- Pokemon Unite Review
- Pokémon Unite Review
- Pokemon Unite Is Pay to Win P2W
- SHOULD YOU PLAY THE POKEMON MOBA? Pokemon Unite 1 Year Anniversary
- Pokémon Unite is PAY TO WIN and its Disgusting.
- Pokémon Unite Is Gross
- Pokemon Unite (Switch) Review
Pokemon Unite Review
[Applause],the concept of a free-to-play,pokemon moba probably sounds like a,dream come true to some,and a shameless cash grab to others as a,long time fan of both pokemon and dota,i had my doubts about whether pokemon,unite could successfully blend,these disparate gaming worlds but my,skepticism turned to delight after,seeing how much fun this mobile brawler,could be,at least for a little while,unfortunately pokemon unite only,partially sticks the landing,resulting in an enjoyable casual moba,with some dubious microtransactions,and little interest in pushing the,boundaries of the genre,pokemon unites premise will be instantly,recognizable to anyone who has so much,as glanced at a moba,two teams of five lanes leading between,two bases and a jungle full of neutral,creeps,you select a pokemon from the current,roster of 21 to take into battle,well try to score points level up and,drive the other team back,rather than ending with the spectacular,destruction of the enemys base,unites matches are on a 10-minute timer,with the winning team being whichever,squad scores the most eos energy,eos is collected by defeating the wild,pokemon to spawn around the map,then banked by dunking them space jam,style into the enemys goal zones,unites version of towers its cute spin,on the established genre mechanics,but the short timer and simplicity of,these static objectives,eventually made matches start to play,out very similarly,[Music],similar to heroes of the storm unite,uses a simplified take on moba character,progression,with each pokemon having access to just,two basic skills and an ultimate,each basic skill can branch into one of,two options allowing you to lightly,customize your playstyle mid-match,this paired down system makes your,customization choices slim compared to,league of legends or dota 2,but each pokemon at least feels distinct,from the others even within,these strict confines further,customization is available through three,held item slots,that add much needed depth to your,pre-battle preparations,but also raise some obvious pay to win,concerns,while the held items allow for some,rewarding flexibility in how you could,build each pokemon,they can also be upgraded between,matches to increase their power,maxing out just one held item for free,could take dozens of hours of playing,or you can simply pay real money for an,instant boost max tell the items offer a,small but noticeable advantage mid-match,while its not nearly enough to,guarantee an instant win over those,without them,still significant enough to leave a bad,taste in my mouth,this is especially unfortunate because,once you find a pokemon that works for,you,the pvp combat is actually very,enjoyable there are plenty of,opportunities to outplay and outsmart,your opponents using a combination of,your skills,items and the terrain itself escaping a,sudden gank or wiping the enemy team,with your ultimate is just as satisfying,here as it is in any other moba,and its even more fun when youre,pulling those moves off with a team of,friends,pokemon unite is at its best when you,strike a perfect balance between,fighting and dunking your eos,but individual contributions dont,always equal overall success,thanks to the overpowered map objectives,like zapdos,zapdos is the centerpiece of unites,main map remote stadium,this powerful wild pokemon spawns in the,middle of the stadium in the matchs,final minutes,whichever team lands the killing blow is,given a massive amount of eos energy and,the ability to score instantly for a,short time,dunks are also worth double during the,same time period enabling an,insurmountable win,for the leading team or an instant,comeback for the trailing team with no,time left on the clock for a response,disheartening last minute swings can,happen in many games,but they are made a little more,frustrating here thanks to occasionally,imprecise controls,unite can only be played with a,controller on switch right now using an,impressively slick scheme that,undoubtedly makes it the easiest moba to,quickly pick up ive ever played,even the most inexperienced player,should be able to understand the basics,fast,but the lack of a cursor means you have,to rely on smart targeting to redirect,your attacks,its behavior can be tweaked in the menus,but it will still automatically pick,targets poorly sometimes,some of these complaints may be a little,deep in the tall grass for a casual,beginner-friendly moba which unite,provides decently enough,but its over dedication to simplicity,can occasionally also feel,more obtuse than accessible for example,you cant see the score during a match,theres no indication of which attacks,deal physical or special damage and item,descriptions can be strangely vague,feels like unite cant tell the,difference between streamlining,information,and hiding it,[Music],pokemon unite is an entertaining,introductory moba that checks all the,genres boxes but has,very little of its own to add to the,conversation questionable free-to-play,choices like being able to pay for power,thats otherwise very slowly earned,even detract from it bite-sized battles,and cute presentation can make it a,genuinely enjoyable brawler,particularly with a team of friends but,i was feeling the limitations of its,oversimplified mechanics before too long,which made its fast matches start to,feel a little too similar,for more switch action games check out,reviews of neo the world ends with you,or eldest souls and for everything else,keep it right here on ignPokémon Unite Review
