Alright, so I have poked around the game for long enough to have a good grasp on most of the mechanics, and thought I'd throw together a quick review. For quick reference, I am player level 14, 4232 combined medals, platinum league II for both GDI and NOD.
User Interface:
The UI is pretty good. It is clear where everything is, and I've never been confused of where I need to be to do what I'd like to do. One complaint however is when editing a deck, I click on a unit to get the little ' i ' to show up to see the info. After checking that, if I click on a unit in my deck to check the info it is then replaced because it is still selected. So then I have to fix it, then check the info on my unit. Small gripe, but it happens daily.
Gameplay:
First Impression
When I first seen the gameplay I laughed at how absurd it looked. This wasn't C&C. And it's not. This is a quick and dirty RTS, not a long drawn out base builder simulator. So to judge C&C on what it isn't wouldn't be fair to it. So what is Rivals? Rivals is a quick real time strategy game that focus's on unit management rather than base building. Not bad. After all, playing with tanks and other things that make explosions is more fun (to me) than watching power plants build. So hey, good job.
In a Match
Next part of the game is PLAYING it. And when I first played the game, it was good. Matches were fun, and I almost found myself sad I couldn't communicate with my opponent in some way. A quick 'GG' or something woulda been nice, but I can also see it used in a toxic way, so no loss. For the most part, controls are snappy and work well. There have been some misclicks and some have cost me a close match which can be frustrating but it is rare. You might also need a few clicks to build something for some reason which can also be a little frustrating, but it's thankfully not common. The hardest maneuver to pull in Rivals is moving a unit, then placing another where it was. Due to the slow movements of most units the old unit will still be there and you will click on it instead of ordering your move command losing precious seconds. The gameplay evolves with new unlocks at higher ranks making you rethink the way you play which is a good thing. Encountering something new can be a surprising challenge (in a good way). I've never felt like I had no solution to a problem (Aside from unit levels).
Rock Paper Nukes!
The game heavily relies on a rock paper scissors mechanic, but in this case it's infantry/armour/air. A specialist will beat a generalist, but a more expensive unit will more often then not brute force it's way through a bad matchup. For the most part, it works. I understand units and what I need to build to counter them. There are some strange exceptions (Like the Flame Tank VS Cyborgs. Flame tank is VERY good against infantry, and Cyborgs are great against a single vehicle. They cost about the same too. So they cancel eachother out right? Not even close. Flame tank wipes the floor with the Cyborg. So you often have to build hard counters to specific units as well.) Over all, pretty good so far. Then we get to unit levels... A pretty unsightly mar on a pretty good system. If the matchmaker is working, you suffer minor penalties/bonuses depending on your levels. But the more painful scenario's crop up due to this system. EVERYTHING is affected by these levels. So while most of your units might be similarly matched, the enemy might have one unit leaps and bounds above the rest. So instead of getting countered, it BEATS your counter. So it can erase units it is good against AND brute force it's way past your counters. The most common form of this I have seen is the NOD Bike's which an opponent will try to spawn trap you with, or the NOD Flame Tank where they will abuse it's absurd amount of HP and just park it next to your anti-vehicle counter and burn your base down. It's a tough thing to juggle and unfortunately it's plain to see a few balls have been dropped. This issue may self correct a little bit on release when the floodgates of free-to-players are introduced, but I have a feeling it will be a sore point for the community no matter what in the current iteration. When it comes to RTS (Real Time Strategy) you usually expect strategy to be a key component, but sometimes it can play back seat to uncle sam. But win or lose, you are sent on your way with your bag of loot, or a slap on the wrist and the world goes on.
Graphics
The game is pretty. I know and understand everything that is going on in the screen. They did a good job here. Hats off to you.
Game Mode
There is currently only the one game mode. I'd love to see more modes. Something like the Ion Cannon is vulnerable and firing a constant laser in the middle of the map. Controlling the pads slowly pushes it towards your opponent. But for now, the one mode will suffice.
