Post by shaxper on Nov 6, 2014 23:13:38 GMT -5
So I'm not much of a gamer, and I'm even less of a smartphone app addict, but quite by chance, I've gotten sucked into Spider-Man Unlimited, a free app game for smartphones.
It's one of those games that's free, but there's all sorts of ways to pay money to get a leg up. I don't think that strategy has worked so well thus far, though, as I've never paid a dime and regularly rank in the Top 100 players. And, no, I don't think I'm just that good.
The Concept
You're Spider-Man, and you race across rooftops and through laboratories, jumping, sliding, punching, swinging, and dodging with the swipe of a finger. The game play is incredibly well designed and fun, but that's really only half of it. The other side is the back end, in which you are given two kinds of currency (antidote vials you collect like coins throughout stages, and ISO-8, a rare compound you receive as a reward for completing missions). These currencies can be used to purchase all sorts of things, and knowing how to properly use and leverage your resources is half the strategy of the game. (This should also be where you're tempted to pay $20 to get more of these currencies, but I never am).
Also, you earn alternate costumes (technically, Spider-men from alternate dimensions), and you can switch which one you play as. Some get you more points than others (though this does not directly translate to currency -- it's complicated), but none has any specific power that the others do not. Game play itself does not change.
The Pros of the game
Game play is incredibly fun, especially as you learn how to strategize things like combo attacks and whether you're priority is points, vials, kills or ISO-8, and the back end in which you save and spend resources is surprisingly interesting and rewarding as well. Even when you've exhausted the five turns you get every 50 minutes, there's so much more to do and track in the back end of the game. It's never overwhelming, and it isn't hard to walk away from the game if you feel you're getting too sucked into it, but it's just complicated enough to keep you entertained.
Also, the various Spider-Man costumes to earn are fun, but no, there is no alien costume. I'm sure they're saving everyone's favorite Spidey costume for some massive event down the line.
The Cons
So long as you understand the game is trying to get you to spend money and, thus, limits the amount of turns you can take and keeps you working for long periods of time towards earning things, there really isn't too much to dislike about it. Really, all of my complaints kicked in when I got to the third map (Electro), as I've now plateaud at this point.
1. Though the game never gets all that much more difficult, each successive stage requires your Spider-Man to be at a higher level in order to play it. Levels are determined by how many experience points you've earned. However, there's a limit on how high a level you can attain, and unlocking that limit becomes increasingly complex as you go. Without getting into too many details, after level 50, you need to obtain FIVE of the SAME RARE Spider-man costume in order to progress further. The odds of accomplishing this in less than a month are extremely small. It's a broken aspect of the game, as far as I'm concerned, and likely to turn off any fan hoping to progress in the story mode.
2. The Spider-man costumes are labelled as "common, "uncommon," "rare," and "epic," but these are misnomers. "Rare" implies that, however unlikely, you stand a chance of selecting that costume through the regular draw, but this is not true. You can ONLY get rare and epic costumes by paying a different (significantly larger) amount of currency, and, after the second map, the common and uncommon costumes cannot rank high enough to get you to the next level. Eventually, the common and uncommon costumes literally become useless to the game. You need to purchase rares (though, no, you don't need actual money to do this -- just very hard to come by ISO-8 fragments earned in the game).
3. Remember I mentioned the two types of currency in the game? Vials (easy to come by) and ISO-8 (incredibly difficult to come by). Well, once the common and uncommon costumes become useless to game play, the vials essentially become meaningless. They're only good for purchasing common and uncommon costumes, as well as power ups that literally last for six seconds. I now have over 50,000 vials saved up and absolutely no use for them. You'd think there'd be some conversion of 20,000 vials to 1 ISO-8 fragment or something, but there isn't.
4. The shop area is utterly useless. Everything that can be purchased there is ultimately either worthless or something that you get for free anyway when you beat the next map.
