Pet Alliance

Despite the clamoring of its fans, Nintendo still hasn’t graced Android or iOS with a real Pokémon game. Let’s face it, fellow Pokénerds — it will probably never happen. That void causes tons of developers to take a shot at making their own twist on the series. Nobody’s ever come very close to capturing the entire magic of Pokémon, but some have captured portions of the formula with resounding success (Puzzle & Dragons comes to mind). Egame Company has recently released their take on monster collecting, Pet Alliance, for Android, iOS, and Facebook.

When you start your own adventure, you can name your character and select an avatar out of four male and four female options. There’s a bit of a narrative intro, but you’ll soon be in familiar territory selecting your starting monster. Will you choose the water crab, the grass onion (seriously), or the fire leopard/wolf thing? It doesn’t matter too much because you’ll be able to get the others pretty early in the game. Fortunately, Pet Alliance lets you name your monsters to, so Oniony and I set off on our adventures through Mololand. I was destined to become a master pet trainer.

Pet Alliance is guilty of my biggest pet peeve in the realm of free-to-play RPGs — you can’t actually do anything in combat. Instead, you’ll sit and watch your monster exchange hits with its opponent until one of them passes out. There’s no skill involved. In fact, there’s no luck involved either. Once you’ve defeated a monster, you can skip any future fights with the same type of monster, instantly claiming its experience and loot. Some of the depth of RPG combat is present: monsters level up and eventually evolve, monsters learn multiple skills that can be upgraded over time, and there’s a typing system that pulls all 11 of its types directly from the Pokémon series. A short ways into the game, battles will escalate to 3-on-3 matches. This is good so that your grass-type doesn’t lose every match against fire-types, but it makes the matches last longer when you have to wipe out all those extra enemy monsters. Picking the three monsters at the front of your party is probably the most important decision you’ll make. They’ll claim all the experience and they’ll do all the battling. You’ll want three of your strongest monsters that offer a wide type variety.

There’s no overworld to speak of. Instead, you’ll tap a map location to indicate where you want to go and then you’ll tap an icon for what you want to do there. You can participate in the ranked PvP arena, go shopping, hatch eggs, fuse monsters, or head out into the wild. In the wild, you pick a location and then one of its five monsters. Once you’ve wiped out each of these five monsters at least once, you can access the Heroic version of that area, populated with harder versions of those monsters. Defeat those and you can move on to the next area. Heroic monsters remain defeated once you best them, but the standard monsters can be fought over and over again. Thanks to your monsters healing between fights and the skip button, you can literally blow through a pile of monsters by tapping Skip, Again, Skip, Again, Skip, Again. It’s a great way to level up fast. By “great”, I mean efficient — not fun. Of course, each battle you engage in takes up one of your 15 AP, but it regenerates slowly over time.

There’s a story to follow, but the writing is weak. There were a few attempts at humor that just seemed like the writers were trying too hard. At one point, my character exclaimed “Pikachu!” from sheer excitement and then wondered aloud why he would say such a thing in the first place. It made me chuckle just a little, but only because it was so bad. The characters say some strange phrases which is certainly a problem that arose in translation. Still, I appreciated that Egame tried to have fun with it instead of making the story completely flat and serious.

The game includes a booklet item that serves the same role as a Pokédex, documenting each kind of monster that you encounter and own. Collecting is an important mechanism in monster RPGs, for some players, the fun of finding, capturing, and evolving their monsters to acquire them all is the most important part of the game. Pet Alliance has nearly 230 monsters to acquire, but there are a few problems that make the thrill of collecting fall flat. First, there is no mechanism for intentionally capturing monsters. Instead, you get monster eggs as loot after a battle or as a reward for completing a mission. You can hatch eggs easily enough, but that’s not the problem. Being able to find monsters out in the wild and capturing them directly is a lot more satisfying than grinding away at repetitive battles hoping a monster finally drops an egg. The second problem is that most of the monsters feel terribly uninspired. They just don’t look cool enough for me to want them — and that’s a huge problem in a game that revolves around its monsters. There’s a baby chicken with a bottle of milk, a blue crab, an onion, a hamster with a lollipop, and a crocodile with a lollipop. I wish I were making this up. Why would I ever want two different lollipop-wielding animals to fight for me in battle? Not all the monsters are that bad, but for every interesting monster there’s several more that are completely boring.

Pet Alliance has good production values and an okay free-to-play system, but that’s really all it has going for it. The content is deep, but the gameplay just isn’t. The best players are absolutely going to be the ones who put the most real money into the game. They’ll be the same players who can afford the rare monster eggs and the AP potions that will let them keep playing without waiting for any timers. The battle animations actually look like the monsters are doing something, but that something isn’t very exciting. Even if the combat was full of explosive particle effects and other eye candy, it’d still feel pretty hollow because I’m not actually responsible for triggering any of the attacks. The game is mindless to play, but certainly that’s what some people are looking for. Unfortunately, Pet Alliance is a mediocre free-to-play RPG at best and does practically nothing to fill the Pokémon-shaped gaps on Android, iOS, and Facebook.

