I love Pokemon, it was a major part of my life and has shape who I am, I probably like it too much, but we don't choose what we like. Pokemon Go is a Augmented Reality game from the makers of Ingress, which I called "Watchdogs IRL". For someone who has never left the Pokemon scene, this year has been a roller coaster, the interest during the 20th anniversary was a weird thing to behold, all of a sudden everyone was talking about Pokemon, people were going crazy for the Pokemon branded consoles, and it seemed like everyone was playing Pokemon again, jump 2 months later, and everything had equalized, Pokemon card prices had gone back down, and only the dedicated remained. Then out of nowhere Pokemon Go was released, I have had my own opinions that it would never see the light of day, the concept was to grand to ever be feasible, But I was wrong... or was I?
Upon Opening the game you get a quick "introduction" into the game and are thrown in, I usually hate the hand holding in recent Pokemon games, but this was ridiculous, I had no idea how anything worked, how do I encounter Pokemon, what are those towers in the distance, what are those pokeball icons on the map. NOTHING WAS EXPLAINED, so I just jumped in and had to figure it out on my own. Unlike the main Pokemon games, Pokemon weren't encountered randomly but would popup on the map, a nice idea, similar to how ORAS handled random encounters, although it little in the way of surprises. Once I chose my starter, I wanted to see how many details the Pokemon contained... I was disappointed, it only had two move and didn't seem to have a way of changing or learning other moves. What was once "training" has devolved into f2p garbage, with x Amount of Items to level up. But I would wouldn't give up, so I kept playing, the Pokemon stops seemed to be Pokemon Go's replacement for location markers in ingress.
My next question was how do I battle? Encountering Pokemon would bring up a pseudo safari zone mechanic, and there didn't seem to be a way to battle player in the streets. Turns out you can only battle in the "gym spires" and even then all strategy had gone out the window in favor of "Tap and swipe real fast", there wasn't a popup explanation how battles worked, it just threw me into a real time battle, COMPLETELY going against what was the norm for the average Pokemon player. I guarantee everyone loses their first battle.
So how do Pokemon Evolve, that is their thing. Well since you cant train against other Pokemon, the only option is to use the "train" method in the Pokemon in-game menu. Here was where the problem popped its rear head, you trained Pokemon using points that you get from battling Pokemon, you could also trade Pokemon for points, that you can then use to power up your Pokemon.... This doesn't seem like Pokemon, it is something else... but I couldn't put my finger on it. I could also tell the designer for Pokemon GO had not played a game since Gen 1, WHICH IS VERY FRUSTRATING, most "90's players" will only remember using the missingno cheat to get rare candies and leveling Pokemon like that. Its the only explanation I have for this mechanic.
It always irks me when people in the industry have no passion for what they are working on and end up phoning in a facsimile that barely resembles the franchise you have been apart of for years, but thats another story.
The Pokemon stops also seemed familiar, you could pick up items when you were near one, and you encountered more Pokemon around it, you could also drop "lures" to increase the encounter rate, all very not Pokemon, I dont know why the stops wearnt changed into "Pokemon centers", but what do I know.
The Pokemon encounters are also very strange, you would encounter just about anything anywhere, I would find magikarps in grassy fields, digglets on a 5 story building, bird Pokemon indoors. This could have used some REAL Creativity. The game already knows how to differentiate between field, buildings and water, so have Pokemon only popup in their designated areas, water near the water line ect.
You could have also used the Pokemon stops to your advantage! Want a Chansey? Better go to the hospital stop, In the middle of the city, you only encounter urban Pokemon like pidgey and meowth, ground Pokemon could show up more frequently in desert areas, want ghost Pokemon? Go to a memorial or cemetery. It wouldn't be hard to program either. Also why are you able to encounter fully evolved Pokemon like nidoking and dragonite? It takes all the fun of evolving away from the players.
AT the end of the day, this was barely a Pokemon game, there were no training, the world map is lack luster, you counted interact with your Pokemon like pokemon amie, you cant even battle other players unless they control a gym, even digivices could do that.... THAT'S IT!! This isn't a Pokemon game its a Digimon game!!
The Pokemon stops are Digital Breaches, you use Pokemon to load onto other Pokemon to power them up, you use an external device to control the "Pokemon", You can only see the Pokemon using a computer device (much like Digimon Tamers). There has been an ongoing joke in the Pokemon/Digimon community about how gamefreak constantly ripoff Digimon, from eggs, to "Mega Evolutions" It all seemed too coincidental. I guess there is just one more coincidence to add.
PROS More interactive Battles Getting people moving and active, plus being more social Access to a Pokemon game for people that do not have a Nintendo console (which more people should have) Nice catching mechanic, could be used in main series, I like the idea of throwing the pokeball myself
Cons -80% of basic mechanics are cut out -No Trainer Battles -No Evolution stones -No Training -Pokemon are easily obtainable in city areas -Pokemon Appear just about anywhere with no sense to where they are -Game is beyond buggy, it is unpolished, with textures fighting & roads clipping. -Players movement is erratic, player should interpolate to new position, and less dependence on the gps is needed, measure the velocity and direction between the last two points and move the player in that direction, don't just wait for the gps to report back and have the player move like a digglet on the map. -Only First Gen Pokemon (All the models were provided by Gamefreak so there was little reason to not have all the Pokemon at launch) -No trading. - Performance and battery usage is a nightmare! I continue to believe programmers are taking their jobs for granted, doing the bare minimum
Conclusion Considering how Nintendo dominated the market with quality, polished games i'm surprised they let this through the door in its current state, its barely a game, and resembled Pokemon pinball more than the core series. The game is a lazy attempt at using nostalgia to get people to play, I guarantee if you gave the players of Pokemon go a 3ds and Pokemon x/y for free, they will choose x/y every time. Sometimes free isnt better.