Gem Hunters - Match 3 Puzzle iOS Game with RPG Elements

Gem Hunters iOS Game Review

Gem Hunters (Free with iAP) by Armor Games, is a turn based match 3 puzzle iOS game with RPG elements. There are 3 playable characters to choose from Rogue, Wizard, and Knight. Each character specialise in different area for example, rogue increase attack 20%, wizard increase magic 20%, and knight increase defence 20%. Once players selected character, there is a short intro and tutorial to guide players to familiarised the game play and the interface.

The game play is pretty easy match at least 3 same elements (color) gem and players are able to match by diagonal direction as well. Each color represent 1 element and different monster / boss have resist / weak against certain elements. Attack will increased when players attack monster / boss with effective gem at the same time attack will reduced when player attack monster / boss with less effective gem. There would be a "Star" Gem when players match 7 same color gems in a single turn. "Star" Gem + match 3 gem will create a critical attack to monster / boss.
Note: Please use "Star" Gem + gem that monster weak against to boost players attack.

The game also offers 4 equipment slots to allow players to equip weapons, armours, or skills (Spirit Animal). There are no restriction to which slot to equip which equipment. Players are allow to equip 4 weapons or 4 skills. Each item comes with common (white), uncommon (green), and rare (purple) Note: So far I only manage to get rare, i'm not sure any higher grade equipment beyond rare.
In order to activate skills, players are required to collect a number of element gem during the battle. For example, a skill that required 20 green gem to activate the skills.

Equipments are upgradeable and different elements required different set of orb to upgrade. Upgrade material dropped from battle with monsters or players (Arena, discuss more below) after player win the battle. Equipment too dropped from battle with monster or players but the chances are quite rare. Equipments come with boost (special effect) such as 5% chances to stun enemy, chances to heal your character, and so on. Besides, equipment comes with some basic stat such as attack, magic, and defence. Those states will increase by upgrade the equipment with upgrade material dropped from monster. The higher level of upgrade the number of quantity material to upgrade will increase as well. There is another way to get new equipments which is using iAP to unlock chest. It costs 25 iAP currency (Gem) to unlock it, 20 Gems = USD 1.99.

Character comes with level and experience feature and players able to decide which stat (attach, defence, magic) to up every time character levelled up. So players are freely to customised what type of character that fit their play style.

Next, the most interesting and competitive feature in Gem Hunters - Arena which also known as PVP (not real time). Each battle won to gain some points and this points will define players ranking in the Arena. Higher ranking in the Arena will get rare equipment after Arena is ended. There is a time period in Arena menu so players able to know when the Arena will end.

There is no limit for players to keep on challenge in Arena as long as players win the battle, for every battle players lose 1 live will lost and each live is required 10 minutes to generate. This live system affects in both Arena and story mode. There is no effective and ineffective element when PVP in arena so to win basically need high attack, "Star" Gems, some luck when system generate element gem. Each time players are given 2 turns

The game do integrate friend feature such as add friend by using code and not sure what is the actual function as for now there is no function to summon your friend to help you on battle. So if you are reading this, this is my friend ID: a91ac235

One issue found - some times the game pop up "No Internet Connection" when I win battle, I have a good wifi signal and I have a strong telco signal when I play without wifi. If you cancel, your progress of this battle will not save, so what I do was put it there for 1 or 2 minutes and press retry again. I will keep on retry until success as some times I won the boss stage which I plan to play that stage again.

In a nut shell, if you are a fan of match 3 puzzle like me - try this game! It is fun and challenging at the same.

Above review is based on version 1.15.1. If any part of the review above is not valid in latest version, kindly comment below. Thanks for reading my long post! Please let me know what you thinks about this game in comment section!

Continue Reading →

Prison Life RPG - A Prison Simulation RPG

Prison Life RPG iOS Game Review

Prison Life RPG by Nob Studio is prison simulation role playing game where you plays as a prisoner and your objective is to survive in prison until you are released or have a escape plan to get freedom. There are 100 prisoners to play and each of the prisoners have different set of skills and personal goals, complete prisoners' personal goal to unlock next tier prisoners (11-20) and so on. When you are first timer, you are allow to choose 1-10 prisoners to start with, and for 1-10 prisoners only sentence for 20 days while 11-20 prisoners sentence for 40 days, so I assume the game play will getting longer when you unlock next tier and it gives a lot of replay value to you and me as the play style is too random.

When the game started there is a general tutorial by Cook, the tutorial gives you an idea what is the game play looks like, for example social to make some friends, bully other inmate, fight them, or even kill them! Remember to join a gang as soon as possible to avoid getting bully by random AI inmate, after joined a gang you will at least get protected by your gang members and not so easily get bully by random AI inmate. In order to join gang, prisoner required to improve relationship with the gang with some mastered skills and these skills are default by some prisoners. So I will suggest to start with those prisoners with these mastered skill by default. There are 4 Gangs such as Mobster Gang, Gold Coin Gang, Heart Breakers Gang, and Roses & Guns Gang. Each Gang required one mastered skill, Mobster (Body Building), Gold Coin (Chess), Roses & Guns (Basketball), and Heart Breakers (Social).

Everyday starts with 6AM, lunch at 12PM, shower time at 7PM, and sleeping at 8PM onwards. Each action costs you 1 hour, for example social 1 time with inmate will costs you 1 hour from 6AM to 7AM and will consumes some energy too. Other than that, there are jobs for you to complete to gain frame and money. There are 2 kinds of jobs, 1 is gang jobs which only available after you joined a gang and gang job is available in the morning. Another job is common job which only available during afternoon, these common jobs sometimes are quite challenging and it gives good money and frame. Complete a gang job will earns you gang frame, which is useful to promote your gang ranking.