The Infinite Black

Having only recently attained your pilot’s license and a new shuttle from Earth, you’ve set out to explore the great beyond; “Space, the final frontier” and all that nonsense… You know as well as any veteran flayer captain that space is simply another market to exploit. After destroying half a dozen pirate ships in the designated “grey zone” – a safe perimeter established around your home planet – you decide to dip into “the black” with the hopes of liberating more valuable cargo. Having only jumped a couple sectors outside of the grey, you’re suddenly met face-to-face with a small fleet of titan-class ships belonging to “Murder, Inc.” – a corporation well known for smearing rookies like you across the galaxy. A simple, yet pointed message flashes across your HUD: “Join us or die.“ Fire, run, or be assimilated… choices choices.

Infinite Black is an MMO (massively multiplayer online) game that harkens back to the old-school days before 3D immersive graphics but after M.U.D.s had taken root. Those of us like myself enjoy single player games to a certain degree, but nothing really beats teaming-up with live humans and accomplishing feats of destruction and organization together. On a whim one night, I decided to see what the current MMO scene is like on Android and was faced with the usual suspects – games such as Pocket Legends that strive to bask in the afterglow of what us PC gamers are used to, and those that happily market themselves as MMOs even though they’re no such thing. I also ran into The Infinite Black.

All Substance, Low Style

After scanning through the screenshots on the Play store, I was expecting to be shoved into the pilot seat of a spaceship – third-person style. Unfortunately, this lead to some dashed preconceptions of what Infinite Black was all about… Let’s get this out of the way right now – there are no fanshy 3D graphics in this game. In fact, you’re presented right out of the box with nothing but a vast network of color-shaded and arbitrarily linked octagons spanning as far as you can swipe. The background layer behind the map is customizable with various rendered space-themed graphics, but they mean nothing in the grand scheme. Turn them off, and you’re left with a very very dull interface. I almost quit right there (spoiled).

You begin the game as a rookie pilot of 0.5 level stationed at Earth (a designated safe zone) with nothing but a shuttle to your name. Higher levels unlock new tiers of equipment. Once you leave the blue zone immediately surrounding Earth, you’ll enter “the grey” – a PVE (player-vs-enemy) zone where you’ll spend many days “farming” heteroclites, pirates, and mercenaries for their materials. Your shuttle has a fixed number of “equip points” which are basically slots to be used for equipment such as weapons, hulls (armor), storage, computers, etc. It won’t take a rocket-scientist to quickly realize that he wants more space for better stuff… farming. It happens early and it happens often.

Farming In Space

Almost immediately after leaving Earth, I began to start murdering the various AI ships in the grey, collecting their resources, and selling them at various starports for credits. Obviously, you’ll need money for new ships and equipment. Lots of it. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 different ships, from battleship to wyrd reaper, all sporting an increasing number of equip points. Once you have a better ship, you can either pick up common items at the starports or start browsing the market for auctions. Yes, this game has a server-wide auction house! In the market, you’ll find rare items to either bid or buy-out that offer both higher stats as well as use fewer equip points. You can also sell dropped items you find while farming to help speed up your own purchases.

As you’re hopping from sector to sector blowing away npc enemies, you’ll be taking damage and salvaging resources. One such resource is both valuable for selling as well as repairing your ship – metal. Other resources you’ll find along the way will be mostly used to trade for credits until you manage to weasel your way into a corporation. This is where things get interesting.

Of Corporations And Alliances

The Infinite Black has a tiered leadership structure, like most MMOs, similar to that of “guilds”. Within my first couple levels, I was sent an invite to join one such corporation and was also immediately added to that corporation’s alliance (a conglomeration of corporations). Joining such groups nets you several advantages, not limited to discounts on equipment, hand-outs from your peers, and safety in numbers. Once you get a few of your corp’ies together in a “stack” (bunch of ships in one sector), you can strike-out into the black for more violent (and rewarding) encounters. Oh, and PvP. Yikes!

While the grey is simple and straightforward – fly around, blow stuff up, sell for credits – the black is more nebulous. This entire region is PvP flagged, meaning you’ll likely get mobbed by higher-level ships and obliterated if you don’t have sufficient backup. The NPCs in the black are also much more powerful, but drop higher level rewards. In addition to combat, the black is where your alliance’s leaders will be constructing garrisons – starport-like structures that allow you to repair and store alliance goods. Leaders can even use garrisons as virtual walls to keep non-alliance players out of your “yard” (area of black around your garrisons). Alliances can even create their own planets with enough resources, and terraform them using resources to provide universal bonuses for their underlings.