Progression
Progression seems to be the part of the game that needs the most work. On one side of the coin, this is the games money maker. On the other, this is what will drive away the majority of players. So weighting the coin too much on either side can be disastrous. But people need to eat, so I understand the necessity. However, right now, that coin is pretty weighted to one side.
In Rivals, there is a simple power curve at work. Sink money (both real or imaginary) into a unit and it will get stronger. While I'd rather have some sort of sidegrade option that allows for more customization and versatility (Such as upgrading speed over HP/DMG, etc), rivals went with a hybrid leveling system requiring two different currencies to level cards; credits and more Cards.
Credits
The earned in-game credits are plentiful in the early game but costs quickly out grow gains. By the time you hit tier 7 (they go up to tier 15) you need to start picking and choosing which units you are going to upgrade, and which ones you are going to leave behind. Which is a real shame because you don't even have access to every unit in the game until you hit player level 15. So you don't even know your final build yet but you are sinking resources you can't get back into these cards. I keep getting the idea that the Dev's intend you to develop all the cards in tandem, but they just don't allow you to do so without spending HUNDREDS of real dollars. For example, it takes me about 3,600 Credits to level a epic unit the mandatory 3 times before you can evolve it to the next tier. However, you earn just less than 100 credits A WIN. You get sent home with nothing for a loss. So that is 36 (Probably a few more due to rounding) WINS before you can level up 1 epic unit completely at level 7 Common units (only) require 3000 coins to level up at level 7. But it doesn't stop there. You get capped for money after a certain time. So your wins no longer provide you cash. You are playing for pure fun at this point. Credits also have a dual function in that you can spend them for specific cards in the store. Ranging from a few hundred for common cards, or 3000 for the treasured Epic cards. So more than once I've had to decide between upgrading my current units to help me in matches right now, or buying cards for future use.
Cards
Now that we are done talking about the Credits side of the game, let's talk cards. My guess is Cards will see a revision at some point, yet we are so far down this path, any changes will be hard to implement. This is going to be a bumpy ride, so buckle up. The basics: You require MULTIPLES of the same card to level up a card. This can range from requiring 10 copies of an epic card to level from 7->8 or 200 copies to take a common unit from 7->8. Common cards are easier to obtain, so this offsets it a little. While I don't mind the card grind too badly right now, the most frustrating part of it is getting copies for cards I don't want. But I can deal with that. The REAL problem with the game lies in the abstract notion of rarity. Someone decided which unit is cool, so it must be epic, and what unit looks ordinary so it must be common. Great. But the pyramid here is upside down. There is (CURRENTLY AS OF 1.1) 11 common unit types, 19 rare unit and commander types, and 19 epic unit types from both factions combined. So whenever you get a common, it picks from 11 different units from the pool. And for Rare and Epic's it can choose anything from 19! So your Rare+Epic unit cards get spread around so much more than your commons. So if your army is rare and epic heavy, you can expect to slog through crate after crate before you can muster enough cards to hit that coveted level. Meanwhile I have 300+ unspent common cards for units I have no cash to level to a competitive stage.
Crates
This is a strange one. The game starts off with a common crate every 12 hours as a log in incentive. But it's almost worthless. 150ish Credits, and a handful of common cards and MAYBE a rare (I've also gotten an epic card ONCE from a common crate. So there IS a chance!). If this went away, I wouldn't shed any tears. But it's free, so don't look the gift horse in the mouth. The next form of crates is supply convoys. You may only ever have one of these on the way at any given time. You can spend the in-game resource "fuel" to request them which is the most generous resource in the game. 2 for a win, and 1 for a loss. You can also spend fuel to speed these guys up to a minimum of 3 hours until they arrive. From that point you can wait, or spend "diamonds" (common, diamonds?!) to get them now. These crates can range anywhere from almost useless like the daily crates (which seem to be almost every other crate) or if you are lucky you can get the coveted Epic Crates which deliver a welcome infusion of thousands of credits, a good haul of common cards (close to 100), An infusion of rare's (about 20), and a handful of Epics (from 7-10). I believe these crates are tied to your player level, so as you level they get sweeter, probably to accommodate for the increased requirement to level cards. This is a surprise to be sure as the in-game Colossal Crate only available with real money ($14.00 Canadian minimum purchase to buy the diamonds for this crate, but you will have 250 leftover diamonds) advertises 120 cards within it at my level, 30 of which will be rare and 5 will be epic as well as 6000 Credits to help with the leveling to use the cards. So to get something akin to this crate for free is a real pleasure, and waiting those 3 hours for delivery are the slowest to tick by. More often then not though, you will get common and uncommon crates which will give a couple rares and an epic if you are lucky. You can also get a rare crate from conveys which delivers 48 cards, 9 of which are rare and a 50% chance at 1 additional epic (At my level). Your best bang for upgrading your Epic's if you get lucky. So to sum up, the cards are a real grind, but the drip feed is constant enough that you feel valued and can at least get to level 8 units without needing to spend money to proceed. A surprisingly positive experience to be honest.
