Thursday, 19 June 2014

App Review No. 56 Two Dots

Strong Points:
Lovely, clean graphics
Lots of levels
Nice challenge to levels
Very addictive
5 lives mean you can't play all the time so you have more time to do other things
You can compare your score to your friends via Facebook
Music is nice
Using squares makes the game more strategic
Daily Quests and Supply Crates are a big help to some of the more challenging levels

Weak Points:
5 lives mean you can't play all the time if you have nothing else to do
Power ups and lives can only be brought via IAP's
Lives take slightly too long to refill
Big difficulty spikes
Connecting dots can be unresponsive
Can get slightly repetitive

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
World Wide: 29th May, 2014

Controls:
Slide your finger to connect dots

This app is the sequel to the amazing Dots. While Dots was criticised (at least by me) with not having much content this app has no such problem. With 110 levels (as of time of writing) and more being added in each update, there is no shortage of content.

Another major difference in this game from Dots is the inclusion of a (very basic) story. You follow two brave dots called Jackques and Amelia by collecting postcards. These postcards give a basic outline of the story and are beautifully drawn.

As is the game. The level selection has clean and colourful backrounds which give you more of an understanding of where you are and what the story is and the dots, lives etc. are all really clean shapes and look really nice. The music is also great and calming. Bring the graphics, music and gameplay together and you've got a really relaxing game (much like the prequel) which you could play for hours on end.

However, you will want to be good at this game if you want to play for more than ten minutes at a time. This is due to the fact that lives have been included. Every time you lose or quit a game you lose a life, with five lives available. Lives take twenty minutes each to replenish or you can pay IAP's for them. This system is a good way to make sure you are not just playing this game and so that you have more time to do the things which you set out to do in the first place but it would've been nice for the cool down time to be a bit shorter.

Now on to the actual game play. You start by just connecting a certain number of dots. Then you have to start dropping a certain amount of anchors to the bottom of the screen. And so on, with new objectives being added in every section. This adds new layers of strategy to the game and also helps to make the game less repetitive. Another, less intuitive way of making the game last longer is to just crank up the difficulty. And crank it up they did. You could take ten lives to complete one level alone and although power-ups in theory would help, the only way to get these is via IAP's.

Another problem is that due to this game being a new app, there is some bugs with connecting dots sometimes making the game unresponsive and ruining your perfect square. This brings us on to another point. Squares. If you connect a square or rectangle of the same colour, then all the dots of that colour disappear, which adds even more strategy to a rather basic concept.

Finally, you can connect your game with Facebook and compete with your friends which is another nice little touch.

Conclusion: overall this app is great fun and very addictive, although the inclusion of IAP's for power-ups (and no way to get them otherwise) and huge difficulty spikes, does limit this games playability.

Rating: 90%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

Updates:
Explore more of the Blue City in Blue City Part 2, featuring 25 additional levels with the Magnets Mechanic
New and improved Daily Mystery Prize!
Themed sounds and art to fit in with the holiday system have also been added

Explore the Blue City with 25 additional levels featuring the brand-new Magnets Mechanic along with Blue City Music and Sound Effects!
Permanent upgrades now available in the Market
Bug fix - lives regeneration issue has been fixed

25 more levels featuring the Slime Mechanic have slid into the Graveyard Part 2 levels!
A scoring system update - earn more bonus points than ever for each unused move

A new, spooky, world - Graveyard Part 1 - 25 new levels featuring the new Slime Mechanic!

New Treasure Hunts - seven new levels each week!
New Treasure Hunt Leaderboard system
Continue exploring the Hidden Hills in part 2 - 25 new levels with the Nesting Dots!

A new game mechanic - Nesting Dots
A new world - Hidden Hills
The level count has reached 410!
You can now get free rewards with Daily Prizes
Faster loading times and improved iPhone 4 support

A new world with 25 more levels (featuring the Lotus Blossom mechanic)!
A new Eraser power up that makes dots of your choice disappear
A new shuffle power up that can shake up the board
Starter bundles for power ups are now available
Minor bugfixes

A new world with 25 more levels!
A new mechanic - the Lotus Blossom mechanic
Performance improvements or faster loading times
Better Japanese and German translations
Minor Bugfixes

Now 335 levels thanks to more Emerald Forest levels and a new level pack (Tesla Labs). The Tesla Labs brings with a new game mechanic (Electrical Circuits) with it as well as an improved user interface, new music and sound effects and many bug fixes and rebalancing of levels as well as faster loading times and iOS 7.1 support.

Bug Fixes: medal count leaderboard, music/sound volume, iPhone 6+ support, notification badges and more!
Rebalanced levels: 240, 241, 242 and 243

25 new levels: explore the Emerald Jungle!
New game mechanic: the Monster Dot!
Over 30 rebalanced levels!
Removed or greatly reduced fire in over 20 levels!
Richer localisation in all supported languages!

25 new levels: return to the Caverns! Also, rebalanced levels: 23, 30, 29 and 49.

25 new levels: delve into the Caverns! Also, there are now one sided blocks that need to be attacked from a specific side in order to destroy them. As well as this, the supply crate's functionality issue has been fixed as has the Facebook Connect issue.

Rebalancing of levels: 25, 35, 67, 72, 77, 80 and 81. Also, a few bugs have been squashed!

25 new levels: return to The Beyond!
Quest Finder: tap the quest tab on the map to quickly find new quests

25 new levels themed around time and space! Do you dare to visit The Beyond? Also, Blank Dots that can connect to any other dots! And an iOS 8 Widget for all those people that can get iOS 8.

Daily Quests are here and with them a whole new way to win! If you complete the daily quest, you get a new Supply Crate which contains a power-up which you can use at the beginning of a level. This helps to balance some of the more challenging levels.
New End of Game power-ups reward you for completing the level.
New Medal Count leaderboard for you to show off how many gold medals you've got to you friends or for them to do the same to you.
Rebalancing of levels: 33, 55, 59, 64, 82 and 110

Rebalancing of levels: 26 and 72

Rebalancing of levels: 29, 37, 38, 39, 72, 108 and 122.

Colour Blind mode
Boldly go where no Dot has gone before with 25 new space levels. Remember, in space no-one can here you scream in frustration.
Rebalancing of levels: 28, 33, 42, 44, 52, 55, 64, 69, 85, 102, and 110.

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