Disappointingly short and easy – Pocket God vs Desert Ashes Review

My kids love Pocket God and I love turn-based strategy games, so I thought this might be something fun for us all. The first match or two were super easy, which is to be expected as you’re learning the controls, but then it never got harder. The last level I thought was just my first boss fight but then the game ended. The objective for that level wasn’t clear and neither was the boss, who was almost indistinguishable from an infantry soldier. I killed the boss because he was between me and the bases I needed to capture but it turned out I didn’t need to capture them. Game over. I won. Wait, what? There is no enemy AI AFAIK, the enemies just spawn in response to what you have in a predictable rock-paper-scissors format that’s easy to plan for. Once spawned, they run right right at you, which is also easy to plan for. So on every level I know what the enemy is going to do, how it’s going to do it, and where it’s going to be. Needs more levels, more troop options, more nuance to what beats what than a Roshambo that obliterates your enemies, and a better AI. Smaller, faster played boards would have also been nice. The (false) boast of 10 hours of gameplay is largely based on how long it takes to setup your board and advance.
Review by cclussman on Pocket God vs Desert Ashes.