Recent reviews by DNA

Calling this an "Idle RPG" is extremely disingenuous. There are a few idle mechanics, but almost all progression is locked behind tedious and unintuitive active play.

Maintaining one character is a chore. Maintaining multiple characters is an unpaid part-time job. Each character requires constant micromanagement, while running the same set of hundreds of fetch quests to progress.

The active play is not just tedious but also frustratingly unintuitive. Some quests can't be completed without looking up a guide because they're so poorly explained. For example, the "Funguy's Fungicide" quest requires you to gather a specific type of mushroom that only appears in a particular area at certain times. This crucial detail isn't mentioned in the quest description, ruining any sense of discovery as you end up having to Google it.

The UI and overall game mechanics contribute to this sense of confusion and inefficiency. Inventory management is a nightmare, with limited space and a cumbersome interface that makes organizing and accessing items more of a hassle than it should be. Crafting and upgrading items are similarly convoluted.

Moreover, the game's balance is skewed, with certain character classes and skills being significantly more powerful than others. This imbalance forces players to follow a meta build if they want to progress efficiently, stripping away any sense of creativity or personalization in how they play the game.

I see so many negative reviews by players with 5k+ hours in the game. Luckily, I only put about a dozen hours on mobile and a couple more on PC before uninstalling. The sheer amount of time required to make meaningful progress is absurd, and the lack of clear guidance only exacerbates the problem.

In conclusion, IdleOn's misleading label as an "Idle RPG," coupled with its tedious and unintuitive gameplay, makes it a frustrating experience. Unless you enjoy spending countless hours on repetitive tasks with minimal payoff, I would recommend steering clear of this game. There are far better idle and RPG games out there that respect your time and provide a more enjoyable and engaging experience.

Update - I unfortunately have to change my review to a thumbs down, since it has now been over a year that my request for a basic feature (button to toggle beacons) has gone ignored. There are dozens of pages of Google search results asking for the same feature, and dozens of Steam discussion posts asking for the same feature. It would only take a few minutes to add a button to toggle the visibility of beacons. There's already a toggle UI button. Just do the same thing but for toggle beacons.

Every other game I've played with a feature similar to "beacons" has a button to toggle them on or off. The fact that this wasn't a feature even back in the alpha test is mind boggling. I was disappointed by the sheer incompetence, but I was still willing to overlook it and submit my feature request like so many others. But then months and months went by, with dozens upon dozens of requests for the same feature piling up. The game released 1.0 and still didn't have the feature. Absolutely unfathomable, but I was still willing to send a few more friendly reminders and wait. Well, we've now passed the 1 year anniversary of my initial feature request, and we're on version 1.101. Still no button to toggle beacons on or off.

I've been a day one supporter and recommended this game to friends. It saddens me to give it a thumbs down, but there's no excuse for over a year going by and not adding a highly requested feature that would only take a few minutes to implement.

Original Review
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If you're familiar with incremental games (Cookie Clicker as a famous example), this is basically an elaborate incremental game with survival game elements. As a fan of both genres, I mean that in the best possible way.

It's satisfying to watch the barren planet slowly become lush and vibrant as you progress. I've tried to avoid looking too far ahead, and would suggest the same to anyone considering this game. They're not really "spoilers", but it's better to discover the various stages through gameplay rather than screenshots or videos.

At a basic level, progress revolves around building components to make meters fill up faster. As these meters are filling up, you can also explore the planet and are rewarded in various ways for exploration. There's even lore sprinkled about, which is concise yet interesting. Despite some of the meters taking quite a while to fill up, it always feels like there's something to do. There's also base building, crafting, and biological needs to manage.

If I had to be critical of one thing, the pacing is somewhat inconsistent throughout the stages. Some stages advance so rapidly that you lose track of your newly unlocked items, while other stages seem to drag on as you repeat the same gamplay loop a few too many times. With that said, usually once something starts to become too tedious, an unlock is just around the corner to change that.

Ultimately, this is an easy thumbs up and well worth the price tag. I'd consider it polished enough for a full release as-is, but it's nice to know there's at least one more big update coming before the full launch.

Literally unplayable (unironically) 7+ hours after launch.
Update - The game remained unplayable for 12+ hours, and is still unstable at the time of this edit (3 days later)

The bee referral system was the worst idea in the history of any online game I've ever played, and ruined global chat launch day/week hype. I will not factor the bee chat spam into the thumbs up or down decision, but it shows the strong influence Tencent has on this game.

I've slogged though the campaign a few times throughout early access, and was waiting for full release to give the thumbs up or thumbs down. This has been a buggy mess throughout four years of development, and the launch day fumble makes me feel ok with leaving a thumbs down. They didn't even have a queue, yet they have the audacity to state they were "over-prepared" for launch.