So I've really enjoyed the game up to this point, but I might be done with it soon. I hate that I can't progress through the third map, but I have to admit I'm still enjoying participating in the special event contests they host on an ongoing basis.
It's one of those games that's free, but there's all sorts of ways to pay money to get a leg up. I don't think that strategy has worked so well thus far, though, as I've never paid a dime and regularly rank in the Top 100 players. And, no, I don't think I'm just that good.
The Concept
You're Spider-Man, and you race across rooftops and through laboratories, jumping, sliding, punching, swinging, and dodging with the swipe of a finger. The game play is incredibly well designed and fun, but that's really only half of it. The other side is the back end, in which you are given two kinds of currency (antidote vials you collect like coins throughout stages, and ISO-8, a rare compound you receive as a reward for completing missions). These currencies can be used to purchase all sorts of things, and knowing how to properly use and leverage your resources is half the strategy of the game. (This should also be where you're tempted to pay $20 to get more of these currencies, but I never am).
Also, you earn alternate costumes (technically, Spider-men from alternate dimensions), and you can switch which one you play as. Some get you more points than others (though this does not directly translate to currency -- it's complicated), but none has any specific power that the others do not. Game play itself does not change.
The Pros of the game
Game play is incredibly fun, especially as you learn how to strategize things like combo attacks and whether you're priority is points, vials, kills or ISO-8, and the back end in which you save and spend resources is surprisingly interesting and rewarding as well. Even when you've exhausted the five turns you get every 50 minutes, there's so much more to do and track in the back end of the game. It's never overwhelming, and it isn't hard to walk away from the game if you feel you're getting too sucked into it, but it's just complicated enough to keep you entertained.
Also, the various Spider-Man costumes to earn are fun, but no, there is no alien costume. I'm sure they're saving everyone's favorite Spidey costume for some massive event down the line.
The Cons
So long as you understand the game is trying to get you to spend money and, thus, limits the amount of turns you can take and keeps you working for long periods of time towards earning things, there really isn't too much to dislike about it. Really, all of my complaints kicked in when I got to the third map (Electro), as I've now plateaud at this point.
1. Though the game never gets all that much more difficult, each successive stage requires your Spider-Man to be at a higher level in order to play it. Levels are determined by how many experience points you've earned. However, there's a limit on how high a level you can attain, and unlocking that limit becomes increasingly complex as you go. Without getting into too many details, after level 50, you need to obtain FIVE of the SAME RARE Spider-man costume in order to progress further. The odds of accomplishing this in less than a month are extremely small. It's a broken aspect of the game, as far as I'm concerned, and likely to turn off any fan hoping to progress in the story mode.
2. The Spider-man costumes are labelled as "common, "uncommon," "rare," and "epic," but these are misnomers. "Rare" implies that, however unlikely, you stand a chance of selecting that costume through the regular draw, but this is not true. You can ONLY get rare and epic costumes by paying a different (significantly larger) amount of currency, and, after the second map, the common and uncommon costumes cannot rank high enough to get you to the next level. Eventually, the common and uncommon costumes literally become useless to the game. You need to purchase rares (though, no, you don't need actual money to do this -- just very hard to come by ISO-8 fragments earned in the game).
3. Remember I mentioned the two types of currency in the game? Vials (easy to come by) and ISO-8 (incredibly difficult to come by). Well, once the common and uncommon costumes become useless to game play, the vials essentially become meaningless. They're only good for purchasing common and uncommon costumes, as well as power ups that literally last for six seconds. I now have over 50,000 vials saved up and absolutely no use for them. You'd think there'd be some conversion of 20,000 vials to 1 ISO-8 fragment or something, but there isn't.
4. The shop area is utterly useless. Everything that can be purchased there is ultimately either worthless or something that you get for free anyway when you beat the next map.
So I've really enjoyed the game up to this point, but I might be done with it soon. I hate that I can't progress through the third map, but I have to admit I'm still enjoying participating in the special event contests they host on an ongoing basis.
