So Pokemon Go has been out for a few weeks now (depending on
where you live or if you’re willing to download the apk), and although I’m far
from the reaching max level I think I’ve played around with it enough to be
able to review the game as it currently stands, warts and all, and there are
quite a few warts despite its enormous popularity, but let’s get into what it
does right first.
Exploration:
One of the most successful aspects of Pokemon Go is how it
encourages people to go outside, explore their communities, and get some
exercise and it does so in several synergetic ways: going into new areas yields
different Pokemon than you might find in your home neighbourhood, the nearby
list encourages you to travel to find them, you’ll most likely need to leave
your house to take gyms and hit up Pokestops, eggs hatch based on how far you
walk or bike, and you get more Pokemon from the Incense item while moving as
opposed to standing still. All of these systems synergize well together to get
people out and about, and help make things exciting.
Community:
Since so many people own this game and are hunting outside,
they’re bound to run into each other as they track down the same elusive
Pokemon. Such encounters lead to people talking, swapping stories of their
successes and failures (goddamn you Lapras!), and working together to either
take gyms, find Pokemon faster, or to set down a Lure Mod at a Pokestop so the
Pokemon will come to you (which also has the effect of attracting more people).
So far all my encounters have been positive despite the animosity between the
three teams.
Candy and Dust:
The system they have in place for evolving and powering up
your roster is quite clever in my opinion and encourages people to go out and
catch just about any Pokemon even if its one they already have. Each branch of
Pokemon has their specific type of candy and you need X candy to evolve a lower
tier Pokemon into the next tier. Each Pokemon caught awards 3 candy for their
respective branch and you can trade them in for an additional candy (with bonus
candy coming from eggs). Because you generally need lots of candy to reach a
Pokemon’s final tier, this keeps you going out and hunting them down. Dust
meanwhile is used in combination with a small amount of candy to increase a
Pokemon’s CP, making it more powerful. Dust is a common resource to all Pokemon
so you need to use it wisely and only upgrade your best or favourite fighter.
Overall it’s a simple and easy to understand mechanic which adds a surprising
level of depth, replayability, and decision-making to the game.
Fun:
Quite simply, its fun walking around hunting Pokemon even if
you’re by yourself. Nothing beats the feeling of catching a rare and/or
powerful Pokemon out in the wild so you can brag to your friends and fill out
that Pokedex. I’d argue that this is the most successful aspect of the game,
and the desire to catch ‘em all is what keeps many people playing despite many
other issues that we’ll get into now.
Server Issues:
I think this has to be the number one issue for most
players. Although connection problems were expected at launch what with the
millions of people downloading and attempting to play it all at once, the fact
these problems continue to persist weeks later, and are at times even worse, is
a tad worrying. From a failure to load up gyms and Pokestops to straight up
server crashes the problems just never seem to end. The most obnoxious of all
is when the Pokeball freezes after you’ve thrown it at a Pokemon requiring you
to reboot the game in order to learn if you actually caught the damned thing,
or more likely that it timed out. This is especially annoying when it happens
with a Pokemon you don’t have (damn you Charmander!). Although I think my worst
experience with server issues has to be when the servers went down 5 minutes
after I popped both a Lucky Egg and an Incense.
GPS:
In addition to an internet connection, the game obviously
requires your location in the real world in order to know when Pokemon spawn near you. I suppose depending on your phone, and perhaps where you live, the GPS
can be flaky sometimes, however this can also be beneficial. While it might
refuse to move you to where you actually are thereby causing you to miss out on
a Pokemon, Gym, or Pokestop, in my case it often moved me closer to these spots
without me actually have to move at all. What’s more it often thinks I’m
walking when I am, in fact, sitting down, allowing me to hatch eggs without
moving. It may be ugly, but I’m not complaining.
Nearby List:
The nearby list is indispensible for tracking down Pokemon,
which is why its so frustrating that for the past week or so, all Pokemon are
displayed as being three steps away no matter how close they actually are. This
essentially means I need to rely on either blind luck or previous knowledge of
spawn locations in order to find them. The whole exploration element has kinda
been shot to shit as a result with most players sticking to the small areas
around their homes or workplaces rather than wandering aimlessly afield in the vain
hope of finding something. A small note I’d also like to add, when the list is
working why is the order of nearby Pokemon reversed on the mini-display in the
corner compared to the larger list when you tap on it? It makes no sense.
Gyms:
Although going around taking gyms with friends can be fun,
and the reward of dust and coins to spend in the shop is nice, I can’t help but
feel that it’s a bit repetitive and borderline pointless. Battles are reduced
to tapping furiously on the screen and praying that you dodge properly. But
even if you don’t it doesn’t matter as gyms are won with overwhelming numbers,
not skill. This makes them easy for just about anyone to capture which is more
of a curse than a blessing in my opinion as that just means that all the work
you put in to taking a gym will likely be undone within an hour at most.