this is curtin davina reading for jason,finelli pokemon unite,gets a lot of things right the game,feels like a moba such as league of,legends or,dota 2 but is much easier to understand,for those whove never played a moba,before,matches are short snappy affairs with,plenty of action and strategy,learning each of the five classes is fun,and rewarding,each skirmish within a match ups the,ante increasing tension and excitement,until it boils over in the final stretch,its just a shame that the confusing,in-game economy composed of multiple,currencies,and a loopbox style lottery system can,sometimes get in the way,of the fun,for those unaware pokemon unite is a,multi-player,online battle arena game or moba,two teams of up to five players choose a,pokemon then,enter an arena where they defeat wild,pokemon in the environment,to gather energy and experience,experience levels up a pokemon,increasing its stats and powering up its,moves while energy,is used to score points and win the game,this is where pokemon unite,separates itself from traditional mobas,pokemon must take their stored energy to,an opposing teams goal,and dunk it through the hoop to score,points,equal to how much energy the pokemon,held,dunks arent the only scoring method,though as special wild pokemon sometimes,appear,that give temporary buffs or extra,points,but theyre rare and theyre sometimes,one-time occurrences during a match,when time runs out 10 minutes in a,standard match whoever has the most,points,wins this goal scoring approach is,different from established moba games,but its a fantastic choice most of the,wild pokemon in the arena,arent difficult to beat so even novice,players will be able to gather,energy easily,[Music],some goals can only have so many points,scored on them before they break,meaning disabled goals force you to,progress further into the opponents,side of the arena to find a new one,its a fun spin on the core objective of,a moba match,taking something like defeating towers,and league of legends in order to,progress,and making it unique also since the,goals dont fight back like league of,legends towers do,new mobile players wont need to worry,about extra,threats when trying to score pokemon,unite does a great job of making each,match,feel exciting youll feel a quick bond,with teammates who stick to their roles,and support,as needed and youll feel embarrassed,for that one player doing their own,thing and getting crushed for it,every mid-match skirmish where you and,your teammates are meeting a group of,opponents as tense and exciting and,emerging victorious is thrilling,the 20 pokemon on the pokemon unite,roster fall into one of five,categories attacker all rounder,speedster defender and supporter,these categories describe how each one,should be controlled,leaning into the genres strategic,elements team balance is also a big,factor in a moba players success,and unite does a good job of allowing,players to balance their teams how they,wish,small hints on the character select,screen will let the team know,which role has not yet filled while,chosen pokemon are faded out to clearly,show whos still available,as you gain experience the pokemon,special attacks will power up,first changing to a new move and then,adding an enhanced version,while that sounds like a lot the game,does a great job of making everything,clear,in real time pokemon unite serves as a,tremendous entry point into what may be,a new genre for many players,its easy to pick up and play giving,everyone a chance to learn,what mobas are all about moba veterans,may find the game a little too,simplistic though,lacking the deep gameplay and strategic,elements of league of legends or dota,the speed of the matches coupled with,the approachable mechanics makes,grinding for higher levels,easy without feeling repetitive grinding,has its benefits too,with trainer levels that give you access,to new modes and rewards,and an optional battle pass that gives,even more reward drops,there are ways around grinding as well,if you want to speed things up but,unfortunately,that means you have to deal with,microtransactions,the achilles heel of pokemon unite the,games easy,streamlined processes and gameplay goes,out the window when the games economy,enters the discussion there are five,different in-game currencies,four of which are earned by plane there,are eos coins,eos tickets fashion tickets and hollow,ware tickets,the lone premium currency are eos gems,which are only available via real