▼ Not recommended
1 hrs
Cute creature collecting game... sure, I can see it.
But to try to sell this as an "idler" or as a game that "easily fits into your routine...while working, studying or relaxing" is downright misleading and a very inaccurate description of the actual game play.
It does sit cozily at the bottom of your screen as many idlers do, but that is where the similarities end. You are just constantly clicking for everything!! From collecting the whimlings, crystals (currency) and eggs, from selecting animals to breed and constantly having to navigate the different tabs. You have to be watching and babysitting to see any real progression. The tutorial was helpful. I find I just didn't have the patience. It just doesn't feel very "idle" to me. It felt more of a distraction and soon became an annoyance.
This unfortunately was not what I was looking for in my idling experience. If you want something adorable to look at on your screen with the option to click here and there (while still seeing progression), there are better options out there. If you are looking for creature collecting tho, I could see how this is enjoyable for some as it offers options for decorating and expanding your exploration to different biomes for more varied creatures.
It is just not for me, sadly. I will not be catching them all >.>
▼ Not recommended
21 hrs
My friend bought this game for me because she is the best! My copy was paid for, but I got it for free.
I really enjoyed the game a lot, but there are three major things and one minor thing I would like to warn others about if they are considering getting it:
0 - Minor - SEMI-IDLE. As some of the other negative reviews have pointed out, this game does not start out as a good idle experience. For the first 1-2 hours of game play, I was either not leaving the game screen at all or coming back to it every minute or two to babysit the breeding pairs, garden buddies, and collecting gems. It took until about 2 hours before I had upgraded the breeding enclosures enough to let them sit for a couple minutes before getting full enclosure notification sounds. I did not mind this whatsoever, but if you are looking for a non-distracting game to only fill your empty moments and that continues to make progress even when you have to be idle for longer than a minute or two, and do not want to invest an hour or two getting this game to that point, I would advise steering clear.
1 - Major - PERFORMANCE. This game, for what it is, absolutely ate through my computer's memory when I left it open for hours. Especially if I ever let my critter collection go above around 15-20 pages. Now, I don't have the best specs, but they are well over the game's recommended and I can run ARK:SE with less overheating and lag. I found myself having to shut down my discord and spotify to keep the game running smoothly during the larger breeding grinds, which defeats the purpose of a bottom-of-screen idler. Saving & quitting every hour or two and starting the game back up helped lessen this issue, but was mildly annoying, especially as the breeding enclosure sorting filters would always default back to green circle. (My Specs in case you want to compare your own: Windows 10, Intel Core i7, 16GB Ram)
2 - Major - CRASHES. This is almost certainly related to #1. I had multiple memory error crashes while playing this game. In all but one of these cases, I was forced to restart my entire laptop due to the errors caused. I attempted running the game without any other active user applications open to avoid the issue when I got the third crash. At least that time the entire computer did not lock up. Saving & quitting every hour or two and starting the game back up helped avoid this issue entirely.
3 - Major - LIMITED GAME PLAY LOOP. I had completed unlocking the locations within about 15 hours of game play, most of which was indeed idle after I got a few enclosure upgrades to allow me to leave it sitting for more than a minute. At 20 hours, I would have 100%'d the game if it were not limiting my ability to use other applications on my computer. At this point, the store has absolutely no small items left to buy, there's nothing left to unlock except for waiting for the last legendary body part to finally spawn, there's no more achievements to reach for, and I cannot upgrade anything, so my gems are just climbing with no purpose now. There is no reset option in the settings and no means by which to start any additional runs either, so doing a new run is not an option. The garden also only had two expansions, which I have completely filled with decorations.
I cannot stress enough that while I have put in 20 hours, that was only about 5-6 hours of active interaction with the game. It succeeded in being an idler after some initial set-up, but failed due to the other issues I was having with performance and crashing. For an idler, progress is honestly too fast for the limited goals the game sets you. Except for setting myself breeding goals independently, waiting for RNGesus to finally bless me with the new legendary notification sound, and erasing my garden to decorate it a new way, I am left with nothing to do or aim for already. The game has essentially become a sandbox creature builder and garden designer. Neither of which are very idle uses of the game.
The game sometimes feels like it is missing intended content, such as the interactive item tab appearing as if it is meant to hold multiple types of interactive items, but only having 2 kinds of balls after buying out all the small items the shop has to offer and as many large items as has been possible. Perhaps there are more in the large items and I have just been unlucky not to see them.
FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS. I do actually recommend this game if it seems like something you would enjoy on the provisions that you have a better computer than mine OR do not mind restarting the game every few hours like me. It is extremely cute, the mechanics work well, and I think the UI in particular is well designed and organized. The creature creation, variety of traits for them, and the garden designing are top tier with plenty of room for creativity.
However, I cannot recommend it for players that want any of the following: an idler experience right off the bat, a game with low memory impact, or a game that will give you reasons to keep coming back to it beyond a sandbox.
SUGGESTIONS FOR DEVELOPERS. In case the developers read this and have any intention of adding to the game in the future, I want to provide some constructive suggestions that could make the game play loop feel more rewarding.
- Add more steam achievements. Setting up achievements for hatching thousands or tens of thousands of creatures, even if the achievements do nothing in the game itself, would give motivation to continue personal breeding projects at the end of the game's goals.
- Add more garden expansions. The main world goes on and on, but the garden is only about two screens wide. It does not take much at all to fill in all the available space of the fully expanded garden. Allowing more expansions would require more gems, give more decorating space, and could allow for more garden buddy slots, which would again require even more gems.
- Unique quest rewards or unlocks. Adding a progress bar that fills as quests are completed and either directly grants new decorations or unlocks them in the store each time it is filled would give much greater incentive to keep completing quests after the main game play is finished. Perhaps a single critter with all unique body parts could even be rewarded after completing a large number of quests.
- Multiple save states or in game reset option. Many players enjoy a game they can play over and over, using different strategies or self-imposed rules on subsequent play throughs. Multiple save states would be popular for those of us who enjoy designing gardens, but don't want to completely lose the ones we have. I will try to find the save data in the game files to move it elsewhere so that I can attempt a new run without any inbreeding, but having an in game option to do that would be much more accessible to a wider range of players.
