Atlas Empires

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Use your dirigibles to take over the planet with: Atlas Empires

I bring you a blog about a geolocation game that plays like Pokemon go but with a collection of random stuff nearby and as far as I can tell there is no need to travel to places for resources as everything spawns around you. It seems some locations will give you small bonuses if you visit them but this game is very safe to play during the current times.

You pic a basic avatar for your character. There appear to be a few avatars you can unlock later using avatar coins but I never made it that far. You can not change how the avatar looks at all and it is displayed as part of your profile.

When you choose an initial place to build your base you get a screen here that shows your location. This game seems to uses the Open Streets API based on other games I've seen like this one. 

When you click on the base button you are presented with a large square area where you can start building different kinds of RTS-like buildings. You have a tower defense style area where you have to build up defenses to block other players from attacking and taking your resources. Some buildings will produce one of the 3 main currencies, gold, wood, or stone. This game has some microtransactions to buy runes that allow you to purchase rarer items. Be sure to protect your center base well because if this building is destroyed the enemy attack wins.

Each building can be upgraded using a large number of resources. Each upgrade adds hp to the building and makes it harder for your enemies to damage them. You have to be mindful of how you build up because you will unlock storage buildings for each resource, if you fill them up you can not upgrade other buildings until you get enough space for the materials needed. 

When you click on the picture of your character you will find all the hidden quests that give you runes. I have only found a few things requiring these and its stuff from the shop. You can also get a free stuff from the shop by watching optional videos.

You can click on the leaderboard button and see where you ranked. Each battle will give you more crowns and allow you to climb the leaderboard.

Here is the main game field. You build a base and as you can see I live in the middle of nowhere and stuff will randomly spawn around me all day long. This game is easy for anyone to play from home and stay safe. One last thing I need to go over and I do not have a screenshot of is the main battle troops you must find. There is a cardshop you can find or summon which allows you then to get 1 free card every 12 hours then you pay a progressing amount of gold to roll another gotcha for a new troop. If you have enough cards of a troop you can then level them up at the training grounds. 

It cost 10 gold to scout an enemy to attack. This is done globally and you do not have to leave your home at all to engage in PVP. I do not have any screenshots of the battle system. If you can clear all buildings you get 3 stars and better rewards.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Normally I avoid PVP based games because most of them are pay to win. This game has some small elements as you can pay to instantly build everything or pay a monthly subscription to have two buildings going at the same time. Other than that, this game seems to be a bit more chill compared to other heavy PVP strategy building games.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

There are some events it looks like but, nope, no really story here.

Amount of ads:

 

Optional Only

This game only has optional ads you can watch to earn a few things along the way. The game is very light in the way of ads.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I only recall seeing an ad for this game once. The ad did not show much in the gameplay department, but the screenshots on google play shown enough that it uses the same kind of system as Pokemon go and similar AR games.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics remind me a lot of Torchlight. There is a subtle steampunk atmosphere to the game but no story beyond that. The graphics have a cartoony aspect to them and the design of the avatars can not really be taken too seriously. I will note here, the game claims to have Augmented Reality but there is nothing in this game that uses AR. 

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The gameplay is a bit slow. You can explore around a lot and build up your base easily enough. As long as I've played this game I have yet to be attacked by a random player. There does not seem to be a revenge mechanic at all so it seems like it's easy to build up an army to take on the world. Eventually the ability to join a clan opens up as you level and I feel the game may get more complicated after that point.

Free play:

💯%

This is a surprising game that doesn't feel like it's pay to win. There seems to be generous amounts of items that spawn in the world and as long as you can walk around your neighborhood, you can easily play this game for free.

Fun factor:

😺 Surprisingly f2p.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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Blackout Age

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Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

Today, Duck away from aliens with: Blackout Age

Today, I bring you a post-apocalyptic game that is not about zombies but instead about aliens. Take Pokemon Go, Add in the ability to move anywhere on the map you want, and then go scavenge for food and weapons.

This game is very unique as you have to build up a shelter and recruit survivors to help you scavenge. There is a lot to discover and you can use the geolocation function to physically raid things or you can walk there along the map. A recent update allows you to teleport/fast travel around the map as well which takes up a lot of actions. Currently, it seems to be a very short range as only a portion of the map shows around you at once.

