I was initially excited to see how much Two Dots has to offer. It carries the basic puzzle prototype of Dots forward to provide an extraordinary amount of levels with varied mechanical wrinkles on the core concept and specific objectives and boards that make each puzzle unique. There are unlockable avatars and other collectables to earn, helpful single-use items to amass, daily quests, and substantial side activities (I spent as much time with the hidden-object scavenger hunts as I did playing the main game), all dressed up in some charming art and pleasing music.
But this fundamental puzzle type still (perhaps necessarily) involves as much randomness as logic, which was my complaint about Dots (along with its spare arcade-like format). I bounced hard off of the very first additional mechanic introduced here: water. Whereas your objective early on is simply to connect up enough dots of various colors anywhere on the board, the second set of stages tasks you with carving water blocks across continuously connected spaces, completely inverting your focus from what you are connecting to where you are connecting it.
The shift is an interesting one, but, once I had failed 5 times straight on level 14, which requires you to accomplish the difficult task of spreading water to every single space on the board within a set number moves, I knew that I wanted to put this game away before becoming too committed to it. I quickly became aggravated over the permanent losses of the first-try level badge, multiple swapper items, and some of the expensive gold currency that I used to buy a desperate 5 extra turns on one attempt. It's one thing to have to retry over and over, but the time lockout and resource cost are too off-putting. And this is still very early on the game's huge map of levels.
What a shame. Two Dots is essentially a good game with a very generous content package that is ruined by a punitive and predatory mobile economy. Even the scavenger hunt side-game ceases to offer free access and instead charges gold for higher levels, including the final levels whose completion unlocks collectables and unique avatars. There is no way to acquire gold other than to pay money, and it is obvious to me that the costs of playing would quickly add up to surprising sums.
Some players will find themselves naturally skilled at improvisationally planning out solutions in these puzzles, and they may not fail often enough to find their resources constantly taxed. For me, however, it is apparent early on that superhuman ability would be necessary to avoid having my patience and my wallet pulled apart along the very long road on offer.
But this fundamental puzzle type still (perhaps necessarily) involves as much randomness as logic, which was my complaint about Dots (along with its spare arcade-like format). I bounced hard off of the very first additional mechanic introduced here: water. Whereas your objective early on is simply to connect up enough dots of various colors anywhere on the board, the second set of stages tasks you with carving water blocks across continuously connected spaces, completely inverting your focus from what you are connecting to where you are connecting it.
The shift is an interesting one, but, once I had failed 5 times straight on level 14, which requires you to accomplish the difficult task of spreading water to every single space on the board within a set number moves, I knew that I wanted to put this game away before becoming too committed to it. I quickly became aggravated over the permanent losses of the first-try level badge, multiple swapper items, and some of the expensive gold currency that I used to buy a desperate 5 extra turns on one attempt. It's one thing to have to retry over and over, but the time lockout and resource cost are too off-putting. And this is still very early on the game's huge map of levels.
What a shame. Two Dots is essentially a good game with a very generous content package that is ruined by a punitive and predatory mobile economy. Even the scavenger hunt side-game ceases to offer free access and instead charges gold for higher levels, including the final levels whose completion unlocks collectables and unique avatars. There is no way to acquire gold other than to pay money, and it is obvious to me that the costs of playing would quickly add up to surprising sums.
Some players will find themselves naturally skilled at improvisationally planning out solutions in these puzzles, and they may not fail often enough to find their resources constantly taxed. For me, however, it is apparent early on that superhuman ability would be necessary to avoid having my patience and my wallet pulled apart along the very long road on offer.
Lainscape
2 years ago