money,and can be used to purchase,some of the things the other free,currencies can buy,like unite licenses to access playable,pokemon,or boosts to battle points to gain,levels faster,having five currencies is an,unnecessarily confusing system,four of them are earned by playing the,game meaning that everything available,can,technically be earned by grinding out,matches but the rates at which some,currencies are earned are unreasonably,low,the paid currency wouldnt be inherently,bad if it were only used for cosmetic,items such as those skins but eos gems,can also be used to purchase unite,licenses,to unlock pokemon and temporary boosts,for eos coins,in battle pass points allowing you to,more quickly unlock items that can be,used,in battle while buying a unite license,for a pokemon just gives a player access,to that pokemon early which isnt a big,deal outside of being able to use a,pokemon in battle sooner its the items,that are,a key example of why this economy can,feel unbalanced,and the shops are two types of items,held items which give your pokemon,permanent boost,in a match and battle items which are,activated with a button press and can,give a temporary perk like heel damage,or,increased attack power by pumping money,into the game via the premium currency,either to boost coin gain or using the,gems to purchase the items directly,a player can purchase and use these,items faster than someone whos not,buying gems,dont get me wrong pokemon unite is an,enjoyable game,the moba genre fits the pokemon,franchise very well,and as more pokemon are introduced the,meta game will likely to continue to,evolve,and may introduce more fun opportunities,to strategize,dropping into battle with new builds and,trying new things is fun,as is taking a newly earned pokemon into,a battle and seeing what they can do,whats not enjoyable is the games,economy if microtransactions werent so,incentivized wed be looking,at the next major pokemon success story,knowing that they are however player,beware,[Music],what is,[Music],[Music],oh,[Music],five four three,two one times up,[Music],you win
More: review synonym
Pokemon Unite Is Pay to Win P2W
More: hankook tires review
SHOULD YOU PLAY THE POKEMON MOBA? Pokemon Unite 1 Year Anniversary
its been a year since the release of,pokemon unite is the game finally,playable and should you even play the,short answer is yes because the,anniversary event is giving you so much,free stuff that if youve ever had,interest in pokemon unite nows the time,to get in if you enjoy mobas and youve,actually never even heard of the pokemon,moba now is the time to play and that is,what this video is going to be breaking,down so if you enjoy it dont forget to,leave a like please share this video,with all your friends pokemon unite,honestly a really good game and then,leave your thoughts in the comments,below so i just want to talk about all,the free stuff theyre giving away for,the anniversary im not even sponsored,like tencent hates me they gave me a,copyright strike for covering leaks but,i just like the game and im also going,to talk about the actual state of the,game as well but look at this for,logging in you just get pokemon you get,pikachus license like you get pikachu,you get lucario blastoise snorlax,sylveon so just logging in five days,gives you five licenses and that was a,big thing new players when the game,first came out were complaining about,like oh man it takes so long to get eos,coins i cant get all the pokemon i want,and thats kind of like the weird thing,with pokemon being new in the moba space,or just new a new game in general people,that have hundreds or thousands of hours,in other games and everything unlocked,its hard to start over again but right,now theres all kinds of free stuff,being given away and we can see that,through like the different challenges if,you play enough you get glaceon for free,the newest character the daily events,are insane right now you log in you get,extra energy for the gotcha system which,is pretty important energy boost,campaign going on right now so like,everything is boosted youre getting,more rewards every time you play youre,getting more stuff every time you log in,they have this returning player event as,well so if youre coming back into the,game you also get tons of free stuff um,and if you play with people that are,returning so if youre like say youve,been playing and then you recruit a,friend back into the game then you also,get tons of stuff also if you bring,someone into the game,you get rewards as well by the way if,youre new to pokemon you know use that,invite code and then you can enter the,invite code and then i can get all kinds,of cool stuff so yeah do that,and then it gets even crazier because,like everything you do is just going to,give you tons of resources to help you,catch up and were not like were not,even into all of the ongoing events this,is just stuff that has happened since,the game launch so one thing you might,have heard immediately after the game,came out is that its pay to win for,starters this was mostly a lie to begin,with a lot of npc npcs just kind of fell,into it but the