Pokemon GO

Niantic - 2016 - iOS/Android

This is probably the most timely review I've ever written since at the time of this writing, practically everyone I bump into is on their phones furiously tapping away at Pokemon GO. I was on my lunchbreak and saw people in the restaurant playing, on my way back, I saw a car pull up next to a known gym and whip out their phones, and on the way back to work, there was a lady in my elevator trying to catch a Pidgey. It's safe to say that Pokemania is sweeping the nation again for the first time since the franchise's initial release. 

So for those not swept up in the fever of Pokemon GO players, this game is a phone app that functions largely by placing virtual objects in real space by using the Google Maps API and your phone's GPS. It functions very similarly to Ingress, Niantic's other popular game, albeit much less popular. The game encourages you to explore the real world to find virtual monsters on your phone. The terrain around where you are may encourage certain types of pokemon to appear. For instance, water type pokemon are often found near bodies of water while more common Pokemon like Pidgey or Ratatta can be found pretty much anywhere.

Real world places of interest appear in the game as either Pokestops or gyms. At a Pokestop, you can restock on poke balls or other healing items where at a gym what you can do depends on what team controls the gym and also what team you've decided to join. There are three teams: mystic, valor and instinct all vying for control over in game gyms. At an enemy gym, defeating all Pokemon in the gym will allow you to claim the gym for your team and earn daily rewards as long as you still have a Pokemon present in the gym. Training at a friendly gym may increase the gym's prestige level and allow it to house more friendly Pokemon. Battles are not turn based, as in nearly all other Pokemon games. In Pokemon GO, battles pretty much consist of furiously tapping on the enemy Pokemon to reduce its health. You can also hold down on the screen to attempt a stronger attack, but this can only be done once a stamina meter has been sufficiently charged. 

Summary

The shell for a really amazing Pokemon game is all here, but I find this game to be pretty feature incomplete at the moment in addition to being very buggy. The app seems to freeze a lot when catching Pokemon or battling at a gym which can only be remedied by restarting the game completely. But the freezes only occur when you can login to the game in the first place, as the servers are very frequently down due to overloading. I'd love to see trading and friendly battles added soon, and maybe a little more depth added to the combat system, although I'd like to see server issues addressed first obviously. None of my concerns about bugs or lack of features have dissuaded half the population from playing this though and it's exploding in popularity at the time of this writing. Gotta catch 'em all!