UPDATED REVIEW FIRST. ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW UPDATED
________________

Well, there little better than when a game that has issues is fixed. When I first played this game a year ago, I was so dissapointed. Spending 90 minutes in the game at that time had convinced me that this game was nothing more than a cash grab, trying to suck off the success of puzzle quest. I suffered random and repeated disconnects which caused me to lose my matches. I was constantly slammed in the face with pay to win aspects of the game, and just found the game overall intolerable mostly because of this.

However recently a friend of mine tried this out and she ended up spending seven hours streaming it on twitch. I trust this friend and she said that she didn't experience any of the issues that I had in my review from a year ago. So I decided, what the heck, lets give it a second chance. That second chance went for over 3.5 hours (two hours more than my original playthrough).

I was pleasantly surprised.

Is the game still pay to win? Kind of, a little bit, yes. But bear with me on this point. It's a free to play game. You can't fault the developers for installing some sort of mechanic to recoup their costs. So of course there has to be some way to make money. So the fact that there are microtransactions don't bother me if ;
a. the game is enjoyable if you choose not to spend real life money
b. the game does not beat you over the head with prompts to spend real life money

Originally when I played this game, I hit a wall where I felt my troops were far too weak to continue, but couldn't upgrade them without buying 'gems.' I am glad to report that whatever tweaks have happened to the game in the last year have made this feeling go away. As I said, I ended up playing for three and a half hours, and at no point did I feel that I "NEEDED" to spend real life money on this game. Was the option there? Yes. Would it have helped me? Of course. But I was able to progress through quests, play solo content, and do ranked pvp all with only free cards and rewards. Some of those end of the quest line fights were tough... REALLY tough. Now at this point, someone might decide to go spend money, if they were so inclined. But I was able to get through it all without opening my wallet once.

Secondly to this, while there is always the big green plus sign next to your resources, allowing you to trade gems (the currency that you buy with RL money) and there are icons in the main game screen that take you to the special deals, AND there's a button to take you to the shop. None of these things feel very obnoxious. I never got a pop up that threw the cash shop in my face. This is in stark contrast to what I remember from a year ago. Did they actually listen to my advice and make the cash shop less obnoxious? Because if so, amazing job.

Ultimately you know that you are playing a game that has microtransactions, but you're never tricked into the shop, guilted, or made to feel like you have to spend money to continue playing. This, above all else, makes any microtransactions forgivable.

Is the game pay to win? No... more like pay to skip dozens and dozens of hours of grinding.

The other major problem with the game that I had a year ago was the random disconnects. When I played a year ago, I was disconnecting far too often. I think I DCed a total of 5 or 6 times in 90 minutes, making the game literally unplayable. Today I played for 2.5 hours and never even noticed a moment of lag. I can't say for sure, but I think they may have handled the way that the game communicates to the servers, as I got very short (fractions of a second) "loading" messages when I would level up, win or lose a battle, change my troops, etc. But never at any other time other than when essentially my game was syncing with the server.

This alone makes me have to change my review from a 'no' to a 'yes' recommend.

On all other points, this game really scratches the itch that was left in my soul from puzzle quest. Spells, skull gems, match 3, and even a little bit of story that makes you feel like there might be lore worth exploring. In addition the art, while a little bit cartoony, works well.

If I had to point out some negatives, it would be that the more common rarity a card is, the more worthless it is. It's very hard to make a troop with common cards that can even come close to competing with a troop full of rares. In addition troops leveled up with souls (which can be purchased with gems of course) are FAR stronger than their original versions. Meaning that the people who do spend money are going to have a fairly strong advantage.

Overall, if you're looking for a match 3 fantasy game, like puzzle quest. You can not beat this for the entry price (free). I am quite pleased to change my review from a no to a yess recommend, even though that wipes out all the votes it already had.

Sometimes it's great to see a bad game turn around and fix it's problems, and kudos to the devs for whatever they did to fix the mess that this game was a year ago. I'll absolutely be playing this again more in the future.




________________

ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW THIS LINE
Original review written : Mar 12, 2016
20 of 30 people (67%) found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
________________

I wanted to like this game so much.

I was a HUGE fan of puzzle quest, and have bought most of the solo games in the series over the years from that developer. So when I saw this I thought it was a no brainer. But after about an hour and a half in the game I'm really crushed by what I've witnessed.

1. Always connected means that if your internet drops, or their servers lag, or a mouse farts in china.... you drop connection. Now you might be saying "But Rhev, I have a good connection!" Yeah, you know what? So do I, normally. But in about an hour and a half I lost connection three different times. Once it didn't matter, but the other two times it was at the end of a match, when I'd won. Do you know what happens then? When you reconnect the game treats it as if you hadn't played that match.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

That alone would give it a do not play ranking. But....

2. the microtransactions; Oh god the microtransactions. It's full on facebook mode here follks. PAY PAY PAY! BEST VALUE! BOOST YOUR GAME! LIMITED TIME!

I understand that a game that's free to play needs to monitize, and I don't fault them for it. But there's a way to do it that's obnoxious (like this game does) and a way that's subtle, and makes you feel all right about either choosing to support them with some cash, or not spending a dime ever.

You want to know what's good about this game? There are quite a bit of good aspects mind you, but you can go read any of the other positive reviews. I just wanted to give my thoughts on the problems with this game.

FIX THE LAG.


EDIT -
Played it again.... the game freezes up during a certain battle. Three times now I've tried to complete a quest battle and it always locks up around the same time when I use one of my troop's abilities.

