ToG #213 – Rebuild 3 and Pokemon Shuffle Mobile

ToG 213 for the week of Sept. 6, 2015 is here.

In it, we go over some upcoming games, some current updates, and lots of news items.

We then each talk about 2 new games.

Jared
Rebuild 3 ($4.99, iOS, Sarah Northway). Jared is loving, really loving, this new zombie survival, society rebuilding strategy game. Everything meshes really well in the 3rd game in the series and Jared is fairly certain this could be “game of the month” for September and in his Top 10 for the year. Well worth the price of entry and he will return next week for a more full review of the game.

Todd
Unkilled – (Free, iOS and Android, Madfinger). Essentially the sequel to Deadtrigger 2, this first person shooter set in zombie infested areas provides some nice looking, solid FPS action. However, the “free to play” is strong in this one and you will need to grind and/or pay some money to keep at things. Todd is personally getting tired of this payment scheme; probably because he hits it pretty much every week. If you just concentrate on 1 free to play game at at time, you might dig this one. Worth checking out because it looks and plays well, but Todd has deleted it already.

Jared
Pokemon Shuffle Mobile (FREE, iOS, The Pokemon Company). Jared tried, but really did not enjoy, this free to play, Match 3 take on the Pokemon franchise. It is okay but lacks strategy and seems unfairly difficult at times; as well as quite demanding with regard to the free to play aspects of the game. Jared will keep it for his young son to play, but he is done with the game himself.

Todd
Dungeon Boss (Free, iOS and Android, Big Fish Games) Todd really wanted to love this charming, free to play take on a dungeon crawler (minus almost all of the “crawler” part). The game looks and sounds great. The turn based action is solid enough, but it lacks strategy and becomes a bit “samey” the more you play. Free to play elements are grindy and have all of the tropes Todd has seen tens of times before. Tons or heroes to unlock and evolve, different currencies, consumable items, an energy system…all of these add up to a “Delete” for Todd but you might want to check it out if you are not tired of this free to play formula. They do what they do really well, but some of us are tired of it and want something different.