Real Cash Store
This one is gonna get ugly quick. So you can buy diamonds for money which is the currency to use in-game to mask real money values. Everyone uses one, nothing to see here. Diamonds are used for anything from buying in-game crates (of which no diamond pack covers exactly. You will always need to buy more than you need) to speeding up your convoys, but none of it is really mandatory so that is nice. The main use of diamonds is buying crates (which feels like a bad deal so far. $70 canadian gets you 20 crates at 350 diamonds each so about $3.50 each for 8 rares and 1 epic at my player level. No temptation here, sorry!) or Credits. Credits kinda feels like the best use of diamonds... but at the absurd exchange rate it's just not tempting to make a real world purchase. For example, to get every one of my cards from level 7 to level 8 (at 3k Credits for common, 3.3k for rares and 3.6k for epics) you are looking at (33,000+58,900+68,400) 160,300 Credits. Now the odds of you doing this at once is unlikely, you are more likely to pick and choose what cards you will level, but again, the game actively encourages you to upgrade everything for versatility. So with our shopping list in hand, let's buy some Credits. To get our 160k we need to buy the highest pack at 100,000 plus the second highest at 50,000 plus four packs of 3000 to get those lase few credits. So we are looking at 7,800 gems, or $79.77 Canadian exactly. Eighty dollars to take every card from 7->8. And the cards go to 15! You could buy a AAA game for that amount of money! The in-game packs aren't a whole lot better. $60 Canadian for 10 tick tank cards plus the money to get them to rank 7. A similar pack is also available for the shockwave troopers. To be honest, the pricing for the in-game items is borderline offensive. I know some players love to pick a game and just sink thousands into them, and this game will let you do so to an extent (each league has level caps). But I fear even $1,000 in you will be a far cry from the end game. I've made an in-game purchase. I want to support these Dev's because there is a good game at the heart of it all, but I don't see any more purchases at these rates. You CAN earn gems in game however. But you get about 5-6 of them in a uncommon or better crate. So it takes a good 60 uncommon crates to earn enough gems for the cheapest of purchases.
Community
Alliances
So you may team up with 29 like-minded individuals. In the provided tab you can chat about strategies, share replays (such a good idea!) for your comrades to watch or request cards of the common or rare variety for generous individuals to send your way no strings attached, or request their own. This is an interesting take on a controlled one way trading system, but it gets tight when you want similar cards to other players. (I always feel bad throwing up my request for confessors right below two other requests for the same card, none of them getting any donations.) The game incentivizes you to donate your cards away with a 10 credit reward for commons or a 100 credit reward for parting with a precious rare. For those keeping track, that is about 1 win playing the game. Which is fine, because the system leaves room for exploitation of like minded individuals (pick a card nobody wants of the rare variety like the NOD jet fighter and everyone requests and donates it for free credits every few hours.) but really, nobody donates cards for the paltry sum they get in return. My biggest problem with the donation system is it is another system that tells players to prioritize a few core cards over all the others. Request your cards in your deck and donate ones you won't use. But this prevents you from getting together an all around good army.
