Well that escalated quickly... Are we really talking about Battle Camp here? What has that to do with anything? First of all Adventure Xpress is a game while Battle Camp is an abomination, an atrocity commited against mankind. This review sums it up pretty well: http://www.pockettactics.com/reviews/review-battle-camp/ Anyways back to the topic at hand: Now after the third area things are getting a little harder (I died for the first time) so I imagine soon I'll have to pay or grind the same boss over and over again to get money. Still this game is miles ahead of all other fee to pay match 3 titles in recent memory. I'm still torn up about this game, I really really want to like it (and support the dev with IAP) but the depth is just not there.
Have you been doing the "side quests" along the way? If you passed them by initially because they were too hard, you can go back to the earlier ones for easy additional loot that will keep you forging ahead.
Gotta love the sexual innuendo in some enemy names I also vote for an optional IAP coin doubler. This game is pretty fun in short bursts.
Because gameplay trumped what was a knee-jerk reaction to an admittedly overly aggressive monetization strategy. What I always think of when I want to summarize the game in one sentence is, "The worst game you'll ever love" In short, the me who had played the game for all of a week or two had no freaking business offering an opinion on a game which is played on the same time scale as an MMO and is equally multiplayer aimed. There are events that last longer than the average mobile game survives on most people's phone's LOL. Sure, it's a combination of many factors, but BC has become my most played electronic game other than the original Guild Wars games ever (and it will take any game a long time to beat that since I put more than 2600 hours into those ). I'd go so far as to say the developers probably hurt their bottom line because they were, and continue to be, so over the top aggressive with the monetization, yet, at the end of the day, it's a far better game than anything else I've played in the broad genre, and a better game than most premium titles I've played. You get all the socialization, strategizing, and interdependence of a full blown MMO, but you can do it in 5 minute chunks out of the hour throughout the day. As a busy dad without 6 hours to sit in front of a computer and play MMORPGs anymore, the game is perfect. Playing it I've gotten to know people in Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia, Latvia, Singapore, Mexico, Norway, etc.. That the strategic depth rivals serious CCGs is icing on the cake. The whole is definitely superior to the raw sum of the parts, some of which are kind of "disgusting", but I just try to swallow those without chewing LOL ----- Now, to show why this off topic is not that off topic, a game like Battle Camp is exactly why I won't be playing this title for very long in all likelihood, nor spending much on it if at all. There are a bazillion of these style of games out there with mechanics that range from largely purely automated collector battlers to in-depth strategic games where skill and strategy have as much to do with outcome as your time and wallet input. In my opinion, games of this sort need to give players meaningful things to do and, more importantly, meaningful choices to make if they want to transcend the line from disposable time waster to "game that's never leaving my device". So far, I see neither of those things in this game. You solve the rudimentary match-3 puzzles, you win a battle, you get some chits toward the next weapon or armor, and what choices you have between the next set of upgrades are largely meaningless such that you may as well go with the cosmetic look of your choice because the strategic difference is essentially none. Now, possibly this is all rather wrong based on insufficient information, game just came out yesterday and I'm comparing it to the likes of Puzzle and Dragons and Battle Camp that have been established for more than a year, but everything I've seen says this game is going for a very casual audience, which, in my case, is not what I'm looking. Only related genre game to get me excited in the past year is Terra Battle because it's definitely not casual, and it's doing something interesting and different instead of yet another iteration on things we've all already seen and played to death. Based on my initial impressions (let's make sure I leave something for you to find a year from now if I'm singing this game's praises then for some reason hahaha), Adventure Xpress is too iterative, too repetitive, and not nearly ambitious enough to justify itself among the many already established titles in this meta genre of games.
You SO beat me to this. Not because I wanted to call him out or anything but because I found it a fascinating juxtaposition.
Is there an end of match bonus when you get to the "final blow"-like bonus experience or gold? Or is it just for show?
Two great points. Sometimes I get great overkill knockout shots but it seems to be for naught. And I figured there had to be a crit countdown somewhere and I was just missing it! Quite an omission and it would help with planning when to make certain moves obviously.
The "final blow" sequence triggers when the game realizes that you have accrued enough points to kill off the monster in question. At that point it basically triggers all the powered up board pieces and spells to make a showy finale to the battle. Without that, we found battles could end on a down note or even worse were disappointing if you had a bunch of stuff stocked up ready to fire. With this system in place, battles usually always end on a high note. Regarding the critical hit, you get the critical bonus when ever you managed to clear the number of runes in the previous move that your weapon requires for a critical hit (look for the "Runes to crit" number in the weapons screen next to your weapon). That means there is some strategy to your weapon choice, as there are often weapons available that have lower base damage but crit more often.
Ahhhhhh ok. I didn't realize that number had to all be in one turn. That certainly explains the lack of a timer.
Haha, I have thought about trying to revive that thread to give updated impressions since I know even my own initial ones were so negative but gave up since the last time I tried all I got was.... crickets. I know not everyone will agree with me, and not expecting them to, I just know that as someone who did slam BC as aggressively as anyone in my initial impressions, it's gone onto be one of my favorite games of all time and has led to the deletion of dozens of match3/collector battle games for being inferior. As for Adventure Xpress, I fear, for me, it will soon enough share the same fate as Dungeon Gems, Fable Age, Puzzle Trooper, Puzzle and Dragons, Spellfall, Brave Frontier, Etherlords, etc. etc., BUT I do give the game this: as a basic match-3 game, the levels are every bit as clever and well designed as anything that behemoth about breaking up sweets has with a better aesthetic
Definitely enjoying this one but yeah, no idea for how long. I had never played BC but have started now, thanks to you, and obviously read some of that (yes) short thread. Fable Age is the one in this genre that won my heart.
i guess the thing here is the showiness wears off once one realizes there's no reward for it. Hate to make comparisons, but SpellFall does the same thing, triggering every special gem on the board after the player wins, but rewards the player with 1 gold for every gem cleared during their "final blow" perhaps you may consider say, adding "+1 or +2 gold during Final Blow" stats to certain existing armor or weapons? That way it would encourage the player to setup for decent combos and cascades if they already know they're in the position to have won the match. Would definitely make farming runs for gold more interesting.
Someone mentioned a coin doubler, but I'm having a hard time finding it in the store. Does it really exist?
Really enjoying this just purchased some tokens to support the Devs - hope its going to have expansion packs?