During lunch time prisoners are given 1 food and 1 dessert, eat food will gives you a boost of energy and some health. You need to have minimum 30 health to stay healthy, if you have less than that I suggest you to buy some food from Heart Breakers Gang shop. During lunch you can take other prisoners' food and dessert, it just like what we saw in TV we can actually threaten them to offer you their food and dessert. Each successful threaten will give you negative relationship to that prisoners and they will hate you. You may eat the food or you may offer the food to other prisoners to improve relationship with other prisoners.

After lunch you will stay at indoor cell to have other part of game play such as you can accept common job, gamble, cheat in gamble, bet in boxing, or watch TV to gain happiness. Common job is controlled by Mobster Gang and some of the jobs give good amount of money and big frame when you completed it, but it comes with challenge. You may get $1000 by killing someone in front of guard, if you did that you will get a special reward, which is stay at prison for a life time (99 years)! So think twice before doing that!

The only time you can flight and kill inmate without getting caught by guard is during shower. If you wants to fight and kill other inmate, make sure you already master fight, body building, helpers, kills and other skill to give you a boost. If not you may just take shower and leave, just make sure you don't drop soap on the floor!

After shower usually you will go back to your sleeping cell, it starts with 4 cell prison and you can upgrade to 2 cell prison or even private suite prison. But before upgrade you need to improve relationship with guard. You can train skills, sleep, crafting items, social, and enjoy D.I.Y magazine to boost your happiness at your sleeping cell. You can train skill during night time, different skill required different stat and consumes 10 energy usually. For example, train body building skill your character required 5 strength, fighter skill required 6 strength and 4 agility. The game will auto save every night when you sleep and there is no auto save during day time, so if you just pick and play then quit the game your progress will not saved [as of version 1].

Prison Life RPG has a lot of nick names, these nick names are considered as in game achievements and some of them are in Game Center achievements. You can tap on each nick name to know how to unlock it. I had completed my first game using Uncle Rico and I got 13/124 nick name, pretty awesome I would say. It also gives player like me to play more as I'm that kind of like to unlock everything in games! Oh yes, character that successful release from prison will wear a T-shirt in main menu that gives you an indicator that you already play with that character.

Prison Life RPG is premium game without iAP, no internet connection is required. Prison Life RPG has a tons of Game Center achievements to unlock and I like games that comes with Game Center achievements! So if you are like me, this game is for you! Just in case for those who still on the bench to get the game, you may wants to watch a short game play video below. [Prison Life RPG iTunes link]

Thanks for reading my long post! Please let me know what you thinks about this game in comment section!

Continue Reading →

Imps In Tokyo - Where Dreams Become Solid & Real Things Become Dreams

Imps in Tokyo iOS Game Review

Imps in Tokyo is an arcade game based in Tokyo with comic driven story mode develope by We Are Vigilantes and release on 17th Feb 2015.  The game is [1.99] for early adopters and [3.99] for regular price with Trials game mode. So if you like this game better grab now to get early adopters price.

Imps in Tokyo comes with 5 playable Imps characters and each character comes with own ability and design. 4 Imps are playable at the beginning in the story mode and the other one will be unlocked after reaching certain level in story mode. Here are two of the Imps in the game, Eugene has a tiny dragon wings and damage with tail, it also the only Imp that farts in game! Next, Hester is a big sis and it has a poisonous tail that can slow down piranhas. For me Hester's poisonous tail not really slow down piranhas as the effect shows stun effect on top piranha head so I would say Hester's poisonous tail stun piranhas.

Each level you are given 2 imps to choose with and you need to pick one of them to complete the level. Even tho Hester's poisonous tail is very useful but there are certain levels using Eugene is better option than using Hester. Each level has different main objectives, some collect points and some capture piranhas and each level also have some optional objectives, achieve all objectives you will get 3 stars. Getting 1 star from main objective is not a problem, but getting 3 stars from main and optional objectives are not easy as most of the optional objective required to collect all points or defeat all piranhas. There is no problem if you dont get 3 stars, next level will be unlocked as long as  you complete main objective. Getting 3 stars only for hardcore players to unlock achivement in game center so if you like achievement a lot like me, then this game is for you!

The game control is using 1 finger to move around and imp will follow your finger. I would suggest play in iPad rather than iPhone. I have a big hand where my hand is bigger than my iPhone 6 Plus, since this game is using finger to move around it would be great if play with iPad. I tried to play this game in both iPad and iPhone, in iPad I have clearer view to collect points and clearer view to avoid spike piranhas compared to my iPhone. Yes, there are two types of piranhas one is without spike and the other one is with spike. You should avoid the one with spike else you will lose one life and each game will gives you 3 life so better becareful with spike piranhas.

Imps in Tokyo comes with a detailed tutorial to guide new player to understand how to play the game so no worries on how to play the game. Other than complete main and optional objectives, some times you will randomly see a cat appear in game and if you see it, tap on it to rescue the cat. A mini endless game will be unlocked with playable cats character!

I'm one of the beta testers in Imps in Tokyo, you might think this reivew is biased but you can watch Imps in Tokyo game play video below and support developer if you like the game. And thanks developer for putting my name in their credit screen.

Thanks for reading! Please do let me know what you think about this game in comment section!

Continue Reading →

Deep Loot - Loot Treasures From Sea Exploration

Deep Loot iOS Game Review

Deep Loot by Monster and Monster Ltd is a free game released in July 30th 2014. I haven't play the first release but recent update, which was version 2.0 got my attention on it. Well, I guess it was because loot treasure from random sea exploration that really got my attention. Launch it and played for few games, immediately addicted to it and played the game non stop for about half an hour. Another reason I so into this game was there were plenty of achievements to unlock in this game, so player that love to get achievements point in game center might want to try it!

Continue Reading →