▼ Not recommended
137 hrs
Edit: I've lost over $30 [their valuation] of play-earned premium currency to bugs. I recommend to avoid spending money on the game in its present state, given the risk of loss..
Inherently, one of the better idle/clicker games out there. It presently lacks the depth or range of upgrades to really compete with the most notable offerings (as well as currently having plenty of issues that put it more in line with the less reputable offerings), but its core design foundation is readily comparable to most of the more sophisticated idle offerings, and it's well ahead of the average idle/clicker game.
- - -
We'll get to why it's not recommendable in a bit, but let's cover some of the less notable issues first:
The game has quite a few bugs (I even got 4 different bugs in succession within a 10 minute period once), but so far all the ones I've seen have been tied to specific side elements (eg, being unable to complete a specific achievement, or a stage modifier not properly affecting a specific skill) or have been based in game crashes. As far as large scale issues, save file corruption, etc, I haven't seen any such issues, and the game appears to have solid redundancy in place to avoid such concerns. That said, while not overly significant, the bugs do get a somewhat irritating over time. In that vein, it's worth noting that offline gains have only worked for me once across over 20 offline periods. [Edit: Offline gains seem to work now.]
The game has quite a range of balancing issues (as well as presently having overly limited build synergies) but, unlike some developers, this one seems inclined to properly go back and adjust such elements, rather than solely rushing forward at the expense of early/core foundations. Given that it's an early access game, the current progression in that regard seems fine.
- - -
Presently, there are three main issues that earn this game a Not Recommended:
First, the game's animation speed is almost exactly a fifth of what you'd expect it to be, meaning the game progression feels needlessly draggy. If the game had the ability to unlock increased game speed, as some idle games do, that'd work as a fix for the matter but, presently, the game is on par with the more glacial, unengaging idle games. That is to say, even though the game supports some degree of active play, the animation/progression speed puts you so far off it (and, even, off of keeping the game up at all), that you'll be more inclined to rely on offline gains than bother with having the game open at all.
- -
Second, the developer is needlessly unwelcoming to reasonable feedback and perspectives. While some of those engaging with the developer are certainly overly hostile about it, the developer's reactions sometimes border on nonsensical.
For example, while it was a bit rudely presented, one individual commented that the game progression felt contrary to typical idle games, in that the game got draggier and draggier as it went on, due to the way the game focused more on increasing difficulty across the entirety of the sections of each new stage [after each of the game's 2nd and 3rd versions of rebirth] rather than on expanding stage range into more difficult stage sections (as most idle games do).
That is to say, in many idle games you'll get further in stage progression each rebirth, rushing through earlier levels of that stage faster and faster; In this game, you'll take more and more initial (1st) rebirths to overcome early parts of a stage, before finally progressing at a similar rate as you did in earlier (2nd/3rd) rebirths through the remainder of the stage.
To make that even simpler, that means that the early gameplay each rebirth gets slower and slower, while the late gameplay remains unchanged in its rate of progression. It's rather different than the usual "stack bonuses and replay the same content, so that you can feel stronger and get further as you go on" style of most idle games. Instead, it feels as though you're running a race track, and they keep insisting you climb an ever-larger mountain before running the same track again.
By way of that arrangement, the user noted that it felt as though our character gets weaker over time, rather than stronger. Which, really, seems like a reasonable perspective, given the design. Of course, inherently, this progression design could be considered a stylistic choice on the part of the developer but, instead of taking that stance, the developer responded with a "that's just how the genre is, deal with it". So, not only was the response factually wrong (that's really NOT how games of the genre typically progress), it was needlessly rude, as well as being problematically dismissive.
- -
Finally, and relating closely to the second issue, the game is significantly over-dependent on its premium currency system. The game adheres strongly to the three major fails of freemium design: First, the underlying systems are overly handicapped to encourage the premium currency. Second, the premium currency is overly potent in effect. Third, the premium currency is notably overpriced.
To be clear, you CAN earn premium currency in-game but, it ends up being a "do you want to spend two weeks, or spend $5" deliberation. Of course, the cost of the upgrades increases each activation [of a specific upgrade] and there doesn't seem to be a cap to how many times you can upgrade anything- so, definitely, the developer doesn't seem disinclined to letting you spend as much as you'd like, to overpower yourself for the gameplay.
And, in line with the second issue noted above, the premium upgrades really DO make your character feel more potent across future progression. In fact, the premium upgrade system significantly overshadows any other upgrade system in the game. Moreover, while the other systems seem poorly balanced for maintaining smooth progression because they lag behind, the premium system is poorly balanced because it overshadows the delays caused by progression.
As a more mechanical example: If it takes you 3 (game's 1st version of rebirth) to complete a stage initially, it'll slowly go up to 8 as you progress (through 2nd and 3rd versions of rebirth). But then [after reaching 8] you activate a single premium upgrade, and it goes all the way down to 2 rebirths needed to complete a stage.
In fact, it takes you four upgrades in one of the (3rd form of rebirth) upgrade trees to gain the exact same effect as one single premium upgrade purchase- an unlock that takes perhaps 2 months of play to unlock. Charging $5+ for the same effect seems generous now, doesn't it? 🙄
As with many freemium games of this sort, when you add up all such factors, it's hard to draw any conclusion other than "the base progression is intentionally stymied to overly encourage premium upgrades"- though the fact that the game doesn't even balance well against the premium upgrades makes the whole thing a mess start-to-end.
There is, after all, a reason why premium upgrades in games usually accent features, add convenience features, or add relatively minor (but stacking) bonuses, rather than applying the same bonuses as core systems but cheaper. It's just impossible to balance a game properly with the kind of design the developer is currently utilizing.
That's not to say that pay-to-boost mechanics are inherently a negative, just that the paid elements have to subtly add to the game's foundations, rather than overshadow them completely, nevermind imbalance the entire game to the point of "whoops, I put in a few too many cheat codes".
- - -
Honestly, this game is toeing a line between being excellent and being a complete train-wreck, and at the moment it's impossible to tell in which direction it'll eventually fall. Given how dubious the developer's interactions with players have been thus far (at least, of the ones I've come across), there's currently no reason to expect the game to end up with the more favorable of those outcomes.