devs did remedy these,concerns but it seems like no one really,cared about it because just the bad,press killed the game immediately so,when you hit level 14 you get three,level 30 items also by like playing,through the rank system you get tons of,items by going through all these new,missions like you can have five six,level 30 items in a very short amount of,time through all the stuff thats going,on and at least all your items level 20.,difference between level 20 and level 30,doesnt really matter no one was really,paying a hundred dollars to get like one,percent stats over you game was never,paid a win also we have these uh trials,so seven day max grade trial cards you,get a couple of these through these,events theres also other times you can,just kind of randomly scoop them up so,youre always going to have a good,amount of access to level 30 items so,that the thing that people were,complaining about pay to win which,really wasnt isnt a big deal anymore,also if you get into the game there is a,shortened rank season its one and a,half months instead of three months no,one really knows why theyre doing this,but again like if you get in now theres,all kinds of crazy boost and stuff going,on if you play with a friend you,actually gain rank faster so if youre,coming into the game youre bringing a,friend which is recommended solo queue,is hell but thats true of any moba or,any multiplayer team based game,or just multiplayer games in general um,if you bring in a friend you actually,rank up faster so you can still make it,to master rank even if this is your,first time playing theres all kinds of,good rewards,and yeah like so now its like a good,time to get in if you just spend the,next month kind of catching up to people,by the time season six rolls around,which is going to be sooner than average,season like the normal seasons youre,actually going to be pretty much caught,up to everyone else,and as an existing player im not like,offended like oh man all my hard work,has gone away no like i want as many,people playing and enjoying this game as,possible and its one of those things,where like i can just keep on going on,about all the things going on they have,season points now instead of regular,points so you get,all this free stuff,very quickly you also have like your,level up stuff,so as you play through and get levels,like look that one 1 000 as coins thats,thats,a tenth of a pokemon,just right there so you play the game,and the rewards are pretty insane youre,also getting licenses if you start the,game theres like a 14-day login,campaign that gives you all kinds of,stuff as well,um i feel like im still forgetting some,things theres like the anniversary,plaza you get free items non-stop so,yeah things are still pretty nuts on,that front you are encouraged to play,the game and interact with the game to,unlock things for the game which just,makes sense at least right now its,about as overtuned as ive seen it and,as like other events just randomly,splash in you just get tons of free,stuff so if you just play the game,youre going to catch up and youre also,just going to have a good amount of,stuff to work with anyways so youre,going to be fine there now as for the,state of the game the game balance feels,pretty good right now normally theres,like a major issue with the patch or,just something really ugly that breaks,the game but that hasnt happened in a,while so like i would say the first,month or so of launch ignoring gengar,being the strongest thing ever and like,blastoise being the strongest thing ever,on launch game was pretty balanced and,then it started to really just get ugly,and very,close to unplayable and just like really,rough but then start coming back so like,the balance has actually gotten it,together buddy barrier if you like heard,about that or score shield just making,the game just like,unplayable that actually got nerfed,zapdos is still a problem but,well talk about that as we get a little,further um so yeah like all the pokemon,balance feels really good most of the,roster feels really good i have guides,to help you pick up some pokemon i have,tier list to kind of explain where some,pokemon land and im going to be doing,more content as well so subscribe,notification bell enable all,notifications all that good stuff,and yeah like the roster is pretty good,really the only issue i have is hoopa,enabling teleport on 12 second cooldown,and like,wrecking the integrity of the game for,team play but overall like yeah theres,classes for everything theres,archetypes for everything,um,nothings too oppressive game is in one,of the most balanced states right now so,thats pretty good my only issue with,the game is that the rank system still,has not separated five-man teams and,solo players from the latter and its,just mostly like demotivating where,they have such a massive advantage to,play as five people that like whoever,just has four other friends,plus themselves with the least amount of,life and they can just always play,together they just kind of get free wins,and they get free climbing off of that,and lik
Pokémon Unite is PAY TO WIN and its Disgusting.
