ARise

About six months ago, I found this game for the first time. When I played it, I really enjoyed the uniqueness of its puzzles, despite only having a small few. Now however, I have come back as of finding the game again, and I am not impressed. I realize that the developers of the game have to make money somehow and that there aren’t too many ways to do that. But now only the first level is playable? This is a big disappointment as this forces you to pay to enjoy the rest of a game that was once accessible. Especially when you have the alternative of ads. Most Ads are very annoying. But not all of them. You could always just use small banners that no one will accidentally touch because the game isn’t played that way. It would even have been better to just add a small skipable picture ad at the end of every other level, but instead you are forced to pay to play. The only way I would pay is if there were more levels and in one payment. This is still a good game, but one that has had a bad decision made for it. Please change this and consider the banner option.

I love challenging puzzles and incorporating AR into this {my first AR game)raised my expectations. First, getting started on level one is not obvious. I can now do it, but can’t explain what is happening. After working thru level 1, you view an interesting Myst-like transition to level 2. Here is where I have my major gripe. As you try to get started on level 2, if you hit the wrong spot (the dangling crane arm) you will be thrown back to level 1, and you must begin the whole level over again. Is this supposed to be fun? So, forewarned you begin over again, get to level 2, try to avoid touching the dangling arm, but with the AR element, this is difficult to do. I’ve been ‘thrown back’ to level 1 three times now, and have just about given up on this puzzle. Thus the title of my review, Not fun yet.

I may be one of the “oopsie” compatibility situations ~ DLed the app on my recent-model iPad (thanks to Apple, who knows which model/version/generation it is??!!) and while the app opens and appears to run fine, I can’t progress past choosing a flat surface, as no matter where I try to place the initial “island”, the game won’t progress past this screen. Sounded like a promising app, I’d like to play it, but at the moment...I can’t. EDIT: Shortly after writing the above review, the game began recognizing flat spaces, and I’m able to play it. A bit unwieldy, but much better than no ability to play at all. I’ll need to play it a bit more to see if it’s better than a 3-star game, but the trend is positive.