This was one of those free PlayStation games that I never in a million year thought that I would actually finish. This is usually because while these games are tempting, and I have a lot of them, they depend heavily on micro-transactions and a hell of a lot of grinding which gets boring and makes me shelve the game. Anyway, I actually finished the main part of this game, not including the DLC, and since I finished the game it means that it’s review time.
I didn’t expect there to be a story to this Bejeweled type of battle game, but there is. You’ll start off with a set amount of kingdoms, having to buy kingdoms as you go, and each kingdom will have its own story where you’ll have to help someone and then end up adding that character to your party and being able to put them on your team. Not only is there that, but there’s also some good old PVP, an arena battle, a treasure map challenge, and now guild wars. All of this is free and it’s hundreds and hundreds of hours of content.
Since there’s so much to actually do with this game, let’s talk about the kingdom’s first. Each kingdom will have its own story and while at first this is interesting, after a while it gets a little clichéd and boring to the point where you’ll just skip the kingdom’s all together. Then there’s PVP. I like the way this is done because you don’t actually have to play against a live person. Each person has their team setup that they want to use in PVP and the computer will play for them. This eliminates having to actually play with another person and having them ditch the game when they’re losing. Arena battle lets you pick a random team and gives you a set amount of matches to win, but also a set amount of times to lose. If you win, you can win big money, but if you lose then you’re out the 1,000 coins it takes to get in. The treasure map challenge is a good way to match up coins and chests in order to get more money and other goodies in game, but it does cost you wings, which you get naturally at times or will end up paying for. Then there’s the new edition of Guild Wars. You’ll need to start your own guild or join a guild to do this and you’ll basically square off against other guilds for six days out of the week to move up in rank and get some cash and other goodies if you win. Sounds like a lot right? Because it is, but it’s also really grindy and to be honest, if it wasn’t for guild wars and the need to get one more DLC trophy, I would stop playing because it gets to the point where you’re just done with a game and I’m at that point.
As I said before, this is basically Bejeweled, but with a twist. You’ll choose your team of warriors, based on the troops that you have, and setup your team. Once you have your team you’ll square off against another team in various different areas. You’ll do this by matching different colored gems on a board as well as skulls. Match three or more skulls and you’re first player attacks the other player. This works the other way to that if your opponent matches skulls you also get hit. Match up the colored gems that you need in order to unlock your character or a character on your team’s special trait and then attack the other team. Same goes for the team that you’re playing against as well. It sounds confusing, but it’s really not and it’s super simple to play. The game operates smoothly and although it had some problems with stalling and lag and other stuff at release, this has basically been cleared up with various different patches and DLC’s that have been added.
Micro-Transactions Galore! There are a tone of micro-transactions for this game, as there are with other free to play games. I’ve seen people dump tons of money into this game and I really can’t understand why because if you play, as grindy as this game gets, you can and will unlock what you need to be successful and play the game. I know the micro-transactions which range from $.99 to $99 are tempting because they offer you all of these things that they want you to think you absolutely need, but seriously don’t spend your money on this game because you don’t have to in order to enjoy it.
The graphics for this game are actually pretty cool and I really didn’t expect that going in. As the game has been patched and more DLC released, the graphics continue to get better as animations and character cards, along with the board itself, gets fleshed out a little bit more each time. I’ve been playing for a while now, about 11 months, and I have to say that the graphics were good when I started and I’m impressed that they get better with each patch.
When the game started, there were 18 trophies. The trophies were pretty simple and required you to play the game and reach level 100. All of the trophies basically came naturally and you had to grind to reach 100. Now there are a total of 36 trophies for this game and I have to say that only one of them is purely luck based while the rest require you to grind your way to get them. They aren’t hard trophies and they aren’t easy, I would say they’re in the middle and if you’re a trophy hunter be prepared for a really long grind.
There isn’t multiplayer for this game in the typical sense of a multiplayer game, but there are two different types of multiplayer. There’s you’re standard PVP and Guild Wars. With your standard PVP you’ll face off against another team of players that aren’t actually playing. The AI will be playing for them as you’ll make your moves. The same thing with Guild Wars, but you’ll be given a set amount of troops to defeat each day. I kind of like multiplayer this way because like I said before people can’t rage quit when they’re losing and if they lose they lose, if you lose you lose. Everything works out better this way and I don’t have to worry about if someone lost internet connection or is acting like they did to see if I leave a match.
Overall I give this game a 4 out of 5.
What’s Great:
+ There are a bunch of things to do and to get through the whole game it will take hundreds of hours.
+ Multiplayer without the hassle of actually playing with other people.
+ Solid graphics and animations that get better with each patch.
What’s Not So Great:
– Micro-transactions galore. I mean seriously there are a lot of micro-transactions for this game that will try and suck you in because you think you need something.
– The game is really grindy and after a while can become quite boring.
For a free to play game I would say that it’s one of the more decent ones. I’ve played a lot of free to play games, but this is by far my favorite. There’s a bunch of things to do and you and you can get lost spending hour after hour playing this game. The only downside is that there are a bunch of micro-transactions and after a while, the grindy nature of this game gets boring and frustrating. Other than that, I would give this game a strong recommendation since it is free and there’s no harm in giving it a try if you want something that’s like Bejeweled with a twist.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 