you know what i love the most about,pokemon,its not the memories its not playing,fire red on my,gb sp back in the day,no its how pokemon has always,tried to,pokemon unite released a week ago,uh fun game i actually do like it a lot,im im enjoying the game,however ive come to very quickly,realize,it is pay to win and i have,proof a lot of it lets talk about that,if you dont know what pokemon unite,is its a pokemon game that wasnt,developed by game freak or nintendo,actually 10 cent had the rights to make,this one,tencent is the same company that owns,league of legends and pokemon unite is,also a moba,just like league of legends moba stands,for multiplayer online,battle arena the one im most familiar,with is,dota because ive played dota 2 too much,now im not here to review the game i,mean i like it and ill probably talk,about some things i do like about it as,we go along but for the purpose of this,video and proving that it is pay to win,were gonna stick to just what we need,to know in,a moba and this one specifically you,have 10 players,5 on each side each player picks a,pokemon and they will control,that and only that pokemon through the,whole 10 minute game,each pokemon have different and unique,ways of playing,special attacks attacks and even base,stats,not that we know what any of these,pokemons base stats are because the,game,doesnt tell us something were gonna,get to later,and something thats really weird now in,other mobas like,dota or league of legends when you start,playing,your character is naked essentially you,dont have any items beefing or powering,you up,but as you play and you defeat creeps,and enemy heroes you get,gold which you can use to buy items in,that game in that round that youre,playing theyre temporary items and then,it resets the next time and you only use,the gold that you earn while playing,that round to buy,said item thats where pokemon unite,differs from games like that because in,pokemon unite its very streamlined you,dont go in around,and then buy items or do any of that,while playing,you actually equip items onto the,pokemon in the main menu,and then you take whatever items you,want into the game,and thats where we find our issue,because the items that you equip,which you do have to buy from the store,however,you can pretty much buy any item just,using credits that you earn from playing,the actual buying the base items,isnt too much of a hassle theres three,slots you can fill up on each pokemon,and you can fairly easily fill those up,with whatever items you want,for free the issue becomes each of these,items,can then be upgraded from level one,where it starts,all the way up to level 30. this is,where it becomes pay to win,uh again i have proof and ive recorded,tons of comparisons of a bunch of,different things,and were gonna get to all of those but,first i need you to understand,what it is we are comparing in those,clips by the,items that im holding also what it took,to get the items to that point,its me eugene and im back to try and,hack into your system,once more just checking for that pesky,express vpn around here,japan once again they turned on their,expressvpn,and changed location which then routed,their connection through one of,expressvpns 3,000 plus servers hiding their real,location and sending me,yeah and i was just about to hack in on,all their social media accounts,what am i saying im in japan i love,japan im gonna find a maid cafe,not using expressvpn is like going to,the bathroom and not,closing the door everyones gonna smell,what you did in there expressvpn will,help protect you from situations like,that one,but also many others whether youre at,home at work or even in an internet cafe,anywhere you access online but theres a,fun side to using expressvpn,too like with services such as netflix,those services actually have a ton more,content thats region locked but youre,still paying full,price i mean screw that take your,expressvpn plop yourself in australia,and,boom bam you got south park rick and,morty brooklyn nine-nine,you can try it with all different kinds,of places just,see what pops up by going to,expressvpn.com forward slash beat em ups,and find out how you can get three,months of expressvpn,free im honestly not even mad this time,i wonder where to send me next,uh i am choosing to use gengar for this,and i decided that the best items to,test with gengar would be,shell bell which improves the special,attack and,cooldown of abilities float stone,because it improves the movement speed,up to an extra 120,points which if youve played a moba,youll know how,broken having that much extra move speed,can be,and finally rocky helmet which improves,my overall hp,by almost 300 points and defense,by 42 as well but yes i have all these,level 30 now,but lets talk about what it took and,how much money,it took to get here and how long it,would have taken to get here if i didnt,spend that money let me break this down,and and let me know where along the,lines if at all you get confused by all,of this the thing you need to upgrade,the broken items,is called an item enhancer one item,enhancer is,10 tickets but you know items at level,one,theyll theyll take three item,enhancers to level up so theres no,point in just buying,one and they start jumping up in price,quickly