Team Instinct for life
(This
review is spoiler-free!)
To say people were hyped about Pokémon Go would be the
understatement of the year. This game was advertised as something we’ve wanted
since we were little kids: being able to capture Pokémon in the real world. I’m
sure by this point you’ve heard everyone and their mother talking about how
much they love the game, but there’s also been some criticisms on how little
content the game packs overall.
For me, while it’s not really
something you can play for hours at a time, there’s really something that keeps
bringing me back over and over again. I already walk a lot during the day when
I take out my dog, but now I’m going out even more by myself often just to see
what’s lurking around my house. Sometimes I’ll find utter junk, but every once
in a while something like Beedrill, Scyther, or Kingler will appear out of
nowhere.
So how does Pokémon Go work? You walk
around the real world, and randomly-generated Pokémon will jump out at you, and
you catch them. That’s the basics of it. There are also Gyms that you can
challenge in an attempt to take it over for your team, but we’ll come back to
that later.
If, like me, you aren’t too interested
in the Gyms but are really excited about catching ‘em all, Pokémon Go is a
blast, albeit a bit frustrating at times. Nearly all of the original 151 Pokémon
are hiding in the world somewhere, and it’s your job to walk around to find
them. It’s really fun when you come across something new or rare, but
oftentimes all that your tracking device shows is a lot of Rattatas and
Pidgeys. I really wish there was more variety in the “super common” tier of Pokémon,
because less than a week into the game I’ve exhausted all need for these
basics, and it’s annoying to have the phone alert me to a Pokémon nearby, only to
find the thing I’ve already caught 100 times. If the game could implement
something like Repels to keep these critters away, that would be great.
That being said, when your tracker
locates a new Pokémon nearby and you’re on the hunt, Pokémon Go is at its best.
I’ve been walking around every nook and cranny of my hometown searching for
these rare monsters, and it’s really improved my stamina in just a few short
days of playing. You usually run into something special at least once if you go
on a long walk, and it’s really exciting whenever it shows up on the radar. A
good tip to remember is to keep an eye on how many footsteps are under the
silhouette of the Pokémon the radar is picking up. Pick one direction, and see
how the footprints react. If they go down, you’re going in the right direction.
If they go up, try going in another direction.
The other aspect of Pokémon Go are the
Gyms. They’re fun, albeit a bit archaic in the battling system. As it would
probably be a bit difficult to port the complex Pokémon battling system of the
real games over to a mobile game, the Gym battles are little more than tapping
on your monster until you or your opponent falls over. It’s nothing crazy or
something you really want to do that often, especially when compared to
catching Pokémon, but for what it is, it’s fun.
The best part of Pokémon Go, however,
is something not even included in the game. The social aspect of Pokémon Go is
fantastic. I’ll often run into at least one another player, and we often
exchange a brief conversation about what we’ve found today. It’s excellent,
especially in the way it’s getting geeks like me out of the house and meeting
other people with similar interests.
Pokémon Go exceeded my expectations in
every way. Not only did it fulfil the prospect of catching Pokémon in the real
world, it accomplished it in a way that is a lot of fun if you really take the
time to go searching for something you don’t have yet. And while the abundance
of Rattatas can get frustrating, and the game isn’t exactly bug-free yet
(prepare for a lot of game crashes!), Pokemon Go is fantastic in every way. If
you haven’t downloaded it yet, what on Earth are you waiting for!?
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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