I'd have to say you put it very well. I can't say I've hit any problems myself yet but its definitely divisive for people in the way things are done. I'm not convinced I'll spend a lot of time with it but in saying that I can't say its bad either. I'll admit I generally have a much more lenient view to freemium than most on here but that's because of the perspective and info I'm working with. And the likelihood is high that the premium version of Smash Cops just didn't monetize anywhere near as well as the Heat version of it. Which is more an indicator of the faults in the system itself than the game. Everybody has to monetize. It'd be nice if premium did actually stand a chance of competing though. Its just such an extremely difficult balancing act. If I come to a point where I have no chips to bribe cops or simply not accumulating them, well, then I'll give up. But I just haven't got to that point. In saying that, there are aspects of freemium that I hate as much as the next guy (pay to win/in app currency only to dominate multiplayer/leaderboards for example), but I'm not really finding too many of them here. Well, not yet anyway. But that could be my different perspective as well in that if chips bypass timers, well, I'll just use them and consider the problem solved. Assuming though that they have a value for money proposition to some degree. But, anyway, different tolerance levels and all that, just on your later point on app reviews, while they do play an extremely important part, daily usage numbers are currently probably the biggest factor so realistically, drops in daily usage are what have the biggest impact. So if you dislike a model, just deleting is what gets the results. The problem there is obvious though.
Confirmed, if you buy the cars in order, you can buy all of them with cash instead of chips. I just bought the third car with cash and now the fourth car (check pic) has its price in cash too. The only question remaining is if the lawyer is something permanent or if after reaching 10 stars it goes back to 5 stars...
Ah, okay. Thanks. All that seems reasonable to me. Along with what appletini says below, that shouldn't really be a problem for anybody. Thanks both for that info.
I don't like how there's no missions like Smash Cops :/ it's just the same thing everytime : Pretty much just try and last as long as you can and smash the most stuff. It gets pretty tiresome after awhile
No, the game definitely has a range of different challenges (missions) for you to complete in order to earn chips and levels. These cover most aspects of the game, running along the lines of "Ram 10 cop cars in total", "Reach 3 checkpoints in one run", "Purchase a new car", "Survive a River Dash", etc.
This was a real blast until the timer kicked in. I could deal with the other freemium mechanics, maybe even buy some IAP because the game looks and plays great. But I find timers to be disrespectful and insulting. Deleted.
+1 to this. The game is actually pretty good, just that there are timers that you'll have to deal with. Not too bad, but i hope there was some way to counter the timers, or remove them altogether.
Yeah, I love the game too. But the IAP and freemium stuff just ruined all my enjoyment. Why can't everyone follow the Trial By Survival method and lets you remove those elements?
The main problem I have with the game isn't even the timer issue, more the fact that there's not really that much to the game, and that it starts feeling repetitive way too quickly. I can't help but feel that if the world were procedurally generated from the same building blocks rather than working from a fixed map, it would have more replay value. As it stands, driving around the same areas, racing the exact same river section, and pulling the same driving stunts starts feeling old far more quickly than it should. I just can't help feeling that a trick has been missed here. As a side note, I really, really hate "missions" that show up asking you to buy something expensive a couple of minutes after you've spent all your money doing exactly that.
I gave this some more time and am kind of feeling the same way. The missions are really the only replay value and it's not like they change the gameplay up. The core game here is nice and controls well. I just think regardless of IAPs and timers, it's going to get old. It's been a loooong time since I played the first one, but didn't that have different locations? I remember not liking the controls all that much, but they feel good here. Just needs something more to spice things up. I'd even prefer the level-based concept of Reckless Getaway with different environments than a somewhat "open world" that this uses. EDIT: Looked back and guess the first one also was just one city. But I think it was the division of actual level-based missions as well as mini-games that made it feel less repetitive.
Exactly what I was going to post after reading that these runner style missions were considered the same as the missions in the original game.
I completely agree. At first I thought that the track was randomly generated, but the truth is the only random thing is the place where you begin to race. It's like an endless runner with objectives. After you discover how to make longer runs, there isn't much more depth to it.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I love this game, but you can only play 4 times in a row before you have to either shell out "chips" or buy chips to use to continue playing - or wait till the timer lets you play. This got deleted instantly. I'd pay to get rid of the timer, but as it stands, it's gone from my iPad. Sorry Hutch!
Wait timers are synonymous to the dung that gets stuck in the treads of my shoes. You can scrape it out, but eventually you'll just step in more.
You're far from jumping to extreme conclusions when you have been conditioned to dodge the pitfalls of Freemium on a perpetual basis. Not your fault. Make no apologies.
Finally got the 50 chips by completing achievements to buy the lawyer. The 10 wanted slots are permanent, and you can't buy another lawyer to increase it to 20 wanted slots nor anything similar. I haven't spent a cent on the game, I'd only buy a one-time IAP to remove the timer. Since this seems is not going to happen anytime soon, I'm not spending real money on consumable IAP. Btw, chips are harder to get as you level up, so if you plan on playing a lot, I strongly recommend saving all of them for the lawyer and value doing missions which require you to spend them, such as "use a police car to...". Also, as I said before, all the cars get a money price tag as soon as you buy the previous one. I have bought the first 4 cars this way, and the 4th car (the red one) was on sale for 60,000 coins when I bought it Talking about the map, I'm not sure if it's always the same or if there are several sections which are joined together differently in every game you play. For example, I think the boat section doesn't always appear on the same place (or at least it doesn't seem to). I think I read somewhere that the map was randomized, but I'm not sure. EDIT: the map is randomized. I guess they made several sections which link together and it's not always the same. After getting off the boat I continued around 500m with the car and then I went back to where the docks were supposed to be, but I found the city instead. This also happens with the boat sections: sometimes they are longer and sometimes shorter. This is a nice tweak, even though the scenery feels repetitive after a few times playing. EDIT 2: from the devs webpage: Will Whitaker CCO of Hutch: ...Weve made a procedurally generated world that gives players a unique drive every time they play and the amount of destructible environment means endless opportunities to explore new routes. So there you go, the map is different every time. I must admit that they made the sections join together very smoothly. I don't notice where sections are linked.
