=== Mobile Game Review - Pocket Trains - Business Simulation - 6.5/10 ===

I've always had a strange like for trains; I don't mean something weird where I have pictures of trains up on my walls everywhere and I can't think about anything else other than trains... but I would gladly live in the time when trains were the big new thing. So here's Pocket Trains, a game where you start as a train company in Europe trying to get big enough to expand all over the world.

You start with three basic trains in the middle of Europe. The gameplay is simple enough: pick a train, load it up with materials or products at one station which gives you destinations for the items, and send the train on its way to the other cities on its route. Only one train can own each section of track between each city, so you have to plan your routes to allow other trains to connect up and transfer train carts if necessary. If we're just talking about money, it's not so big of a deal, but things get a little more complicated when there's secondary resources in question.

Everybody loves having money to work with, but that only goes so far when you need Bux to open crates and get better trains. Bux can be earned in a couple different ways: Sometimes there are ads available which can be watched for a couple Bux, but that tends to be a little hit or miss. If you select a train in motion, you'll get a nice view of it going along the track and sometimes coins and Bux and even crates fly past; if you click on the flying item you'll get it. The most reliable method to getting Bux and crates would be to transport them to a destination via train which can mean you're sending it through multiple different trains just to get the cart a few cities over.

There's an energy mechanic to this game where each train has its own supply of fuel which regenerates while sitting idle at a train station which usually means the train has arrived at its destination and you're probably not currently playing because you have a live to live. This is great for getting people to stop playing... I would know... if not for this mechanic, I'd absolutely keep playing all the time. The tough part about this is that some trains have a larger supply of fuel than others and some sections of track are quite long. So long that you may only be able to send a basic train across this track once. As you progress further into the game, you acquire more train pieces from the crates which are opened by spending Bux. The train pieces are completely rancon (though you may have a better chance of getting better train parts as you level up). Better trains travel faster, have more fuel, and are able to carry more carts at one time.

So the gameplay of Pocket Trains is fun and easy, but it does get repetitive after a while and once you start reaching points where you have to spend a lot of money to continue, the game really starts to slow down quite a bit. I haven't yet decided for sure whether I like this slowdown or not because I haven't managed to expand into all the different continents yet... but at this point, it's not my favourite part of the game.

Sound design isn't the largest factor in mobile games; here we're pretty much asking whether or not there's sound, if that sound fits the game, and whether we like listening to it. Yes, there are train sounds, and yes, there are sounds when you press buttons and do things that sound nice and pleasing. What I don't like is the music; it gets really repetitive and can be a bit overpowering. It also sounds a little bit western to me, which FITS... but isn't great to listen to on repeat in my opinion.

I'm going to start breaking down my scores a little more from this review onwards to give more clairity to my thoughts and to better explain why I'm giving the scores that I'm giving. Now on to the scores!

Gameplay = 7/10
+ Easy to learn
+ Great for putting a little bit of time into every hour
- Progression can be really slow if you don't have time to check on your game every hour

Sound = 5/10
Music is a highly important component of a great game. Without good music, a great game can fall flat.
+ Train and station sounds are nice to listen to
- Music is repetitive and can be overpowering if not turned off

Replayability = 7/10This isn't the kind of game you'd be finishing and then starting over again, so this is really a score of whether or not you'd pick the game back up after playing it for a day.
+ Addictive if you have time to put into the game
+ Easy to lose track of time with more to do as you get more trains
- Progression is too slow if you don't have time to put into the game

Overall Score = 6.5/10Pocket Trains is a solid game which I would happily play given enough time to progress through it. The unfortunate thing is that the same track of music over and over and over gets really annoying really quickly. As slow as the game can be at some points, it is rewarding once you finally break past that money barrier and move into new lands. I would recommend this game and say that if you don't mind the lack of music, it'll feel much better than the score makes it look.

~ Kyle Welykholowa


Back to Game Reviews

Pocket Troops - Mobile Review - 7/10

     Pocket Troops is a game for mobile devices in which you train a variety of troops to battle other players across the world.

     This game features four different forms of "currency"; Money, stars, coins, and time. Money and stars are earned by winning battles with your troops either against the AI for smaller amounts, or by winning battles against other players. Coins are earned by watching ads as they are available which can easily be done without too much effort while doing something else. Time is spent by training troops; as they increase in level, it takes more time for their training to finish.

     There are six types of troops which can be found in the game and a bonus troop which can be recruited once.

     - Sniper: This unit does high damage with a high chance to land a critical strike with each shot. Their downside is a low amount of health, making them easy to kill with splash damage. Their high damage however, makes them a critical unit in most any group.

     - Shotgun: This unit is capable of doing a large amount of damage, but has low range. Most battles tend to end before the Shotgun can get into range, however this unit has easiest access to grenades which can still make a large impact in each battle.

     - Assault: This unit is your standard assault weapon-carrying unit who gets to the front of a fight quickly. If any unit is going to die in a fight, this one will be it because he'll be the easiest target to hit. The Assault unit becomes quite important at later levels as it has access to the taunt ability, giving the rest of your group a greater chance to survive.

     - Assassin: This unit has abilities to get in close to the opponent's group quickly which can cause incredible amounts of havoc. However, if you lack the proper amount of training or abilities, the Assassin tends to fall flat in usefulness.

     - Commando: This unit uses machine guns with low accuracy, but many shots in the same turn. The Commando can do lots of damage in one turn without the need for critical hits, but tends to fall off when there are more targets to shoot at.

     - Explosives: This unit is a high-damage splash damage character with low health. Similar to the Sniper, the Explosives unit seems to be a pretty important unit when needing to do lots of damage. The downside is how easy it can be to damage your own units if in close-combat.

     - El Commandante (Bonus): This unit I think tends to take the place of the Assault unit. Someone to get to the front of a fight quickly and take the brunt of the retaliation. I'm not really a fan of the high cost required to unlock this character, though it's not impossible without buying the coins using your real money. When using this unit in battle, you get increased money and star rewards for winning battles.

     Things to keep a player interested in playing on include daily islands with a few battles to play each day and a sort of tournament kind of thing which starts anew at the beginning of each week. While these help, as time goes on, the game does tend to get a little bit dry in my opinion.

     The biggest reason the game gets boring over time I think is a lack of differing strategies in the game. While there are some changes to your group you can make depending on what enemies you're attacking, the general strategies tend to remain the same and the biggest factor into whether a battle is won is really more dependent upon the levels of the units than any type of strategy.

     So I'll give this game 7/10. It's a good game, it kept me busy for a long amount of time. I think it just needs more diverse options for strategies to make it a REALLY amazing game.

~ Kyle