Got any easy questions?? I'd personally recommend it from where I stand right now but freemium is too difficult to judge at an early stage. In the time I've spent with it (2 hours or so total so far), I've had no issues and plenty of fun but its hard to say how that'll pan out with freemium. I'd recommend trying it out. @virtualboyfreak. Thanks for that piece of info by the way. Very handy to know, its appreciated
It's pretty fun, worth a try. I ultimately felt all I was doing was trying to complete the challenges to earn chips, and the challenges were trying to get me to spend the chips I was trying to earn. Controls are awkward on an iPad as well, definitely more suited for the smaller devices.
Thanks for the imps guys, I will grab it but A8 will probably take most of my time anyway. Well second to kids, wife, work and all that lol
Was looking good until the timerz part. Well, guess will download to see how good it is now that I played A8 some.
So...this game... I freaking love the gameplay. It's almost like an open world Reckless Getaway with roadblocks and spike strips and mayhem and speed boats. And that's just awesome. The controls are perfect. The graphics and art style is great. The menus are smooth and are made 100% with touchscreen in mind. Fast loading. Only issue is some lag on my iPhone 4. The gameplay is fantastic but... (And this is a huge but) Those goddamn freemium mechanics! Ugh. Just...ugh. 5 runs and then you have to wait 10 minutes. The next car costs 10,000 credits, which isnt that bad, but every other car is unlocked with chips. I think the next one is 45 chips or something. Upgrades and gear prices are way too high to balance between upgrading, equipping gear, and unlocking new cars. This game could have been perfect but the freemium model is just garbage. It's an absolute shame because I love the gameplay. It's so fun. If this was a 0.99, 1.99, 2.99 premium game, I would have bought it in an instant. Instead I already deleted
*Partial Quote - Edited for length* Considering the lawyer (to double the amount of plays from 5 to 10) without the wait timers is around $10 U.S., how much do you think the "ultimate lawyer would be? $20? Is this game worth that? Especially considering it would still be a harsh grindfest to get the rest of the cars. This little mini game's not worth what the developer seems to think it is. Their value of the game $30+ ($10 for lawyer and $20 more for some unlocks). My value $0 in its current state. And deleted. And in response to Bronx, the 10 minute wait is for 1 more run (I thought it was 20, whatever). So 50 minutes or 100 to get another 5 runs.
Installed, played, deleted. I bought the original and loved it despite my qualms and quibbles, then tried Smash to see what it was all about when it released. The freemium model here ruins it for me as well and worse it seems the quality of the game has diminished from the previous in my opinion. Perhaps because they had to compromise things to run better as a open world racer of sorts, but the game just doesn't look as clean as the original, from the graphics, to the U.I. to the serviceable splash screens. It just feels like a game made by a different developer trying to ape the previous games formula, if that makes any sense. I'm just sort of disappointed with this one, as there are things I like about it but as a whole it feels uneven. If anything positive can be said it is that the controls for iPad users seems better than the previous game. Moving on to Asphalt 8 as this has now been deleted from my iPad. Hopefully that will faire better...
Took a break from A8 for a few minutes to check this out and it's great. Massive upgrade and better car handling/controls than it's predecessors. But I agree with others that the whole freemium system sucks. I'm not ready to delete it just yet and plan to spend some more time with it to see how bad it gets or if I'm willing to put up with the crap in exchange for the excellent gameplay. However, I think the devs really blew a chance at a great game by not going the premium route. Others, as others have posted, will see it as an instant turn off - understandably - and delete it. Ashame, this has the makings of a must-have game.
Oh Hutch Hutch Hutch, you're like a frustrating girl i'm trying to take on a date. Giving me mixed signals and confusing me ! Installed, did the tutorial, graphics look great, the control system works really well (Wasnt an option for buttons like Smash Cops though) but works well. Played about 3 or so missions, no problems with IAP's, paywall or timers (yet). I'm sure if i really get into it then it'll get frustrating. Had a look at the IAP's, theres quite a few, sadly not one called 'just unlock this game to make it 'normal' with no timers or coins so you can continue' So frustrating games nowadays with all this 'post to facebook ?' (in other words wind up all your friends with boring iOS adverts) or 'post to twitter' (again annoy everyone on twitter while you do advertising for Hutch). What with freemium, timers, annoy everyone on Facebook/twitter, it can be very frustrating !! Smash Cops was brilliant, they then re-released it as a freemium game. Here they've gone straight to freemium which is a huge shame. The game itself is a lot of fun, is there an option to turn off the blue arrows (the hints for things you can smash into ?). But i'm worried the further i go the more annoying it'll be. In the old arcades you had to put in more money to continue, now 30 years later on a mobile device we have to pay for 'lawyer coins' or whatever to continue if you run out, frustrating I think i'll stick to Vice City where i smash into cop cars and see how long i can survive with 3 or 4 sheriff stars when the police/CIA etc are all after me. If this was a $3 or $5 game i'll be nominating it for game of the week. Have Hutch gone freemium as simply Smash Cops didnt sell well (and thats why they made that freemium ?), who knows. Are we to blame for not buying it or are Hutch simply copying everyone and going down Freemium Hell avenue ? Big shame with this game
I was about to buy this game from the app store, but then I realized it was free and decided to pass on it.
Heartbreaking. As so many others have noted, this could be one of those defining games that becomes a showcase for what mobile touchscreen gaming can be. Instead, it breaks the presentation by hiding that polish and gaming quality behind timers and currency. I can only hope that Hutch release a proper premium edition. Such a waste.
Have any devs done that? Made a free game a paid game? If they added a 1.99 or 2.99 app that removed timers, made everything one currency, and adjusted/lowered prices of cars and gear/upgrades, I'd be buying that as fast. Like I said, I loved the game, it's fantastic but the freemium stuff is too much and destroys any potential the game already had
I kinda like freemium, because I can at least try games for free with no ADs thanks to some rich kids buying IAPs
As mentioned here, the game is a blast to play, AS LONG AS YOU ARE ABLE TO PLAY. Timers suck the life out of anything gaming. I'd pay $5 to remove the timers. Even if they keep all the other freemiumness in it, just NO TIMERS.
Here here ! Such a shame. Hope they update it. If people arent happy then leave an app store review, i think thats one way of getting the dev to change it (i hope). I'm just going to do that now
That's the thing, these companies have these metrics telling them the average cash value per user, and they will not make any move whatsoever which might alter that value by a penny. When companies get to that point, where the only game they are really interested in is their average user value, I just decide that they've gone "Full Greed" pretty much like Bogart's character in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", and that the only way to bring them to sanity is to starve the greedy beast within. I simply won't download this type of game, and if enough people don't do so, it'll break them down. I think this breaking point on Pay to Play Freemium is coming soon anyways. Competition between the vast number of F2P's is heating up in the face of the staggering numbers of them. They can't all succeed in such an oversaturated marketplace. It's such a shame to me on this game since the original was with me when I was going through a really tough time, and it took my mind off the situation in a positive way. And now from the reports it sounds like they've basically turned it into "Real Reckless Racing 3" with the timers. Imagine if they would allow us a reasonable unlock! I mean, the average user does not actually exist, it is just a mathematically formulated statistic, it isn't an actual person! I will never buy consumable IAP's in any game or app whatsoever, so companies which use this model get $0 from me, but I would pay $3 or $5 for an unlock. Surely, from this user, $5 is more than $0. But then these companies get itchy when they consider what this may do to their average cash value per userÂ… So I'm only able to tell them "Enjoy your 'Full Greed', this apparently non-average user isn't going to play your business model." Hopefully the free to play market is currently so oversaturated that this game fails dramatically.
