Bloobs Adventure Idle

Bloobs Adventure Idle is a game that until recently I enjoyed. It isn't sophisticated or requires constant micromanaging like some idler/clicker games I've played. It's a simple, relaxing game that could be seen as a homage to Runescape, as the two have a lot in common, which other commenters have mentioned.

The game currently has 23 skills and multiple locations that are slightly different enough to feel unique and offljne gain that saves up to 36 hours (more if you prestige Dexterity), the downside is that the only way to use it is lo have the game open. Bloobs Adventure has a Beastiary for the monsters, item Compendium for all items, and even a Thief's Log for the stalls and chests for the Thieving skill. The Rainbow Bloob (next to the bank) sells cosmetic outfits and the Stats board shows the stats for most skills, there's a lot of detail for certain parts of the game, which is great, this however brings me to the new skill, Soulblinding.

Soulbinding is a recent update in which skills and (some?) monsters give souls (which as of this review aren't currently added to the Beastiary). Souls are akin to pets in that they give bonuses. Souls are beyond extremely rare, playing for tens of hours and still not getting one of the 129 souls (25 of the 154 can be bought), the souls gotten from skilling/killing give bonuses stats, whereas the ones bought are simply cosmetic. The rarity of souls will most likely be improved as it's a new update and the developer is active, but even if a .0 is taken away, making the souls ten times more common, that's still over 1k hours to get roughly 100 of them.

I feel conflicted giving this game a negative review after the amount of time and enjoyment this game gave me. But for me, the idler/clicker genre are played to be fully completed, the new update has added thousands and thousands of hours to fully complete all achievements in this game, which is simply unfair.
After spending over 100 hours since the update came out, I've gotten a total of one soul, this has made me realise that getting the achievement that requires 100 souls would take (for me, at least) a possible time of 10,000 hours, which is an absurd amount of time to complete any game, even an idler. Fortunately you can buy 25 souls reducing the number required from 100 to 75. I understand that souls are extremely rare because you're meant to fully play the game to get them, which leads me to another problem, almost everything stops at level 100 (with the exception of Strength, Magic, and Range which still boost damage, as well as Beastmastery as that currently has two monsters that require over level 100 to fight) so getting prestiges to level 2, or 5, or even 10 with skills that stop at 100 feels pointless.

It seems that the developer wants people to fully complete the game in order to get all souls, which on its own is fine, most idle games have achievements that can only be required once you've gotten to the end-game, but since all skills (except the four mentioned earlier) stop at 100, forcing people to go above and beyond just for souls seems kind of cruel, the bonuses gotten from prestiging are minimal for the time it takes to unlock. Getting 10 prestige in Imbuing (Which takes billions of EXP) for 30% instant Imbue chance is just terrible and getting that far will take literally hundreds of hours, most likely going in to the 1000s.

The update has made me realise that the developer(s) is going too far too quickly, the game has been out for almost a year, but it already has a level cap of 1,000 but nothing above 100 for 22 of the 23 skills. It's not a bad game, as I mentioned earlier I quite enjoy it, but the sheer repetitiveness towards the later parts of the game where there's nothing but mindless grinding gets tiresome.

I want to preface this review by saying that I truly wanted Bloobs Idle Adventure to be a great game, and I am sad it didn't turn out that way. The game had the potential to be one of the best in its genre, but it fell short on many levels. I believe the main downfall stems from technical deficits. The developer implemented certain features, like the combat and movement systems, in a way that makes it difficult to change or fix them later on without completely rewriting core functionality.

The game also suffers from a lack of nuanced progression. Early tiers are rushed through, making the lower levels feel meaningless since you blow past them so quickly. Once you reach around level 60 in most skills, you're stuck letting the Bloob run for days to level up, which makes it feel like you breeze through the actual content the game has to offer, only to be left idling for the rest of the time.

Additionally, the game uses far more CPU resources than a game of this type should, which suggests that it is heavily under-optimized. This ties back to the technical deficit I mentioned earlier.

Before the game’s release, the developer cultivated a positive community and vibe, which led me to believe he genuinely wanted to improve the game based on user feedback and bug reports. However, after the game launched, his attitude changed significantly. There were instances in the Discord where I or others mentioned a bug or suggestion, only to be met with hostility from the developer and his close associates. It seems that the technical deficit I mentioned influences how well a bug fix or suggestion is received; if the developer perceives the fix as tedious, he is more likely to dismiss your suggestion. There was even a situation in the Discord where suggestions were labeled as "hand-holding" by his group.

Overall, between the technical deficits, unbalanced progression, and the shift in the developer's attitude within the community, I would advise against purchasing the game at the moment. I might give it another try in a few months, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Good game. Responsive and friendly dev. I asked for scroll bars to keep their place when swapping windows and he liveposted himself adding it in real time.