each time you buy one by five,ten twenty and by the time you hit level,29 itll take,300 item enhancers to go up,one level once you run out of the,tickets and you will,quickly you can use aeon gems to buy the,item enhancers instead,aeon gems is what you buy with real,money,it takes one eos gem to make 10 eos,tickets and since just using 10 tickets,to get one item enhancer is pretty much,useless youre going to want to do this,in batches at a time so the most you can,do is 500 tickets for 50 gems,gems cost one dollar for 60 gems,all the way up to a hundred dollars for,six,thousand gems now depending on what,package you get,youll get a few bonus gems but lets,just use that as a base rate are you,confused,probably because ive done the math once,already and im lost,again i cant remember how this broke,down this,and this is exactly the super predatory,actions that games like these take,to confuse young people specifically but,myself and anyone bad at math or anyone,in general,into not realizing how much theyre,spending or how much,things are actually worth because you,have this item which is sold in tickets,but if you run out of tickets you can,use,gems which is a different amount than,tickets and the gems you pay for and,thats a different amount too,and thats the point i have no idea how,much anything actually costs i just know,that i keep going into the eshop and,then its all gone,to fully upgrade one item,costs 2 587 of these item enhancers or,almost 26 000 tickets which breaks down,to about 45 dollars,per one item hitting level 30.,which which i dont know where to go,with this,so to upgrade all three to level 30,its gonna cost you 135 dollars,theres items that will make you attack,faster or it will increase your attack,speed but thats not good for an pokemon,like gengar because i dont care how,fast im attacking normally its all,about the special attacks,but if i want to get good with like,machamp then im gonna have to upgrade,that item too three is like the base you,have three slots you want to at least,complete one pokemon,but for another one you might have to do,it again lets just say,you do it one time for one pokemon its,gonna cost you 135 dollars plus tax,to get it all the way up to level 30.,and you might be thinking well i dont,you know i just wont do that i just,wont do that then thats a lot of money,i wont do that,um and maybe youre thinking i wont,even worry about the items well,i will show you soon why youre gonna,want to worry about the items,if you want any hope of being,competitive or not getting owned,but lets say youll you go the other,way and youre like well i will worry,about them then but ill ill let it,happen organically,you know ill get
Pokémon Unite Is Gross
Hello my wonderful friends! Arlo here, and today we’re talking about unchecked corporate ,avarice and the predatory, exploitative practices that are poisoning this industry! ,…I mean POKEEMON! We’re talking about POKEEMON!,You know, Pikachu and Squirtle and all their little friends? ,THAT’S what we’re talking about today! Oh, but I suppose those two subjects are somewhat related, ,aren’t they? Pokemon Unite recently launched, and I wish this were a video only about how much ,fun it is, and how cute the lil’ pocket monsters are with their silly costumes, ,and how great it is that I can play as Venusaur–meta be darned. But unfortunately, ,that’s not all we’ve got to talk about. Rather predictably, this free-to-play game ,is heavily monetized, and perhaps also predictably, I’m not too happy about it.,The subject of monetization is pretty divisive, ,and it’s also a very big one that I’ve touched on a good number of times before, ,so I need to kind of keep myself in check so I don’t end up going on an hour-long rant.,At the very least though, I want to communicate this: Pokemon Unite ,is gross. It’s gross. It’s a gross thing, and if I were Nintendo I would never allow ,it on my system, no matter how big and important Pokemon is.,Many of you are already scrolling down to the comments to tell me that I’m overreacting, and ,that the game really isn’t that bad. Well trust me when I say Im not trying to call anyone out here.,Im not going to tell you youre a bad person for playing it or whatever. ,Lots of people are playing it and its not my place whatsoever to try and ,make them stop. Everyones just trying to enjoy a cool Pokémon thing.,But personally, Ive got a problem with this game. Lemme tell ya about it.,To start things off, here’s one of the most disappointing things about Pokemon Unite: ,It’s actually really good! People didn’t seem too excited for it leading up to release, ,and it would have been easiest to simply write the game off as a cheap cash-in and forget about it ,immediately. But darn it, the game seems to be working. I’m seeing a lot of people online who ,are playing quite regularly, and there’s already a whole meta–tier lists, strategy discussions, ,nicknames and lingo, all that stuff. And while all that is beyond me (again, I use Venusaur), ,I can certainly see why the game is taking off. Pokemon Unite is a MOBA, and it’s the kind that ,I’m surprised we didn’t see sooner. It’s the perfect Nintendo-style competitive game, where the ,gameplay is easy to pick up, but there’s a lot of potential depth for more serious