The game assigns your 'group' a randomly generated name. You can reroll it a few times if you wish. The big currency is Food, Water, and Bandages. These are the main things you seek out to survive. Each "day" takes 1 food and water per survivor. Along the top bar are your overall prestige level and the amount of "credits" and "batteries" you have. These are special currencies that are used to buy extra food or build things around your shelter. Now you have an option to watch videos and take surveys to get batteries. These are your lifeblood to surviving in this game.

You start off with 1 survivor and have the ability to pick up a second one immediately on the map. These survivors rotate out and there are about 20 to choose from. Your starting survivor has all skills revealed starting off. When you recruit someone, you have to take Physical time to wait for them to reveal their skill. An hour per, you can spend batteries or watch a video to make it instant.

Just an example of the wait timer for a skill.

You can click on each skill to get an overview of how the skill affects the survivor. You want to ultimately train in strength and stamina to gain more carrying capacity. This is a very important stat you need to keep in mind when out in the world of aliens. You earn experience from either training or killing monsters for the day. Staying home and training is safe but takes food. You use direct exp to raise up one skill a point and it seems it takes a lot of points to see any noticeable changes in something. I do not know if there is a stat cap or exp cap.

Clicking on the mission tab pulls up this menu that allows you to choose either daily missions or story progress.

Daily missions allow you to get bonus items in physical time, about once every 24 hours. The missions generally require you to collect very random items to help others with.

Story missions have your progress along a track. Each point takes only 1 mission to complete to advance. When you land on a space, you gain some form of reward. You hold 3 missions at a time and the nice thing about this is when you're on a map, you get a pop-up showing you a mission is close by. There are some translation errors as this is a Russian designed game.

Prestige is used to unlock more rooms in your shelter and you have to bring back materials to upgrade the rooms. You eventually get things that produce food and water for you. It takes a lot of random materials and as I said earlier, you have limited supply slots per run.

There is a menu here that displays a few things. Including my flock which is the clan system in this game. As long as I've played there have never been any active flocks available and I had to make my own. That allows you to start at another base, giving you even new areas to explore.

Each alien has several hundred facts about them you unlock as you fight them. Sometimes they drop interesting items as well. There is a lot to learn about this game and this blog only scratches the surface.

Here is the screen you are shown once you set out on a scavenge. You can choose at your home base, which is default at the closest big city near you. Or you can choose to start at your GPS location. If you live in a rural area like I do, you have a lot of walking you have to do. I hope they add functions to start at other close by towns as well. The question marks are survivors in your main start town. You can only recruit them once you upgrade a slot for them. I recommend not to until your base can support the food and water needs.

The map is covered with purple fog. Inside these gasses that move hide monsters. When you make contact with the fog, the bar on the bottom fills up and you are attacked by a random enemy.

Each survivor has a set of two weapons. You can equip a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons use ammo and melee weapons lose durability and can break. Combat is odd as you see a pattern on the screen and a red crosshair. You have to tape the attack button again on one of the green marks to damage the creature with a critical hit.

When you defeat an enemy, you sometimes get a card detailing information about the enemy you slain. There's a lot to learn in this game.

All that random stuff goes into upgrading your settlement. You have to grab everything not nailed down but at that, you have very limited spaces. You fill up very quickly when you start off. Like items can stack as well. You can only do 5 raids until they refill by waiting an hour or watching a video.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game is so much fun if you live in a big city. If you have time you can travel the hard way around the world and it helps if you have an understanding of where you are going. You can do just one scavenge run or 20. There is really no limit to how fast you progress.

Story:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Wait, there's a story in a geolocation game? There's a lot in this game to learn but some translations are a bit off but still readable.

Amount of ads:

 

 None.

There are no in-game ads but there are optional ones for rewards.

Accurate Advertising?:

100%

Everything I've seen in the play store matches the game. I do not recall ever seeing a video add for this game.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphical style is very somber and monochrome minus the few bits of color for emphasis. Its simple and easy to see on a cellphone screen.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

It's simple and fun. It takes a lot of work starting off and careful planning. As long as you take time to heal in between fights and keep your supplies up.

Free play:

100%

You can play this game and not pay anything. It is easy to gain anything you need with no paywalls. You may have to watch ads but other than that, it is very friendly on your wallet.

Fun factor:

Out of this world!

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