Introduction
Today we are going to review a mobile game that is fairly new on the App store. Anyone that knows the Netflix series of Stranger Things will love this review! This game is called Stranger Things Puzzle Tales, you can guess it! A mobile game has microtransaction, we will be looking at if this game is playable without transactions and if you can progress at a steady rate! There are some small stories, but not worthy for a story section, Later in the review I will tell exactly why, otherwise I will spoil to much to quick!
What did I think before playing Stranger Things Puzzle Tales
This game came to my attention when I saw a Facebook ad of Stranger Things Puzzle Tales. The ad showed me enemies running at your screen, enemies that are common from the Stranger Things Series. To defeat them, you would need these enemies, you would need to match gems quickly to defeat them. This looked quite intense for a mobile game, thus I got interested and went to the App store page.
The App store Page
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nextgames.strangerthings&hl=en&gl=US
While the video looks a bit different from the ad that I saw on Facebook in the App Store, I still thought the App Store page looked good, and I was quite interested in playing this game. I was interested in how challenging this game was. Little did I know that the Facebook ad had deceived me.
Rating
I rate Stranger Things Puzzle Tales with a 3.0
While the idea looks amazing, I dislike being deceived by trailers from advertisements for games. It means that you will most of the time be disappointed when encountering different gameplay than shown in said advertisements. We all know ads always look better, but this looked like a totally different game!
Gameplay
While I was expecting an intense, fast-paced gem matching adventure, with the enemies running at the screen and needing to stop them on time. When the tutorial came, I was shocked to find a different gameplay compared to the video that lured me to this game. The enemies are just standing there silly, waiting for their turn to attack. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thus I continued.
You will start with a team, but for good characters from the Stranger Thing series you will need to summon better characters. To summon these characters, you will need to collect crystals by doing dailies or by buying them. One of the dailies also allows you to get enough portal tokens to get one of the good character, but you are stuck doing dailies for a month. You should not a skip a day, though, otherwise it will take longer! There are also equipment items to gather for each character, and the items also need to be upgraded.
There is also a club boss, but the club system is quite underdeveloped with missing features at the time of writing. I found a good guild but alas I got kicked when some real life stuff went down and being unable to login daily. There is a story line to follow, but you need a lot of characters to keep upgrading your characters. You will need a lot of luck to actually upgrade your character. If you think of playing old levels, you are out of luck as that is not possible.
While the game started out with mostly wait to win elements, with a resource generator that gives you free experience points and coins while logged off. However, more pay to win elements kept being added to the game in the two months that I have played, like a pass that rewards you for completing a story chapter. However, if you do not pay, you will only get some goo to promote characters. However, paying players will get 4,5k diamonds per chapter, which grants a lot of summons for new characters.
You will keep getting stuck as you progress in the game, upgrading a character can take weeks, which means that you will be doing dailies that take barely five minutes each day. This gets boring very quickly. After being stuck for a month on the same level, also being kicked out of the club due to real life, i decided to call it a quits and make this review!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Stranger Things Puzzle Tales with a 5.5
You will need a lot of luck and patience to progress in the game, I also was deceived by the Facebook advertisement video. The beginning of this game is fun, it wears down quickly.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are quite unique as it is all in the style of Stranger Things. A lot of characters unique to that series are in the game, as well as the dangerous beasts. The gems look cool, but their design cannot be changed like in Doctor Who Legacy. There is also the huge problem that you cannot replay old missions, which makes quite some graphical assets of earlier levels useless unless you create a new account.
Sound
The soundtracks are fun for the beginning, I got bored quickly from the soundtracks and turned it off completely.
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Stranger Things Puzzle Tales with a 6.0
This could have been rather a full made game without transactions and decently ways to levle up characters.
What did I think after playing Stranger Things Puzzle Tales?
In the beginning I had a lot of fun while playing this game and learning about it despite being misled. There is a good community with a lot of fun and nice people. However, if I did not want to review this game, I would have quit much earlier as it started feeling like a demeaning chore. There are a lot of things to improve in this game.
