Esfera Chess Reviews – Page 2
4/5 rating based on 23 reviews. Read all reviews for Esfera Chess for iPhone.
Esfera Chess is free iOS app published by Squz Pty Ltd
crashed midgame
tompaterson237
me n my dad were playing a game and 15 minutes thru it like reset itself and crashed
Too Hard
CSchlotterer
It's pretty hard, but I'm not going to take it out on the rating. I am against writing bad reviews just because you are too stupid to understand a game's controls. But I will tell you one thing, learning this game won't happen overnight.
Nearly perfect
Springston
Love the simplicity for such a complex strategy game. Would be perfect if it retained its simple commands and layout but also had a challenge online friend option with no limit on time... But requiring a server would probably cost money, but I wouldn't mind paying $ for the app. I would give it 5 stars for online, or if it had its own elo-esque rating and/or challenges like 2 move problems.
Almost THE BEST Brain-game I've seen
Woaaa!
This game is fantastic on many levels. It's: - Unique (though "inspired by chess" as authors posit) - 3D - Challenging - Easy to play, fast/responsive gameplay - Stylish : light shading, opacity, color scheme, subtlety of UI All of these, as well as the fact that it's TEEEENY-TINY (less than 1MB for version 1.0), demonstrate that the developer(s) are immensely skilled in design and development. It has not crashed on me in over an hour's play (I'll update this if it does). It took me about ten minutes to figure out the legal moves for a few pieces (e.g. pawns, bishops, and the queen). After a total of 15 minutes, I won the first game I played (admitting I had to undo a half-dozen times because I didn't understand how my and the opponent's pieces moved). So it's not terribly difficult once the pieces get spread out. The AI seems to be a simple n-look-ahead" algorithm, going forward only 2 or 3 moves. Great as it is, I can't give it 5-stars because the "Rules" info is insufficient as a tutorial on how to move pieces. The game needs another page to describe how pawns and diagonal moves work. For pawns, it's important to understand what's its front, backs, and sides. Likewise, diagonal moves can be initially confusing since it's nothing like chess. The pentagonal nature of the board makes things just different enough - but still doable and fun. Once a good tutorial is added, I will happily increase my rating. I would also like to see a Hint ("Suggest my move") button to let newbies learn and master the game. The popularity of this game also becomes stunted by the spherical "board". So I suggest adding a second (easier) board that's a semi-sphere... This would alleviate concerns raised by other reviewers about having to "watch your back" as well as the difficulty in forming defensive-lines, as chess allows. I welcome the developer(s) to add online gameplay, against random or selectable (named) opponents -- which would give the app significant longevity. Without this, most users will tire of it. I recommend you also improve the AI if you make the suggested board changes. Games like this, and their likeability depend greatly on how "winnable" it appears. If users are intimidated by the game's/board's/AI's complexity, they won't come back (no one willingly enters a no-win arena). So keep balance between the games difficulty of play/comprehension & its AI ability. Again, big kudos for a very good app -- in pretty much every sense.
Sweet
Draco5824
I really do think this game is amazing. It's hard in the fact of predicting moves and where to place a piece but it's easy to learn. I love the space it takes up on my phone:) Very well done
Very fun, quite addictive
Demian68
Ummm...settings? Difficulty levels? Ability to store old games or at least game results? There are no settings or preferences of any kind. It seems like a no brainer to at least be able to choose difficulty. Unless I'm missing something. Otherwise very fun, transfixing even. Rotation of the sphere is fluid and easy. Pretty hard but I beat the computer on the 2nd game, I hope it stays challenging. One other gripe, every time the computer plays the view shifts very fast to where you last played. Too fast, it's disorienting. It would be great if it transitioned a lot more slowly, maybe even be able to adjust the speed.
Great visual concept
Jvcnet007a
This is an excellent adaption of chess, but what it gains from the design and execution, it loses from complexity. Possible moves are very difficult to understand without the "preview". Auto-rotation sphere after computer turn is confusing, too quick and should toggled on/off. Flipping pieces which are on the underside is cute but adds to the confusion.