Stay On Target!

Interface-wise, TiB for Android isn’t anything to write home about… The map itself is a lifeless grid of octagons and ships are represented by simplistic icons stacked on the right of the screen. Fortunately, iPad users will benefit from a much shinier interface and better sound effects. Enemy ships are similarly stacked below your own, but are highlighted in red. Red bad. To attack an enemy, you tap the icon to open a list of options – one of which is attack. You can also long-hold an enemy to both attack and follow. NPC ships have an annoying tendency to jump from sector to sector during a fight, so AF (auto-follow) is a good idea. Once a battle is finished, you’ll pick up any loot that drops from the wreckage and hop to the next sector. Each ship has its own jump drive cool down, so you’ll have to wait a few seconds before jumping. If you’re set on a long-range destination, you can set the waypoint and let the drive do all the work for you.

This game has a steep learning curve, so be warned. An in-game help system is available, but is nothing more than an html-style manual. I spent a good deal time joining up with my corp’ies and hounding them with questions as we raided the galaxy. TiB sports a comprehensive chat interface with all the filters you’d expect from an MMO – universe, server, corporation, alliance, etc. but it requires that you flip from the map ui to a dedicated chat window. Expect to get shot at if you’re busy chatting.

Top-Off With Black Dollars

To-date, The Infinite Black has kept me hooked with the usual formula of slow leveling and saving for obscenely priced trinkets. The addition of a market is an added perk as you’re always min/maxing your ship’s gear and haggling with your alliance for better stuff. If you find that grinding isn’t your thing (it’s recommended to stay out of the black until level 10), there’s an alternate currency called Black Dollars that both drop randomly from NPC encounters or can be purchased using real-world money. Black Dollars allow you do purchase an additional fighter drone to make combat quicker, get a temporary boost in xp, buy rare ships (if you have tons of BDs), jump to your corporate garrison, etc. They also can be sold in-game for a pretty penny in a pinch.

The Verdict

If you’re a gamer with a penchant for the old-school vibe, give TiB a run for your money… actually, it’s free. Despite the cruddy ui and graphics, this game has a decent MMO structure and two additional servers planned to roll out this year. Note: I’ve written the developers asking when/if they’re planning on bringing the Android version up to par with iOS but have had no response. Try the two versions and you’ll see what I mean. Should you download TiB, expect hours upon hours of grinding with little in terms of distraction save for a smattering of corporate interactions. All the fun comes in the latter levels when you cap-out like the rest of the big boys.

Modern War by GREE

Video games are capable of stirring all kinds of emotions - such as sadness, anger, excitement and joy - but they also have a rather unfortunate tendency to trivialise things.

There's no finer example of this than Modern War, which takes the hellish nature of armed conflict and simplifies it to such a degree that it becomes little more than an exercise in chasing numbers.

In Modern War, you select a nation, build a base of operations, hire some troops, and generally inflict as much damage on your enemies as possible across several different global locations.

As well as taking on predetermined missions, you can also raid the HQs of other players, adding more cash to your reserves and improving your overall level.

War is hell

Modern War certainly isn't lacking when it comes to content - there are loads of different structures to erect and plenty of troop types and vehicles (land, sea, and air) to manufacture.

Naturally, these don't come out of thin air - you'll need cash and gold bars. Cash is generated by certain buildings (such as supply depots) and you win a chunk whenever you successfully complete a mission, but gold bars are slightly harder to come by.

You can buy more bars using in-app purchases, or bag free ones by partaking in promotional activities - standard freemium fare. You can get cash the same way.

Another commodity which is available for real-world monies is energy, which depletes whenever you launch an attack and recharges slowly over time.

Guns and glory

None of which should be surprising to free-to-play veterans - a developer deliberately slowing down the gameplay to tempt users to open their wallets is common practice these days, if not always a welcome one. What makes Modern War's setup a little less appealing is the vacuous nature of the gameplay itself.

For the most part, you're just tapping on the screen and watching dialogue boxes pop up. There's little to no skill involved, and outside of building up your army and allies (done by a code system not entirely dissimilar to the one used by Nintendo on its Wii and 3DS consoles) there's a very narrow scope for any legitimate strategy.

As long as you're willing to put in the time (and possibly cash) your advancement is almost assured - it's just a case of how quickly you get max-out your abilities.

As a result, Modern War feels little more than a grimly predictable stat-chasing exercise, designed to loot players of their money rather than provide any challenge or entertainment.

Although there are lots of units available and plenty of missions to keep you busy, they're so unexciting and mundane that unless you have an unshakable urge to collect every item and unlock every unit your interest is likely to wane quickly.

