting sagely ! Or , rather — choose to habituate the paltry cards you ’re establish , or choose to spend money on better ones .
That ’s an authoritative detail , since most of the strategy in the game come from the way the colour play off of each other . The color wheel dictates which cards are more powerful against others , so a greenish board can smash a scandalmongering one , while a yellow card has a clear advantage over grim 1 . You ’ll pick it up within minutes , and it ’s a crucial detail : If you choose an advantageous card , your attack tycoon will significantly increase , while the opposing calling card will be dramatically diminished . It ’s the biggest key to success in Metropolis : brush aside the colors and you ’ll get vanquish .
But it also feel like one of the only real tonality to winner in this aerodynamic CCG . Yes , there ’s scheme to building your deck of cards , including having menu that bring down life story - ooze poison on the opposing city , or one that boost your own cards simply by existing in your deck . Aside from being fresh about play colour , the other route to success is simply have in effect carte in your deck . And unless you want to tardily , slowlygrind for them , the biz is happy to betray you up-to-dateness to buy single cards and coterie .
The catch
Collectible card games are a gross friction match for the devoid - to - gambol model . After all , the forcible game are construct upon the premise of buying more and more pack to enhance your deck of cards and play experience — and it interpret flawlessly to digital .
This bulge up after every struggle , but you ’ll probably neverearnenough gem to buy OMG ! ! gang and cards . That ’s where in - app purchases descend in .
Luckily , Monsters run through My Metropolis furnish a solid experience for anyone not eager to expend cash . you could pick your A.I. opponent with each match , so assuming you choose foes outrank likewise to you , prospect are you wo n’t break away into many consuming battles . That ’s true ahead of time on , at least , so you’re able to work the free cards you go with and easy collect through take in coins and gems . But I imagine you ’ll hit a rampart at some point in your ascent up the leaderboards .
buy packs and individual cards is how you ’ll make big gains in deck calibre and conflict supremacy . A 10 - card “ OMG ! ! Pack ” is price at 2,500 gemstone and promises a baseball field - story card in the pack , while a single card at that layer is sell for 250 gems — with achanceof pay back a diamond card . It ’s much the same for the down in the mouth - floor “ LOL ! ! Pack . ” You ’ll get five add-in for 2,000 coins , with a guaranteed silver gray add-in in the mix , or you’re able to grab one wag for 400 coin and youmightdraw a silver .
Hey , which clique is considered the best wad ? Oh right , the $ 100 one that takes up half the cover .
And to compete against higher - ranked opponent , it really experience like you demand to have baseball field - story cards . Whenever I aimed well above my own ranking , I was frequently shell by cards several times more powerful than my own . And when I finally spent some money myself , investing $ 10 to snaffle a few individual carte du jour on the OMG ! ! tier , I chop-chop saw the reward : One attack was double as hefty as anything I had earned or been given from the outset . That lesson is reinforced very rapidly .
Monsters eat My Metropolis has one of the most expensive vigor saloon fill again costs I ’ve seen in a freemium game—$5 deserving of gems !
Metropolis also has an energy system of rules , with 20 points pull from your bar ( which top out at 100 ) with each mates . The tally slowly ticks upwards over time , and when your monster levels up — through experience earned in battle , automated fights against your city , or by “ feed ” your creature unneeded cards — the meter reset again . Otherwise , you ’ll have to shell out a humongous 500 diamonds ( $ 5 ) to keep play without waiting , or devil a Facebook acquaintance to get another match deserving of energy .
The verdict
Monsters Ate My Metropolis is laughable and energetic , although the wit battling is so streamlined that it lacks enough of a tactical draw . Aside from dissimilar cards and more powerful opponents , I matte like I ’d seen the game ’s entire playbook within a few matches , and that ’s not much incentive to keep play for long — especially without active multiplayer battles or turn - based asynchronous play .
Still , the colourful aesthetic does keep thing endearing for a while . And you ’re not so much give to come through here as much as pay to avoid monotony : The main prayer of spending money is to escape the repeating of using the same deck against the same - degree opponents . But given the simplistic combat , I ’m not certain it ’s deserving the amount of Johnny Cash need to leap into upper echelon of competition .
