MassAI_deekay

A games designer once told me, that the purpose of the A.I. in their games was "to challenge the player, and then let that player WIN." This was done out of obligation to the player who had bought their game. One might call it a mutual agreement : if you bought one of their games, it was their sworn duty to entertain you, and then give you the satisfaction of beating the game. In Dungeon keeper, the tables have turned. This game was not designed with the player in mind, and the purpose of the AI is now to challenge the player, and then let that player PAY. This alone gives an unappetizing taste to the game. The game itself is less than spectacular. It is an unimaginative clone of every tower defense game that has been around for years. There is not much to do, there is very little challenge, and you can't lose the game. Dungeon keeper has the usual pay-wall timers, where you wait for hours for anything to happen, unless you bypass them by the waving of your magic credit card. Regardless of whether you decide to hurl cash at the game or not, it does not make much of a difference - you are still treading stale water. I give the game a score of 1 out of 10, because the graphics and voice-acting are both surprisingly good. The remaining 9 of 10 are pure disregard for the player.

Hay Day is a farm simulation game that makes you wait for two hours to bake a cookie, five hours to watch a pumpkin grow, and eleven hours to meditate on apple trees blossoming. If this had been a freeware game, any reviewer would be quick to point out that the game mechanics are fundamentally flawed to the extend of making the game unplayable. Had Hay Day been a fixed price commercial game, reviewers would likewise bemoan the poor replay value and the criminally wasted potential in a game that should have been great - but failed to deliver. Instead Hay Day belongs to the free-to-play category of games, which seemingly makes every reviewer jump with giddy joy, and blank out the most basic fundamentals of gaming mechanics, before regurgitating scores in the high 70s - something that Hay Day simply does not deserve. It could have been a great casual simulator, had it only been developed with the player in mind, but the all dominating emphasis on micro-transactions cripples the game to a degree where it turns sour, repetitive and ultimately unrewarding.