Furthermore, more advanced players have quickly figured out which Pokemon are
objectively the best which I feel will soon culminate in bland metagame of
endless Vaporeons who are inexplicably powerful (even compared to the other
Eevee evolutions, or Pokemon they are supposedly “weak” against). I think we’ll
see two types of Pokemon Go players; casuals who just wanna “catch ‘em all” (ie
fill out the Pokedex), and the hardcore who wanna “be the very best” (ie take
and fruitlessly try to hold gyms). Unless you go out with a group of like 20
people and power up a gym hard, or you and two other friends hit up a set path
of gyms as fast as you can, I feel this aspect of the game is mostly pointless.
For what its worth in time and gas you might as well just buy the coins.
Leveling:
Early on leveling is pretty breezy as the thresholds are
lower and any Pokemon you catch are likely to be new, netting you plenty of
bonus experience, but as you get higher up and the amount you need increases
while the amount you get decreases if anything, leveling gets as grindy as any
MMO. You basically just need to catch endless amounts of Pidgeys and Weedles so
you can evolve them and throw them out. Their only value is the candy they give
which ironically makes Pidgeottos and Kakunas worse to find as they give the
same amount of candy but are harder to catch. A popular method to acquiring
them is to camp out at a spot with two or more Pokestops to throw down Lure
Mods at and just sit there catching the countless Weedles and Pidgeys that
spawn. On that note, for all the hype they generate, Lure Mods mostly just
attract trash making them far more passive and boring than just going out and
actually finding Pokemon.
Urban Bias:
Players quickly discovered that Pokenmon Go favours large
cities as opposed to rural areas in just about every conceivable way. Urban
locales have far more Gyms and Pokestops in far greater concentrations, and
what’s more the game determines the quality and rarity of Pokemon that spawn
based essentially on population. This means that city-dwellers get better
Pokemon simply because of where they live. Many don’t even have to leave their
homes or workplaces to hit up Pokestops, hold Gyms, and capture Pokemon that
might require someone who lives in a small town to drive for miles. I live in a
suburban area so I don’t have it too bad, but nowhere near as good as people
who live even a half hour drive away in a more densely populated environment. I
can’t even imagine how tough it must be for players who live in farming
communities or mountain towns. My heart goes out to them, and I hope Niantic
gives them some love soon.
Game Communication:
The game could do a much better job about teaching you certain
core aspects. Like how you want to throw the Pokeball when the coloured circle
is smaller not larger. Though I’m still not certain if a Nice Throw is better
than a throw when the circle is small but where you don’t get a bonus. And what
is a curveball exactly? I’ve seen videos describing them, but I’ve thrown
curveballs without doing anything shown in the videos. Or how about how Incense
spawns more Pokemon when you’re moving as opposed to standing still. That would
have been useful to know before I popped those two Incenses I started with.
Also, it would be nice to have more info on how gyms work. Like how to time
dodges, or use your secondary attack, or that you need to tap the screen
repeatedly to attack. Pretty basic stuff. Oh, and also how you collect rewards for
controlling gyms. Did you know that there’s a small button in the shop which
you can click to get those rewards? And that the number in the button indicates
how many gyms you can collect from up to a maximum of 10? And that you get 500
dust and 10 coins multiplied by that number? And that when you click it there’s
no confirmation message, so don’t tap it unless you’re sure? All of this would
be good to know. And what about the variations between Pokemon? What does XS
mean versus XL? What are the differences between all of the abilities and how
does CP relate to what I assume is the damage number next to each ability? All
of these questions and more the game deigns not worthy of answering. You’ll need
to go online to find out by looking at the forums, and not by asking Niantic.
They don’t say shit. Which conveniently brings me to my final point.
Dev Communication:
Niantic really needs to hire a community relations
manager, because right now all they have are some sporadic tweets that fail epically
to address the needs and concerns of the playerbase. When will the server
issues or the three-step glitch be fixed? Will they make Gyms more interesting
or address the Vaporeon endgame? Will Lure Mods become more worthwhile? Will
the game ever be playable for rural users? And what about the features that were
promised? When will we see trading, PvP outside of gyms (which barely qualifies
as PvP since nobody actually controls the defending Pokemon), or those crazy
events featured in the trailer? Hell, I’d like to see smaller scale random events
just to keep things interesting and maybe provide another much needed source of
experience. Is there a way to give them this suggestion? Do they even listen?
Who knows! They certainly don’t talk to us.
Final Thoughts:
Despite all of its problems I feel Pokemon Go is
successful where it really counts. The core systems are solid overall even if
they don’t work half the time, and it should satisfy most Pokemon fans. I think
there’s a truly great game hiding in here that we’re just going to have to wait
to see it, but when that will be I have no idea. As I said, the devs keep their
lips shut tight, which has perhaps been the most detrimental aspect of the
launch. For now though I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they
know what they’re doing, and that I’ll be happy with the end product because
this certainly isn’t it.
