Universal Smarter Than You (by EightyEight Games)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by PeteOzzy, Sep 24, 2014.

  1. ScotDamn

    ScotDamn Well-Known Member
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    Yeah that's an interesting take. I think there is some "strategy". It falls on the damage values. But even then, it seems far from strategic. I think the fun and engagement falls on the social interaction more than the slot machine. It's still pretty great.
     
  2. lavenders2

    lavenders2 Active Member

    Feb 14, 2013
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    In what is perhaps the biggest disappointment of this month, Smarter than You has taken a great concept and unfortunately made one too many missteps here and there to be truly taken seriously. From the creator of 10000000 you say? You mean that awesome game with subtle depth and great, well paced match 3 gameplay? Sadly, it seems the direction of this game has gone in a completely different path to that of 10000000, and while this is certainly not a bad thing, Smarter than You just doesn't offer what it needs to be the truly compelling experience it could be.

    The backbone of the game is built around the all time classic Rock Paper Scissors, but with some added tweaks to make it a bit more interesting. The game flow is extremely straight forward - someone picks from a bunch of words to form a sentence. The words they pick can influence the amount of points a particular action gets (for example, using a sentence with the word "attack" will make the attack choice gain more points/damage). From there, you have 3 choices: you can attack with a sword, fire an arrow or counter. Then you wait for your opponent to choose a move, and after the outcome is decided, the next player creates a sentence and the game goes on until someone loses all their health. Sword beats arrows, arrows beats a counter and counter beats a sword. If two people choose the same move, then they both take damage (therefore keeping the pace of the game going). The simplistic nature of the game imbued with deception and psychology is a match made in heaven, allowing the player to fully focus on the actions available to him. Along with this comes a fantastic soundtrack that feels perfect for the style the game is going for. It all sounds great so far right? This is where the good comments end.

    The game interface is severely lacking. Severe may be an overstatement in terms of how playable the game is (it is still very playable) but it mysteriously lacks things one would expect to be there. For example, it is impossible to see, in numerical form, your health. It sounds like a minor thing, but when I pick an attack with 12 damage, how am I supposed to whether my attack could kill my opponent? A choice like this could win the game, but it is a choice that is almost impossible to make in the games current state. Your health is represented instead by a circle around your in game portrait, which is a great at a glance view of who is winning, but not so good when you want to strategically pick a move to finish your opponent or even bluff your opponent into thinking you will pick the finishing move.

    Also, what about something as simple as a reminder on what beats what? I almost forgot after starting my first game and spent most of my first turn trying to figure out how the combat triangle went. There is no way to tell apart from just going online and looking it up. The tutorial in the game does explain this, but it isn't re-playable from what I can see.

    Furthermore the combat log is barebones, and even hidden until one realizes you can tap a persons portrait to see what moves they picked previously, and how much they are worth. Sadly, that is it. Why can't I see what was said before those attacks were executed? How much were the other moves at that time worth? Being able to see patterns in your opponents strategy (are they always picking the highest damage moves?), or see if they decided to follow your order to pick counter or not could be useful information in deciding a move to pick.

    Perhaps the biggest flaw by far is the sentence system. On paper it sounds quite nice, being able to pick words to form a sentence and influence how much each move is worth is clever. The obvious downside to this is just how limited your options for banter are, you will be seeing the same comments after just 1 game. The devs tried to fix this by adding as many words as possible, but created a flaw in doing so. The problem is the ability to create sentences without context.
    What do I mean by this? You may have read already you can say things like telling your opponent to pick counter, or saying you are going to pick the arrow. But you can also say things like "I think you are quite clever" or "It's time to party". The problem here is these statements have no meaning in the game, and they remove the interesting psychology aspects of doing what you say or outright lying about what you are going to do. When statements like "It's time to party" are used, the game instantly goes from being clever to being mindless, as you now have nothing to base your decision off except points, but combined with the interface problem mentioned earlier in this review, it is impossible to read your opponent when they say sentences like that. One could argue that the game isn't really a game of skill but a game of luck, but then why does the game have an ELO system, attempting to represent your skill in the game? (you see this number under your portrait in the main menu and maybe the statistics, which I haven't unlocked yet.) Why does the game have a tipping system to reward those who are good at the game, or those who played a good match, if the game is just mindless? Who the heck calls a game of random decisions "Smarter than You"? Some of the design decisions in the game clash, and because of it the game falls apart.

    The interface is the thing that needs the most improving. Following that, more options for play like the ability to type what you want (with character limits perhaps) and more sentence choices that have some context would also be nice (but perhaps not as needed).

    Ultimately, Smarter than You is a game of deceptive depth that implies it has much more under the surface than what is currently there. What could have been an interesting and somewhat luck based game with a healthy dash of skill has instead become an exercise of frustration as the game simply doesn't give you the information you want or need, as well as creating the possibility of saying pointless comments that do nothing to drive interesting decisions or to create dynamic and interesting social gameplay. The great thing about social games like mafia is that they are dynamic and a personality around each player can form, allowing the game to feel different everytime it is played, even with the same ruleset. However, Smarter than You feels the same even after the second match. With all the above, I simply cannot recommend this game in its current state, even at the incredible price of 0 dollars and 0 cents. Try it, maybe you will like it for a while, but don't expect to stick around for any longer than maybe half an hour.