Kingdoms at War

One standout Indie developer is A Thinking Ape, founded in San Francisco but now based in here in Vancouver.  Led by three former Canadian university students, A Thinking Ape has become a serious player in mobile social gaming, with their game Kingdoms at War, in particular, having become a huge hit on both the iTunes and Google Play stores.  Their business philosophy reflects their very deep background in social media platforms – meritocracy over hierarchy, fast-paced innovation, lean organizational structures, and creative freedom.  This is the formula that has, in part, been so hugely successful at powerhouses like Apple, Google, and Facebook.  The more one knows about A Thinking Ape, the more it seems that these are people who love games, first and foremost, and the making and marketing of games is only a natural offshoot of this driving passion.

All of this passion and creativity might not seem immediately obvious upon first starting into Kingdoms at War, A Thinking Ape’s flagship game.  Kingdoms at War appears, at first glance,  to be similar to many of the text-heavy mobile multiplayer strategy games out there on both the iOS and Android platforms.  Its themes and structure are similar to other well-known titles such as Island Empire and Castle Empire; your base is a simple visual representation of a Kingdom, laid-out on a grid of land, and your goal is to expand your control of this land, growing by building onto more and more pieces on the grid.  Your power, again like other such games, is based on building-up your armies, spies, assassins and other units, which are represented by numbers – the higher those numbers, the more powerful you become.

In order to buy new land and build structures to create your armies, you need money.  You get this by doing a number of things including attacking other players online, and doing missions, which involve you just pressing a button called “do mission” repeatedly until you are successful.  These are all elements that many games before Kingdoms at War have been doing, and so a player might be forgiven for thinking that this game is just more of the same.  But give this game a bit more time, and you will discover that it is, in reality, an incredibly robust, rich, complex, and yes, highly addictive game that will have you coming back to play long after you have deleted those other games.

What makes this game so special?  For one thing, Kingdoms at War includes an “Ally” system which is quite innovative and unique.  Once you develop an army and establish yourself, you attain a “value” that is listed in a marketplace.  This value is the price it would cost for other players to hire you as an Ally that they can use in their own battles.  Obviously, the more powerful you are, the more valuable you will be to others, so consequently, your trading price goes up and players steal you away from each other at a higher and higher price.  The beauty of this system for you is that, every time you are bounced around from one “owner” to another (this is called “Volleying” in the game’s community), you get a cut of the profits – and this can get to be quite a substantial amount after a while.  I came back to my game after a day away from it, and found that I had been Volleyed and my account now had $160 million in it!  And yes, this is a lot of coin, even in Kingdoms at War.  It was like little game-elves built up my kingdom for me while I slept.  The trading of allies in Kingdoms at War adds a cool, lottery-jackpot excitement to the standard formula that I have not seen anywhere else, and it kept me coming back.

What also made this game enjoyable were all the ways I could upgrade and manage my empire and my skills to achieve success.  There are a large number of items that can be purchased – potions, scrolls, spells and so on – to increase your attack and defense powers.  These can be bought with gold you earn in the game, but you can also purchase more of them with real money.  There is quite a lot of strategy to these upgrades;  for example, I engaged in a mission that required me to first poison the water supply of my enemy with a certain potion, then use cloaking spells to steal from him without being detected.  Missions often require you to use items in very precise ways, and it really made for a satisfying challenge that required mental work to accomplish, not just an endless pressing of one button over and over, as in other games of this genre

Lastly, a major strength of the game is its incredibly large and active online community.  There is a complex Clan system, in which you can join others to achieve collective goals, and a thriving forum, which, when I played, was full of people discussing various aspects of the game.  Kingdoms at Warhas achieved that critical mass of enthusiasts that – like MMORPG leader World of Warcraft – has almost become another game unto itself.  The people who play this game are not just players, they are fanatics, with friends, social events, and communities that start with the game, but have moved beyond it to a very real “world.”  A Thinking Ape’s solid background in, and love of, social media shows itself in this game’s brilliant and seamless interweaving of interactive elements, making Kingdoms at War an experience that will keep you coming back, and staying for longer than other similar entries in the genre.

Kingdoms at War is a surprisingly-addictive, immersive and rewarding experience that, amazingly, is by a company right here in our own city.  Solid and fun mechanics, multi-layered gameplay, and a devoted fan base make this a game you have to try.  And, did I mention, it is free?  Well, more accurately, it is “Fremium,” as they say, since it does encourage you to buy in-app extras to speed your rise to dominance.  But, as fremium games go, this is one of the less-annoying I have encountered.  I have not purchased any extras so far, and I have gotten hours of enjoyment out of this game.  Ok, maybe I did purchase one 99 cent Crystal pack at one point, but it was because I wanted to, not because I had to – at least, that’s what I keep telling myself.