Matchmaker
Another point of contention among players. The matchmaker can make or break your playing experience. Now here is a big "your mileage may vary" sign. I'm probably a small percentage of the player base. Good enough to squeak out wins against players while at a disadvantage with a modicum of consistency. The good news of this is I get to unlock the crate rewards for certain areas early... The bad news is I routinely have to punch above my weight. I am player level 14 (4,200 medals) in the Platinum League (unit level cap of 10) with no unit card above 7. This means that most matches other players have a few 9's and mostly 8's. If the enemy has mostly 9's and a few 10's I get a challenge battle which means I lose nothing (and gain nothing) for losing and being a good sport (Or Alt+F4'ing and finding a new match, but I've never done this on purpose), or I can try to pull an underdog for double the medals to push my ranking further and increase the difficulty of the matchmaker. Kinda a double edge'd sword, but the crates I can unlock here are sweet sweet candy tempting me to screw my matchmaking over more. Sometimes I get lucky and win a few more than I lose and I can almost taste the next unlock, but it is also common for me to go on 10 game losing streaks having never stood a chance from the count down at the match start. For fun, I have played just over 200 matches while keeping track and not a single one of them has been against a player with a weaker army. Again, more likely than anything else I'm simply not supposed to be in this league yet. But thankfully the bounty system is now "play games" and "use units and abilities" rather than wins or kills which would take a considerable more time to complete. So While the matchmaker hates my guts, the challenge isn't extreme enough that I lose hope.
Again, just to clarify, I'm not complaining. While I wouldn't mind being on the opposite side of a challenge match for once, I do stand a chance to win a majority of my games.
Bounties
This has recently changed and probably for the better. It should take you about 10 matches to complete your daily objectives to get your hands on your free Rare crate. Even if you lost every one (Like I did this morning, RIP my medal count), you would still get the crate and enough fuel to top up your fuel at 10/10. Then there is the oddities of the bounty system. It asks you to build certain units or use certain abilities. Again, encouraging you to broaden you units, but taking a level 5 unit to a level 10 game is virtual suicide. Luckily you can re-roll these tasks for fuel now, but it begs the question why have them be so broad when the game is so restrictive in how you evolve your army?
Conclusion
Pro's
- The gameplay can be very good on a close match. I've even chuckled and said "good game" out loud on a defeat. C&C:R on average seems to provide more good experiences than bad.
- This game is GRINDY as hell, but for a casual game this isn't a bad thing. I can get a sense of pride and accomplishment each time I open a crate.
- Opening all the free chests is fun and sometimes exciting when you get some units you need. I cheered out loud when I unlocked and got enough cards for a level 7 stealth tank.
- The alliance is a great place to communicate with some friends to round out your experience.
- The Rock/Paper/Scissors is fun enough to keep me coming back for more, and thinking real hard on units I left behind and how they would patch up my current army.
Con's
- The leveling mechanic makes for some really unbalanced situations. It can be horrible as you watch your tank pound pointlessly on a flame tank as it burns your base down. I've put my phone down and let my opponent win more often than I'd like.
- There aren't many mechanics to help you get back in the game when you are losing a match. Sending in one unit at a time to get curb stomped by 4/5 is an exercise in futility.
- The store is a borderline offensive cash grab. The drip feed of gems is more to tempt you into a purchase with real money rather than enough to earn items from the store you want.
- The strange way the game encourages you to try new things and units but then forces you to cherry pick to be competitive is frustrating.
I am NOT going to cover crashes/bugs in this review as I expect those to be sorted before release.
If I had to rate C&C:Rivals today, on this patch alone, I would give it a 7/10. There is good gameplay hidden behind a paywall that prioritizes purchases over a balanced playing field. If you can make it over those hurdle's there is a good time to be had on a coffee break or Grand Then Auto Loading Screen. The updates are slick enough to bring up my hopes, but the cash store and level system remind me of the sinister shadow cast on the franchise.
Umagon: Do you love nothing?
McNeil: I love to win.
