For a period of one month, Cookie Clicker basically took over my PC. I played it at work, and at home, with two simultaneous instances running at once. The concept of watching numbers go up over time isn’t anything new — it’s something PC and old console RPGs have been doing for decades — but clickers cut out all of the downtime and just let you get to the rewards. It’s a fascinating social experiment, but on occasion, it also makes for a fun video game. Amazing Loot Grind (Free) is one such instance, and it’s perfect to play for hours or seconds at a time.
The concept is so simple, that I almost completely missed it at first. Players have had all of their loot stolen from the “evil wizard RNG," (ha), and you’ve embarked upon an epic quest to get it back. To earn new loot, all you have to do is open a treasure chest to obtain an individual piece. I should say, tap a chest, as that’s basically all you’re going to do throughout the experience. Upon opening a box, you’ll have the option to replace or dump your new item, then it’s off to a new piece of loot — that’s it. The game is entirely ran from a UI of your inventory and a small chest at the bottom.
You know if you’re the target audience or not right away, but if this sort of genre is your bag, you’ll dig it. Using the standard MMO tiers of loot (green, blue, purple, orange) you’ll slowly work your way up to a new set, and often times it’ll tear you up inside to have to get rid of something you’ve been carrying for forever. Players can actually “beat" the game though, but acquiring an entire set of peerless loot. A new unlimited mode isn’t exactly the best reward for your effort (other clickers often go off on an oddball tangent), but in this case, it’s more about the journey.
As far as monetization goes, Loot Grind is pretty fair. It’s ran entirely on ads, and only if you want to max out your odds or get extra pieces of loot. I ended up playing my entire peerless run solely based on free play, without having to resort to ads. I suppose it’s a way for people to sort of jumpstart a lull in getting any more loot, but again, this isn’t something that you need to constantly plug away at to get something out of.
Personally, I wish there was some sort of gamified element involved though, whether it was a random dice roll based on your loot to “defeat" an enemy to get an extra chest or whatnot. It doesn’t even have to be visible on the screen or go through a whole RPG rigmarole as it would basically eliminate the entire point of the game, but something to break up the flow would have made Loot a much better package overall. But again, by that same token, you know what you’re getting here, and the game doesn’t attempt to be anything more than that.
There’s a specific audience in mind here, and it’ll only take a basic understanding of the premise to know whether or not it’ll be your fancy. Whether it’s for a few hours on a rainy day or multiple days on end, if you like to spend hours clicking cookies and trying to amass a fortune, you’ll have a blast with Amazing Loot Grind — just don’t expect a grand payoff at the end, as what you see is what you get.