    2.5/5 - Flawed in many ways, but some fun is definitely found in this package. Improvements are very easy and this game could definitely get the full 5/5 with some more effort.
     
  3. Anotherkellydown

    Anotherkellydown Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Bronze

    Ha! Thanks man! I wasn't sure if you paid for that or what because I see that some are free. I tipped you that game too. Lol. Sometimes I wish you could type your own message instead of the stock responses. So strange running into recognized TA members so frequently! I made a new friend because of this game. Ha!
     
  4. ScotDamn

    ScotDamn Well-Known Member
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    Yeah man, totally agree. Wish we could play around more with the words but that was an excellent MP experience! Good times. Always feel free to hit me up, this game will stick on my home screen for sure.
     
  5. Anotherkellydown

    Anotherkellydown Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Bronze

    Right on! :)
     
  6. Hypocrypha

    Hypocrypha Well-Known Member

    Mar 28, 2014
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    Great idea so VERY VERY SCREWED UP! Idk wth I just did, the tutorial is stupid, points are MEANINGLESS because scores aren't even SHOWN, I have no idea the repercussions, and the jiberish you message is completely incohesive and you have no choice but to make nonsensical comments. Deleted
     
  7. Montanx

    Montanx Well-Known Member

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    #27 Montanx, Sep 25, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2014
    So to form a semblance of strategy Iv adopted a few habits. When low on health, it's best to counter since only arrow will kill you. Attacking leaves you open to an attack or counter and arrow leaves you open to attack.

    The game is so pointless but I can't stop playing! It's a great time waster. Satisfying responses and feels like your smart when you win. Especially when you counter 2 times in a row their attack. I can just feel their frustration.
     
  8. Xexist

    Xexist Well-Known Member

    May 6, 2010
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    I hate to say it but I agree with Lavenders.

    Its a fun game, but not really strategic. It could be salvaged though, with some clever updates.
     
  9. Xexist

    Xexist Well-Known Member

    May 6, 2010
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    Speaking of nonsensical meaningless gibberish that is completely incohesive...
     
  10. doctorfedora

    doctorfedora Member

    Mar 23, 2010
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    I take Japanese text and make it English text, for
    Kyoto
    Game Impressions

    I can't help but agree that this is kind of a disappointment overall — I'm a big fan of the game Yomi and there's the occasional criticism of it, that the weighted RPS foundation to the game renders it essentially random (and it turns out that playing it as random is a great way to lose, hard), but the big difference between the two games is really that the effects of the different choices are so fundamentally different in Yomi as to be a meaningful decision (Increase hand size and thus options? Go for maximum damage? Prevent opponent from increasing their options?), while in this it's just…

    "hey, maybe they'll pick the biggest one, but maybe they think I'll think they'll do that, so… eh, whatever."

    There's no significant difference between the payoffs, especially when the randomizer picks the same value for two things. The sentences are cute, but in the end it just winds up feeling like there simply isn't enough "there" there. Ultimately disappointing — I'd wanted to like this game.
     
  11. MasonHurst

    MasonHurst Well-Known Member

    Jan 9, 2013
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    Well you have to give him props for making a serious u- turn from the last title. The safe thing would have been to make a slicker sequel, hype the match 3 aspect and try to get it to larger audience than RPG geeks (I sorta fit this category).
    He might have made some money from that also.

    I hope for his sake this shoots up the charts but I agree with another poster that it doesn't seem likely to line his pockets to a huge degree. Then again there's more to life and what the hell do I know?
     
  12. MasonHurst

    MasonHurst Well-Known Member

    Jan 9, 2013
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    Ok so he meant "incoherent" ... or maybe you meant incoherent? In any case I understood his tirade. At least it had passion to spare :)
     
  13. LucaRedwood

    LucaRedwood Active Member
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    Mar 14, 2011
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    Here's a neat tip, but If you are playing against someone from TA, they probably read this too, so you'll have to go deeper

    [​IMG]
     
  14. oooooomonkey

    oooooomonkey Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2011
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    Well this isn't very good :( bored after two games. And deleted.
     
  15. rnarvin

    rnarvin Well-Known Member

    Nov 11, 2012
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    Was enjoying the game since last night.. now can't even create/play any new games..
     
  16. mache

    mache Active Member

    Sep 25, 2014
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    The game its absolutely epic,very very nice!
     
  17. FireSlimeOnGaming

    FireSlimeOnGaming New Member

    Sep 25, 2014
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    Shucks, I was hoping this would be on iOS 6 too.
     
  18. Anotherkellydown

    Anotherkellydown Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Bronze

    It's good gravy :)
     
  19. Mess

    Mess Well-Known Member

    Jul 17, 2013
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    There's quite a few TA players on this, about 1/3 of my games so far :D

    Also this is a fun little game, but I dont think it will have great longevity. like most of these social pvp games, they come and go...
     
  20. Ponycakes

    Ponycakes Well-Known Member
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    Jun 27, 2012
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    #40 Ponycakes, Sep 25, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2014
    I'm definitely digging this. Rock Paper Scisssors was always fun anyway, as well as a game called Morra.

    This is coming from someone who loved 1000000. People, please don't try to shoehorn devs.
     

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