Agreed. As much as I love Kingdom Rush, the price to unlock full content of the game is just way too much for me. Going to pass as well. This week is going to be a great week though, plenty of good games that'll fit my budget.
Is there really no non-IAP way to unlock new heroes? Seems kind of odd they'd block out unlocking them purely through progression, regardless of whether or not the game was free or paid. And considering that it is paid, the decision is all the more puzzling. Not from a practical standpoint (money in the bank), but from a gameplay one.
I thought the IAP in the original title was added much later on? I remember playing through and beating the whole game when the game initially launched, and I don't remember there being or even needing IAPs...
The heroes were there from the beginning. They added more heroes as time went on, and much later added in the gems and powerup system. And your last sentence hammers home exactly why I find IAP discussions way past idiotic. I've played hundreds of games in my life that I either couldn't beat or couldn't be bothered to beat, and the vast majority of those games were made in a time before ubiquitous internet connections and, therefore, no IAP. I've noticed no change in my completion percentage in the post-IAP world. It's just a baseless accusation for the paranoid to make. You finished the main game because it's a good game and you were good at it, full stop.
Heroes weren't there from the beginning. Maybe when it was released on iPhone they were but when it was first released on iPad there were no heroes. I'll pick this up when I finish KOTOR. Still have about 30 hours left though.
Heroes were not there from the beginning, they were added afterward as in game unlockables and then reverted into IAP only unlockables. I am not trying to turn this into an IAP discussion by any means, but it can be referred to back in the post thread after the updates added these elements, you will see that the game's difficulty had been adjusted and stages had became noticeably more difficult. Players noticed the difference; heck, a friend of mine noticed the same thing havent not played it in a long while and then updating it. Normal mode had became noticeably harder and the hardest stages on the hardest setting seemed to demand numerous power ups in order to clear on the highest difficulty where it wasn't as much the case prior. Besides, no developer implements consumable IAP into a game and maintains the balance of the game pre-IAP. That goes against the actual sole point of putting it there in the first place... Very few employ it without altering their games balance. But regardless, this doesn't change my decision to grab this game...
As I wrote almost exactly one year ago today in the Project 83113 thread: There is a prevalent and observable train of thought in play around here, along the lines of, "I can't get through this part of <game> under my own steam, and IAP is available, therefore I clearly need that IAP to win, therefore the developer is clearly pushing that aspect, therefore I can clearly conclude that it is the developer's greed and not my own lack of skill that is the problem here," but that is flawed and absurd for obvious reasons.
Lets stop this before it goes further and the mods get involved... These discussions do not end well on this site so lets just all agree to disagree and talk about the game and not IAP models and implements.
Thanks, heh... but as bool pointed out, I really don't think there were heroes when the game launched. The last stage was a major bitch and I had a really tough time getting past it... I remember retrying it over and over and never once during the game, did it ever occur to me there was a concept of 'heroes' when I played through it. I also never re-visited the game after initially beating it so, I guess the concept of heroes will make Frontiers all the more fresh for me. I hate to see a quality title/franchise like this go down the IAP-drain though...
I agree in principle that people shouldn't immediately jump on a game that has IAPs and assume they are required to complete a game. Only time will tell with that. But you also can't ignore the fact that many games are designed to push IAPs as well so you also can't immediately assume that they aren't needed. That's also what is aggrevating about IAPs is that a lot of times you don't know upfront (although in freemium cases, it's a good bet that you will). It's ashame that it's come to this. Unfortunately, that's the direction of a lot of iOS games. Unless it's specifically extra content or an unlock, it's a crap shoot. I liked Kingdom Rush but never completed it, partly due to increasing difficulty, but can't say for sure whether it was lack of skill or not. I'll wait on this one to see how it plays out (can always go back to the original to see if I can get further).
Tell me about it, between Knights of the Old Republic, Warhammer Quest, Frozen Synapse, and now this game, and 9th Dawn, my family will think I am missing! I've already said my goodbyes though, and the kids have accepted it, LOL! They just want to know when Terraria comes out for their iTouch's so that they can become a video game vegetable like me!
This is pretty much lots of more of the original title, and probably sligthly better in almost every single way. Which is probably good enough for many, and preferable for some. Unless there has been a drastic swerve towards IAP reqs for completion (the original Kingdom Rush could apparently be completed without all those newfangled IAP heroes and power-ups, and as Appletini hammers home, a high difficulty does not always equal IAP aggressiveness. Time was, such difficulty levels was seen as a merit and a boon... *a fleeting moment of video game nostalgia, until I realize that everything is better now and that we are living in the golden age of gaming*), it will probably be enough for me to enjoy the game for a great many hours as well. But dev dudes, a way to save level progress! I've argued for it over and over and over in the upcoming thread and in the original Kingdom Rush thread. So many, many reasons, but the fact that levels can drag on for 20+ (sometimes even 40) minutes without a way to save would be cumbersome on a stationary device. On a mobile phone, where all of lives' circumstances can shorten gaming sessions in brutal ways, and a single phone call can cost all progress on a map, it is almost anathema. (That dungeon puzzle game that is not quite Dungeon Raid was criticized for no way to save during 15+ gaming sessions in the review, and most time-demanding TD games, like Defender Chronicles I/II and Elf Defense, saves all level progress upon exit as a concession to the mobile paradigm. Or just because loosing any progress is durned annoying ) Smartphone-driven blood bond neglect goes both ways, luckily
The first Kingdom Rush is one of the best classical tower defense games ever made, in my opinion, and definitely one of my favourite games of all time. I beat the main campaign without spending a penny on IAPs, whether on the extra, more powerful heroes or on gems for the powerups. Why would I want to do that? And I never once felt as if I needed them. If anything, while I'm not that great at the game, several levels (even later on) felt far too easy. Frontiers looks like a 1.5, I agree - the same game, but with more features. I don't care. I've bought plenty of sequels that did exactly the same thing and loved them. YMMV, and all that. If you really can't live without owning every last piece of content the developers created for anything more than 99 cents, fair enough. Sorry you feel that way. If Frontiers keeps the same general difficulty curve the first game had I am absolutely fine with beating the regular campaign, maybe trying (and probably failing) any extra maps that come after it, and occasionally looking at the IAP units, powerups and such and reminding myself "No, I will never own those, because they're priced far higher than I am prepared to pay versus the actual enjoyment I'd get out of them". The prospect does not bother me or affect my opinion of the game in the slightest. And while, y'know, live and let live and all that, I really don't fully understand anyone who is honestly that bothered. (Totally fine with mods deleting this post if they want to purge any "off-topic" discussion - I just really, really wanted to vent, because well, Appletini's post pretty much says it all and I wanted to show some support.)
+10000 on this. I'm one of those gamers who may only get 10 minutes here and there to play a game and saves during a level would be much appreciated. What's ironic is that mobile gaming is generally short sessions for a lot of people, but it's more consistent in console games to have save at any point or between checkpoints.
I agree with the general sentiment but I'm fairly sure there are a lot of people who would happily be prepared to play for twenty minutes and up on a PC or home console. I appreciate that family and other adult responsibilities mean that sometimes even that long is too long, but Jeez, objectively, twenty minutes is not really that much time to spend on doing one thing.
