Cryptogram: Word Brain Puzzle

used to be fun when this was a solo game (before adding points and rankings) as well as when the only added challenge was having to remove locks to reveal a space’s number. the past “enhancements” of the timer for the point multiplier, the countdown “alarm” to find a specific letter or lose, and leaving numbers off of spaces (while still having locks) have made this game stressful. the last straw for me is the current update that has 5 letter cards that must be placed before getting new ones or dealing 5 more that cover any not previously placed. this severely slows my ability to complete the puzzles and still has (at least) the locks and point multiplier countdown. I didn’t (and won’t) finish one to see if the alarm countdown or unnumbered spaces are also included in this type of puzzle/event. the monthly puzzles based on different locations are somewhat informative but not always accurate. the 1 or 2 week themed puzzles that reveal images based on fairy tales or other stories have been enjoyable. in the past, it was possible to pick a theme for the normal puzzles (e.g. tv shows, famous quotes), but now they completely random. and the number of ads is ridiculous, especially since there is an ad banner constantly at the bottom of the screen (draining battery). the ones that pop up randomly during gameplay that previously had been removed are back, which throws off flow as well as making it easy to make an unintentional error.

This game would be five stars if the ads could chill. They are so long and annoying, and ironically? oftentimes the games advertised claim to be “ad-free”. I don’t believe it personally, because they’re misleading to begin with. (The game with the mom and the baby in the snowstorm? Yeah, that actually does NOT exist, folks.) But if this is true, then surely this game doesn’t need ads. Really it would just be an improvement if you could exit out of them after ten or so seconds, like the case is for other games. Anyway, this is the one reason I can’t give the game five stars, and also no, I’m not going to spend a portion of my money for the premium version of a word game. I acknowledge that this is one way game designers make an income, but there has to be a better way to handle it, right? Like I said, at least give us the option to x out of the ad after 10-20 seconds…and if Apple could maybe pay the designers more, that would help. But that’d be an ethical decision and Apple’s CEO is anything but that.

Let me say I enjoy the game itself. I play it daily. The puzzles are fun - even if they still aren’t very challenging as of level 193. ****My issue is the ABSURD amount of ads. I’d give it 5 stars if not for that. I do understand the reason for ads. But one at the end of every level + one before you start the next is bad enough. Like just one in between should suffice but whatever I’ll watch two in a row... But several “Ad Breaks” throughout while you’re in the middle of a puzzle on top of that? WHY? That’s just too much. The ads slow the game down massively. Sometimes it will crash and restart a puzzle I was nearly done with or it’ll lag so badly I have to relaunch the app. It’s also very annoying and distracting when you’ve got a train of thought going solving a puzzle, you’re trying to enter in a letter and suddenly an ad breaks in and it’s like 10 mins long and when it’s finally over you don’t even remember what you were doing! Bug to fix: Could the timer please stop when you close the app or close your phone? I can’t always finish a puzzle before I stop playing. The timer will keep going - sometimes all night and then say it took me 12 hours to complete the puzzle - which throws off my average time. It’s not the biggest deal in the world but if you’re going to have a feature in your app it might as well work properly.