players. Even the ,simple act of playing as a Pokemon is terrific, and every single match you get to enjoy the fun ,of earning XP and leveling up and evolving and learning new moves on the fly. It’s like a little ,mini Pokemon experience that takes place over five or ten minutes. You can even customize your ,moveset and pick which moves you learn as you go. The map is filled with wild Pokemon, which on top ,of giving you XP and sometimes even powerups, give you points. These points have to be delivered to ,one of your opponents goals. This is genius, because it’s a lot like Splatoon’s Turf Wars; ,even a less experienced player who isn’t very good at PvP can potentially stay out of combat ,and still contribute to their team’s points. And there are a ton of little details that lend to the ,strategy element. The more points you’re holding, the longer it takes to deposit them. Get hit while ,you’re doing it, the process stops. Stand in your own goal to protect it, you slowly heal. ,Deposit enough points into a goal, you destroy it. The space between enemy goals slows you down, ,so destroying them opens up the map for you. Defeating certain wild Pokemon will leave enemy ,goals defenseless so you can instantly deposit regardless of how many points you’re holding. ,Grass renders you invisible, which allows you to sneak your way to goals or set up ambushes. ,And speaking of ambushes, of course you’ve got the combat. Every Pokemon has a unique moveset and ,stats, there are multiple classes proficient at performing different roles. You’ve got two special ,attacks on cooldown timers along with a big Unite Attack. Your attacks auto-aim at the nearest ,Pokemon which makes moving and attacking much more comfortable, but you can aim with the right ,stick if you need to. And when you mix in all the elements I’ve already talked about, combat becomes ,a frantic and very strategic affair. Players move slowly enough that there’s less of an emphasis on ,precision aiming and manoeuvring which lowers the skill ceiling considerably, but there’s still just ,enough there that a slight change to your attack pattern can make a big difference. Getting down ,the rhythm of your attacks and learning how to avoid enemy attacks feels really great. ,Making things even better, quick play matches feature different rules, which is good for ,changing things up when you get a little tired of regular matches. And to round everything off, ,the presentation is slick, the music is surprisingly great, and the online can be ,a little slow sometimes but never feels laggy or stuttery and works really well for the most part. ,It’s a competently put together game, and I’m shocked that I find it so fun. Sure, ,it’s got some balancing issues. I hear a lot of complaints about Gengar, and sometimes it feels ,like whatever team takes out the Zapdos is pretty darn likely to win. But that’s all stuff that can ,be ironed out through updates. A much bigger problem is the fact that the game populates ,with CPU players without waiting nearly long enough for real players to join. This does mean ,very short wait times when joining a match, but I’d rather wait an extra minute and play ,a real match. CPUs are really dumb, and can lead to either hollow victories or unfair losses. ,That is another thing that I’m hoping can be ironed out though. Apart from those issues, ,at its core, Pokemon Unite is a great game with a ton of potential. Characters, maps, ,modes, all that stuff is surely gonna be rolling in for the foreseeable future. ,And it says something about the game when even the relatively vanilla version we’ve got now ,is something you can spend a whole lot of hours on, and that is really pulling people in.,So it is sad, then, that we must now come to…the thing. You know, the thing that the ,video’s about, the microtransaction thing that the Arlos is mad about.,As I said before it’s a really big subject, and I’m actually kind of intimidated by the idea of ,addressing everything there is to address, so I’m just gonna start hitting issues I’ve got.,Right when you start digging into the game, it’s immediately obvious that Pokemon Unite is set up ,like a mobile game. I know that’s funny to say–of COURSE it’s set up like a mobile game, because ,it IS one, essentially–but I don’t just mean it’s following a common format. I mean it’s following a ,format that’s been carefully crafted by some of the greediest companies in the world for ,the sole purpose of extracting as much money from wallets as possible. And just to get it out of the ,way early in this discussion, when I say that, it’s not an exaggeration. It’s not anecdotal, ,it’s not just my opinion. A lot of people don’t know that there is real behavioral psychology ,behind most if not all of these design choices. In 2016 the CEO of Tribeflame, Torulf Jernstrom, ,gave a presentation called “Let’s Go Whaling,” and it’s a rare example of a mobile developer ,being completely open and honest about free-to-play monetization. It’s like the ,horror movie equivalent of a GDC talk. In twenty short yet still grueling minutes he details how ,to manipulate players, how to identify player habits and use those habits to funnel them toward ,spending, how to lure players in then hook them and tur
Pokemon Unite (Switch) Review