Many of the bugs from early access are still present, despite overwhelming reports from the community and false promises that they would fix the bugs before 1.0. Considering they didn't complete the campaign for the 1.0 launch and decided to roll it out with 3 chapters missing, I have to wonder what they accomplished during the several months the 1.0 launch was delayed by. Certainly not bug fixes or completing the campaign. I actually consider the missing campaign chapters a win for the playerbase, which leads me to my next point.

Ignoring the server issues and bugs, I can only recommend this game to those who prefer to play through the campaign once and then uninstall. Most games in this genre include several mechanics to accelerate progress on subsequent playthroughs (alts). The majority even allow players to skip the campaign after clearing it once. Not this game. The developers have been arrogant and argumentative when approached with this request by the community, insisting we would have more fun if we're forced to clear the tedious campaign on every playthrough. They also insist it's more fun to repeat the same dozen+ side quests, in addition to the campaign, to unlock idol slots. Imagine Diablo 4 if renown and altars weren't changed to permanent account-wide unlocks (a change met with unanimous praise). Path of Exile doesn't allow campaign skip either, but has the best endgame in this genre to make up for it. Unfortunately, Last Epoch's endgame is dull and unsatisfying.

I've put a few hours into the 1.0 campaign during the short periods of time the servers were "working" (1-5 minutes of load time between zones, but at least we can log in) and it's still so boring that I can barely keep my eyes open. At least I have this game in my library should I find myself in need of a sleep aid.

I've kept a close eye on this game throughout development and really wanted to like it. It does have a few good ideas, but it seemed to have taken a totally different trajectory after they sold out to Tencent. The skill system is particularly well-done, striking a balance between the overly-simplified Diablo series and the convoluted thousand node trees in PoE. Unfortunately, the few things they got right don't make up for everything else they got wrong.

This would have been an easy thumbs up if it weren't for the anti-fun core design decisions, and plague of server issues and bugs. The 1.0 launch is finally here after four years of development and many months of delays, but apparently it still needed more time in the oven.

Needed power. Rushed power with only 22% fail rate. Made a calculated and informed decision. Failed. Big fire.

Really need power now. Can't generate food or water. 32% fail rate. Made another calculated and informed decision. Failed again. Radroach infestation. Frustrated.

Uninstalled.

I would have given the game a second chance, but the same thing happened to me on the mobile app and this was the second chance. I was looking for a casual stress-free game to wind down for 5-10 minutes after my typical competitive PvP games, and this was not it. Soda Dungeon is a far superior game for this purpose.

Ultimately this is yet another game with potential that was ruined by RNG, forced limitations, and manipulative mechanics intended to get the player spending money. They should have just made the game $4.99 instead of a F2P model forcing you to buy the $4.99 starter pack, I would have gladly supported them if they didn't take such a manipulative approach.

A nice casual tower defense game with moderately high replay value.

I haven't played too much of the original so I can't really comment on the changes, but this is a fun tower defense game to play with friends. It may seem tedious, but there are four classes (two more planned), tons of gear, abilities and points to spend on specific bonuses, and towers to unlock to keep the grind feeling fresh.

The game isn't very challenging at first but the levels do get harder and require at least a little bit of strategy and communication with a full group of four defenders to conquer.

Overall it's a pretty fun game and I'm glad I got to play in the beta.

TOME: Immortal Arena is a well done MOBA focused more on the fun parts of popular MOBAs such as LoL or DoTA 2 while eliminating most of the tedious aspects of gameplay. This however brings along a handful of pros and cons depending on what you are looking for.

The gameplay is closely related to Awesomenauts while the visual style is more similar to LoL or DoTA2.

This list is simply to compare to other MOBAs

Pros:
- Fast paced, and jump right into the action. Minions spawn at 5 seconds, matches last 10-20 minutes.
- No tedious jungling mechanics
- No mana management. Skills only operate based on cooldown
- Easy for newcomers

Cons
- Lack of strategy compared to LoL/DoTA2. Everything is pretty straightforward with limited build paths
- Eliminated mechanics lowers the skillcap. Last hitting etc. doesn't give you an advantage
- Little room for comebacks. You can't "farm up" and play defensively as in other MOBAs, but with the quick matches the losses aren't nearly as infuriating

Some of the pros and cons can be seen either way, it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. TOME is fun and easy to pick up, LoL is competitive but can be the most frustrating experience you'll have all week.

Aside from the comparisons, TOME is a relatively good game on it's own merits. Graphics, particle effects, sounds etc. are all decent.

Bottom line - It's definitely worth checking out whether you're new to MOBAs or have played them all. I wouldn't say it converted me from LoL by any means, but I'll be playing this for a nice change of pace.