State.io - Conquer the World

I love the game, I’m like level 1500 or smth. My only complaint is the removal of the offline hourly income, that was a big source of income. And when you get to the levels I’m at, watching a 15-30 second ad to make only up to maybe 200k ish isn’t very helpful because each level upgrade is 500k coins, so really to level up one I have to play two rounds, which this far in takes at least 3 min, times two so 6 min. Then I must watch two ads, adding 1 minute all to afford maybe one level upgrade. That isn’t worth it anymore because as my competition levels up maybe even just 5 starting units every few rounds I can’t compete with that, the hourly income was good, overtime I could afford to make large income. Right now I have just over 4b coins, but I make close to 0 income proportional to my “expenses” for upgrades. Adding this back would be very useful. I understand it supports watching ads, which of course covers the income for the game developers and stuff, but at least nerfing it so I have a chance to still win, as rounds get increasingly more difficult. Besides that 1 ad after every game is a little annoying maybe every lost game, but still that’s a lot of ads. Besides those two complaints this is probably my favorite mobile game.

I got this game a week ago after playing an add and thought hey this could be a fun game. I wasn’t wrong - the game is a blast. While not too challenging, it’s a fun and easy strategy game. While most of the time I’d win sometimes I’d lose and it was fun to play against the computers. However, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole. I quickly realized the easiest way to get upgrades was to increase my offline earnings and then watch an add to multiply it by 4. At first no big deal because the computer increased in strength, but one day the computer maxed out. Like Megamind who destroyed MetroMan only to discover there was no more joy without the fight. I have now reached level 1000 and have become an unstoppable machine of country destroying destruction. Levels that used to pose a challenge are now beaten at ease. If the computer could continue to increase in difficulty no matter your level that would be fantastic. I want to feel the fear of a challenge again. Also if there was a difficulty setting like easy, normal, hard, chaos. That would be fantastic. Either way I’ll probably log on every now and then to continue getting ridiculous upgrades to increase my unstoppable power.

When I first opened this game, I was adamant on believing that it was another one of those grindy annoying .io games. What I was met with exceeded my expectations, and I enjoyed my first play through of the game. I will address 3 points in this review: game progression, ai, and the potential this game has. When I started, it was rather easy to grind out upgrades, and I enjoyed playing a game that actually felt like it had a tolerable grind. Right now, the ai in this game is quite lackluster in the later stages of my play through. Ai only attack each other most of the time, and it is quite easy to conquer their territory. What I would suggest to the game devs is an increase in ai difficulty, and maybe a buff in their forces. Now, onto the potential. Right now, there is only one continent, North America. I think it would be a smart idea to add more continents and countries, as one map tends to get stale after a while. If the devs feel like being lazy; then they could just give the player the option to conquer the whole United States. If the devs run out of countries, then they could move into areas in a certain state. Like I said earlier, the potential of this game is untapped, and if the devs see this review then I give them this advice. Please don’t change the progression system, make the ai a little bit more challenging for the player, and please consider expanding the map so that the player doesn’t feel bored after the first few playthroughs.