Uninstalling now.

UPDATED REVIEW FIRST. ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW UPDATED ________________ Well, there little better than when a game that has issues is fixed. When I first played this game a year ago, I was so dissapointed. Spending 90 minutes in the game at that time had convinced me that this game was nothing more than a cash grab, trying to suck off the success of puzzle quest. I suffered random and repeated disconnects which caused me to lose my matches. I was constantly slammed in the face with pay to win aspects of the game, and just found the game overall intolerable mostly because of this. However recently a friend of mine tried this out and she ended up spending seven hours streaming it on twitch. I trust this friend and she said that she didn't experience any of the issues that I had in my review from a year ago. So I decided, what the heck, lets give it a second chance. That second chance went for over 3.5 hours (two hours more than my original playthrough). I was pleasantly surprised. Is the game still pay to win? Kind of, a little bit, yes. But bear with me on this point. It's a free to play game. You can't fault the developers for installing some sort of mechanic to recoup their costs. So of course there has to be some way to make money. So the fact that there are microtransactions don't bother me if ; a. the game is enjoyable if you choose not to spend real life money b. the game does not beat you over the head with prompts to spend real life money Originally when I played this game, I hit a wall where I felt my troops were far too weak to continue, but couldn't upgrade them without buying 'gems.' I am glad to report that whatever tweaks have happened to the game in the last year have made this feeling go away. As I said, I ended up playing for three and a half hours, and at no point did I feel that I "NEEDED" to spend real life money on this game. Was the option there? Yes. Would it have helped me? Of course. But I was able to progress through quests, play solo content, and do ranked pvp all with only free cards and rewards. Some of those end of the quest line fights were tough... REALLY tough. Now at this point, someone might decide to go spend money, if they were so inclined. But I was able to get through it all without opening my wallet once. Secondly to this, while there is always the big green plus sign next to your resources, allowing you to trade gems (the currency that you buy with RL money) and there are icons in the main game screen that take you to the special deals, AND there's a button to take you to the shop. None of these things feel very obnoxious. I never got a pop up that threw the cash shop in my face. This is in stark contrast to what I remember from a year ago. Did they actually listen to my advice and make the cash shop less obnoxious? Because if so, amazing job. Ultimately you know that you are playing a game that has microtransactions, but you're never tricked into the shop, guilted, or made to feel like you have to spend money to continue playing. This, above all else, makes any microtransactions forgivable. Is the game pay to win? No... more like pay to skip dozens and dozens of hours of grinding. The other major problem with the game that I had a year ago was the random disconnects. When I played a year ago, I was disconnecting far too often. I think I DCed a total of 5 or 6 times in 90 minutes, making the game literally unplayable. Today I played for 2.5 hours and never even noticed a moment of lag. I can't say for sure, but I think they may have handled the way that the game communicates to the servers, as I got very short (fractions of a second) "loading" messages when I would level up, win or lose a battle, change my troops, etc. But never at any other time other than when essentially my game was syncing with the server. This alone makes me have to change my review from a 'no' to a 'yes' recommend. On all other points, this game really scratches the itch that was left in my soul from puzzle quest. Spells, skull gems, match 3, and even a little bit of story that makes you feel like there might be lore worth exploring. In addition the art, while a little bit cartoony, works well. If I had to point out some negatives, it would be that the more common rarity a card is, the more worthless it is. It's very hard to make a troop with common cards that can even come close to competing with a troop full of rares. In addition troops leveled up with souls (which can be purchased with gems of course) are FAR stronger than their original versions. Meaning that the people who do spend money are going to have a fairly strong advantage. Overall, if you're looking for a match 3 fantasy game, like puzzle quest. You can not beat this for the entry price (free). I am quite pleased to change my review from a no to a yess recommend, even though that wipes out all the votes it already had. Sometimes it's great to see a bad game turn around and fix it's problems, and kudos to the devs for whatever they did to fix the mess that this game was a year ago. I'll absolutely be playing this again more in the future. ________________ ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW THIS LINE Original review written : Mar 12, 2016 20 of 30 people (67%) found this review helpful 2 people found this review funny ________________ I wanted to like this game so much. I was a HUGE fan of puzzle quest, and have bought most of the solo games in the series over the years from that developer. So when I saw this I thought it was a no brainer. But after about an hour and a half in the game I'm really crushed by what I've witnessed. 1. Always connected means that if your internet drops, or their servers lag, or a mouse farts in china.... you drop connection. Now you might be saying "But Rhev, I have a good connection!" Yeah, you know what? So do I, normally. But in about an hour and a half I lost connection three different times. Once it didn't matter, but the other two times it was at the end of a match, when I'd won. Do you know what happens then? When you reconnect the game treats it as if you hadn't played that match. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. That alone would give it a do not play ranking. But.... 2. the microtransactions; Oh god the microtransactions. It's full on facebook mode here follks. PAY PAY PAY! BEST VALUE! BOOST YOUR GAME! LIMITED TIME! I understand that a game that's free to play needs to monitize, and I don't fault them for it. But there's a way to do it that's obnoxious (like this game does) and a way that's subtle, and makes you feel all right about either choosing to support them with some cash, or not spending a dime ever. You want to know what's good about this game? There are quite a bit of good aspects mind you, but you can go read any of the other positive reviews. I just wanted to give my thoughts on the problems with this game. FIX THE LAG. EDIT - Played it again.... the game freezes up during a certain battle. Three times now I've tried to complete a quest battle and it always locks up around the same time when I use one of my troop's abilities. Uninstalling now.