Pokémon GO (Android) Review

It's difficult to describe the gameplay of Pokémon Go. It's a bit like any old Google Maps app, with a few critical differences, the most important of which is that the player is represented by a customised avatar (though customisation options are few) and the world is littered with Poke-Stops, Gyms, and Pokémon. Currently, only Pokémon from the first generation of games are scattered throughout the world, so there is lots of room for expansion, but players newer to the franchise may be disappointed that Pokémon Go seems designed for those of us who grew up with Gen I and who now have cars.

The foremost issue is that a vehicle makes all the difference. Poke-Stops can't be too clustered together, because that would allow people with vehicles to sweep through neighbourhoods and cities, racking up on items quickly and easily. They also can't be scattered across distances too great, as then the younger players who have to walk will rarely benefit from them. Currently, it's balanced heavily in favour of players who can drive from one stop to the next. Even able to do this, though, it's much too easy to run out of Poké Balls, because sometimes the throwing just doesn't work correctly, and Pokémon of higher levels aren't inclined to let themselves be captured. For those without a way to travel to eighty-four stops in twenty minutes, Pokémon Go will probably feel more like Pokémon Stop and Buy Poké Balls with Real Money.

Another criticism is that, true to the original games, almost nothing is explained to players, and it departs from the classic RPG formula severely enough that considerable explanation is in order. Catching Pokémon, evolving Pokémon, and visiting Poke-Stops all earn experience for the player, but what does the player level do? The game doesn't say. Even the descriptions of items purchased in the store are bare. It's all well and good that Incence causes Pokémon to come to the player, but what is the encounter rate of that? How many Pokémon are likely to appear through a half-hour of using Incence?

Niantic promises that they are listening to player feedback and will "create the game that players want," and players are almost unanimously asking for traditional battling, levelling, and trading. Interactions between players are currently sparse, as there is no way to engage in direct battles with other trainers, or to trade with them. The only battles take place in gyms and have players swiping the screen to dodge, and tapping the enemy to attack. For a series that has become surprisingly deep over its life, to be delivered gameplay so bare makes Pokémon Go feel like a beta.

The concept is phenomenal, and truly takes advantage of what mobile devices can do. Augmented Reality allows players to find a Scyther jumping on someone's roof, or a Caterpie peeking out from the grass, but the technology hasn't advanced to the point where the game itself is aware of what is displayed through the camera. It foretells remarkable things to come in the next few decades, once the algorithms become complex enough for the game to "know" that the Bellsprout is standing in front of a bush, but right now, it is reminiscent of very old green-screen newscasts. Players being tracked via GPS through the world as they hunt for Pokémon, hatch eggs, and look for gyms uses technology in a unique way to merge the real world with a video game world, and one can only imagine how this is going to manifest twenty years from now in combination with VR. The future looks incredible.

The present isn't looking as great, though, because there is very little true gameplay in Pokémon Go. If Niantic holds true to its promises and makes the game for which players are asking, then there is very little doubt that this one will secure numerous "Game of the Year" awards. There is no doubt that it is revolutionary and totally unlike other mobile games; this is no Angry Birds or Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. Nintendo stepped into mobile gaming and said, "No one is doing it right. This is how it's done."

Server overload crippled the experience around launch, but has mostly been resolved by now. Questionable programming also reportedly provided Niantic with Full Access to the email accounts of all iOS players who signed up with a Google account, though this has since been fixed, and random crashes are still frequent. Players without a task manager will likely find themselves rebooting their devices often, as there is no simple way to Force Close the app. On top of this, Pokémon Go is to batteries as Mewtwo was to everything else in Gen I: a phone's battery just doesn't stand a chance.

Players in rural areas will literally not even see what the fuss is all about, because all of the real action takes place in cities. A rural player may be able to walk around in a field and find a few Pokémon, but that is all that can be accomplished without a trip to a nearby town. Whatever mechanism decided where to place landmarks also needs to be scrutinised, because many religious buildings are Gyms, and actual tombstones in graveyards can be Poke-Stops. These are kinks that will likely be worked out, but the overall impression is that Pokémon Go just wasn't quite ready for a full release.