After playing for two months, I still failed to even get a team of characters that I wanted, despite summoning new ones all the time without paying any money. This leads me to the conclusion that you need to pay a lot of money to continue in the game and not get stuck. Unless you are willing to pay, you should look at another game. This is also why there is no story as I was unable to finish without paying! It is also very demoting to not even have a decent team after two months of playing!
Rating
I rate Stranger Things Puzzle Tales with a 5.5 after playing.
You will need money to fully finish the game and enjoy it, or else it might take years!
What are my personal thoughts about Stranger Things Puzzle Tales?
While I had a lot of fun in the beginning with this game, as the game progress it quickly became a chore that I needed to complete.
Rating
My personal Rating of Stranger Things Puzzle Tales is a 2.0
If this had been a real game, I would have most likely given it a very high rating! You will need a lot of money to reach the end!
Last Words
Pros
- Have fun with characters of Stranger Things
- There are quite some fun gameplay elements until you get stuck
- Investigate problems to earn rewards
- Upgrade equipment to strengthen your characters
- Promote your characters to get stronger
Cons
- You will need a lot of money to progress steadily in this game.
- It is very hard to get a decent team
- This game will feel like a chore when playing dailies
- promoting characters takes long or will cost you a great sum of money
I would advise you to play another game unless you are ready to spend a lot of money!
Final Rating
5.0
Let me know what you think of Stranger Things Puzzle Tales in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
quilor
nice game play
perikorozo
Another game with a well-known and brand name shrunk-down to a common paywall game.
Jason Miller
I really wish the newer Stranger games were instead on Steam (and not mobile) but ah well...at least I still have Stranger Things 3: The Game on there.
fano23
Looks like a mobile game that requires time, good to know details about this game
long shade
Good review, for a bad game. "You will need money to fully finish the game and enjoy it, or else it might take years!" - Ah yes, the future of gaming...
Silentrets
i had finished game not puzzle one.
jett cameron
lootboxes
DROPPED
supersven
Did you just drop a lootbox?
SakuraPhantom
Not a fan of puzzle games, but this game looks interesting
supersven
It looks interesting but not for the long term!
krutarthxo
You need money to complete the game? Direct nope from me.
Anvar Salahutdinov
looks like a nice game
supersven
It indeed looks like a nice game!
Jaromir Krzyszczak
Stranger Things themed game, interesting, but from the review it seems that its not my type of game
Anvar Salahutdinov
I like the visual style (as in the most of the game i play)
supersven
The graphics are indeed good, but the paywall is too high!
Sitny Darlz
I'll check it out, this is the kind of game I play when I don't have much to do.
supersven
I hope you are going the free to play route!
emperoru
Not my type of games
supersven
Not every game is for everyone 🙂
DonCarlos
It's a shame that Stranger Things 3: The Game was removed from all stores before I could buy it.
supersven
You should not replace it with this game!
Roman
Lootboxes? FUUUUUUU
supersven
I agree!
adhidev jayaraj
gameplay will get repetitive very fast imo
supersven
I agree, it is five minutes every day, and it is always the same!
Mateusz
Better play ST3, it's old school fun.
supersven
Sounds like a great idea!
Beltrán
ngl it looks like any other mobile game, I'm probably not going to play it xD
supersven
Better of playing a real game!
cassioht
I have been playing a similar game called Tower of Saviors since last year, but instead, you can freely move the gems(runestones in TOS) for a few seconds. Each card has your own active and passive skill making the gameplay more unique. And the biggest pro of the game is the collab cards, they are usually strong and from famous animes like Hunter X Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, Demon Slayer, Boku no Hero, etc.
Alamar
Well not matter the ratings some fans of the tv series will buy this game, this is how it works i guess 😉
supersven
That is usually the matter with big names!
eFe
I find it a bit strange the timing of when they decided to release a Stranger Things game, since the third season came out a while ago and the fourth season is still a while away
As for the game is to read lootboxes to avert my eyesight xp
supersven
I agree with you, maybe they want to build up before the new season?
SilentNight
Money Money Money!
supersven
That is what they want!