Pixel Chess Idle RPG

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I played Pixel Chess Idle RPG for quite a while before deciding whether or not to recommend it. The time on my game isn't accurate to my actual play time. I had to idle it, as the game's title suggests, from time to time. I found myself playing it for the first 30 minutes or so then start to work on strategizing on how to improve my upgrades and time management. Then idled it for the next 4-5 hours before coming back to do some more. After that first session, I was playing maybe 15-20 minutes at a time and idling 30 minutes to an hour in between. By playing I was actually just clicking through the upgrade after rebirth trying to maximize money and minimizing time used.

As for the chess component, it's not really chess. Don't go into this thinking you are getting a chess game. The pawns will move forward and can attack forward and diagonally. The king can move in and out of checking positions. There is no illegal move. The pieces have health, damage, and there are upgrades that you can purchase and repurchase each rebirth. The game gets harder in the higher levels not because there is deeper computer analysis of the board, it is only because enemy pieces hit harder and have more health.

As for the strategic component of this game, it's really a lot of chance. The computer makes some really dumb decisions at times and it is easy to work around them. The computer probably has a ELO of 400-500 and captures randomly or leaves things hanging frequently. I was not really playing any actual strategy game toward the end of each session. Only turn on auto-play and let the computer slowly get trounced as I was able to build up more money and upgrade my pieces. Unfortunately if you turn on auto-play then it's really an idler with a lot of upgrade buttons that you click consistently. Watching the actual computer play is pretty painful, to be honest.

Anyway, I was amused for about a few days switching this game in and out of focus just to crunch my way through all of the in-game achievements. Too bad there aren't any Steam achievements to be gained. After completing all of the tasks basically I have very little desire to return to the game. (It felt a bit tedious to do after a couple of rebirths.) There isn't really any variability in gameplay, only that you can gear-up and enter battle stronger and gain money faster after each rebirth.

I am recommending this game because I am the kind of person that gets drawn into this NGU style of gameplay, but for sure, it's not a game for everyone.

Graphics

You have no choices of background, board, or piece color patterns or shapes. So it's as basic as it gets. Look at the screenshots, you pretty much only see this.

Music & Sounds

I had the music off and listened to my own playlists. The sound effects are fine for playing actively in the beginning. Once automation got turned on, I immediately turned it off as well.

Controls

Mouse controls. Fortunately after asking for drag-and-drop of the chess pieces, the developer added this.

Pricing

$4.99 US isn't much, so you can decide for yourself if it's worth it. Like I mentioned above, it's a one-and-done game, without much replay value once you crunch through the tasks.

Verdict

I am giving Pixel Chess Idle RPG a weak but still positive recommendation. I wish the game had more depth or the ability to do more after each rebirth. I wish for certain QoL features that have been around in other idlers for a long time. Though I guess that makes it even fewer clicks each rebirth and maybe would turn engagement span to be even less. Not sure if that's good or bad. I just try to not click too much if I don't have to.

Once again, there's almost no strategy component in this. The computer's moves are nonsensical to anyone studying or trying to actually play chess in this game. And auto-play is painful to watch.

The developer is willing to work the players to improve the game in ways that make sense. So that's always a good sign.

I am giving this a 6/10 overall score.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

A very neat idea, and a well made project for a solo dev.

Unfortunately, the fun just isn't there for me, at all. The early game (and subsequently, the first BUNCH of rebirths) is painfully, cripplingly slow and boring. You will be spamming a single piece back and forth between the same two spaces, manually, as fast as you can, for 20-30 minutes before anything meaningful can happen.

good game, still has some stuff to be ironed out but its a good time killer. its a really fun game, the premise is you're basically playing chess but instead of having normal moves you're having the pieces have a turn based fight kinda like a regular rpg. moving and taking out pieces lets you earn gold which you can use to upgrade your king or even buy more pieces. Eventually you get to unlock the auto fighter and passive income which allows you to activate the IDLE portion of the game so you can just leave it running over night. once you get all pieces unlocked the turn based system on its own is pretty fun so you might not always want to leave auto fight on. in short its a fun game with lots of progression and a little bit of strategy, very good game 8/10.