Clash Royale

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I have a tendency to browse the app store every Thursday when it updates and grab at least one game to try.  Some weeks nothing catches my eye but most weeks there's at least one game that looks interesting enough to try out.

Clash Royale is the latest of these.  It pitches itself as real time strategy in a compact package where matches last around 2 minutes.  That's all I needed to know to try it.

I loved my first couple hours with the game.  I was playing these short little real time strategy battles, getting new cards that contain abilities or units, and customizing my deck for the next match.  The core of this game is solid and fun.

But then the F2P mechanics reared their ugly head.  The main progression in the game is done through opening chests to get new units and abilities or getting duplicates of ones you already have which will allow you to upgrade.  But, once you're out of "gems" you can only open chests in real time.  This means you click on one chest and then wait three or eight hours... and in some cases even longer.  It completely killed my momentum in the game.

Once I grabbed my "free chest" which respawns every couple hours and I did my daily "crown chest" challenge I was out of things to do.  I had a chest opening in real time and no real incentive to play any more.

I'm not always against F2P games, if they're done correctly they can be amazing.  Clash Royale is an example of the business model killing the game.  The core idea is sound but all the bullshit around it makes it worse.

After playing for about a week I'm deleting this from my phone and chances are I'll probably never revisit it again.

Comments

  1. MagsonMarch 17, 2016 at 2:01 PM

    I'm playing it and I'm in a 50-member clan who donates cards left and right, so it's actually pretty easy to get upgrades.

    but that said... yeah, it seems like you just play for a few minutes to push through enough victories to get your crown chest and then you're done for 24 hours. Not much to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VoidMarch 17, 2016 at 2:05 PM

      I hate that there's no incentive to play beyond a few minutes. If there was I could see myself getting so hooked on this game.

      Delete

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