Hello!
This is my first post here.
I've been playing this game for some time and currently I'm at lvl 56 free-to-play user. I've been enjoying the game so far, but after the last update, something stopped working for me. Now, everything you read in this post below is my opinion only. If you think otherwise - that's cool. I am just sharing.
I've rated the game 1 star after getting a template reply from tech support twice after reporting that the game randomly freezes on my phone (LG V30).
That is why I would like to share some things, since the answer on google play said my comment was posted here.
1. Crashes - I can understand it, you are developing the game, but you had it working well pre-patch. For me, the game now randomly freezes. It's "OK" with regular battles, because I lose only 8 stamina, which is not that big of a deal, but if I am trying to fight the clan boss, I lose 1 key. For a free-to-play user, that is a lot. I wrote to the tech support and got a copy-paste answer. Keep in mind I use only my phone to play the game and I use wi-fi or fast mobile data. I asked for a fix or tips how to fix it (not sure how I could do it, but it was polite not to blame the game). Of course, the template answer informed me that crashes can happen on emulators (which I don't use) and I should have a stable connection (I use wi-fi and my connection is quite decent) plus - "no individual refunds" or something like that, for which I did not ask.
2. Champions - I am not that picky and I did not mind it, but if I am here already, let's have a go. The game releases new champions, but if you've seen one animation, you've seen them all e.g. all female archers have the same animation. I can deal with that, because I don't actually care about that and it is a good way to lower the costs of making champions. However, most of the champions just look the same e.g. Shatterbones, Grimskin, Maneater - one took a bath, one took a shower in tar and the other one got sand-blasted. Same skin, different colours. You get the idea. The biggest punch to the gut is: Sergant and Crusader. The same skills ,just different clothes, stats and animation. This is just lazy and reinforces my idea that the devs just put more heroes in to decrease the chances of anyone getting something decent from the shards. Which is my next point...
3. Shards - As I wrote, I am free-to-play, so I can't complain much. The only good thing I can say is that I can see, that they are really random - my friend got a legendary from a blue shard and I haven't had a single one - which is fair, because it shows the random part is a real thing. Now what I think is just bad about them. Void shards - if I were paying for shards and I got a rare champion from something that I had to pay for (and these are not cheap), I would just quit the game. Sacred shards - 6% for getting a legendary... for a free-to-play user that plays the game daily for a month just to get one sacred shard... that is just demotivating to see all that work go down the drain when they get epic, especially when it's a bad one. I can't even imagine paying for a sacred shard and getting a bad epic champion... unless the shards purchased with cash have a higher chance... but then the randomness of shards does no longer apply and makes the game true pay to win since I will never have the same chances of getting something good as the guy that just paid for a shard.
4. Events - some events are just mad and impossible to win for a free-to-play, especially a beginner who lacks everything - silver, champions etc. I saved up quite a lot of arena tokens last time - that got me almost to a half of the awards... The one that is going on now - equipment upgrades - is just an overkill. I remember acing one before but now I can't imagine the amount of silver and equipment I would have to upgrade just to get to the top award. Plus - the random part of the event makes it even harder. Sometimes I can upgrade something 7 times in a row or just get from level 12 to 16 with 1 shot at a time, but there are days when I use 40 tries and can't get from level 13 to 14 (and I'm not joking). I don't think I have to go into details how big luck is in this event. Imagine 2 players: one getting quick upgrades most of the time and the other one having a hard time going even from 8 to 10.
5. Champions for sale - seriously? I know this one wasn't a legendary, but I see it as testing the ground for eventually introducing sales for legendary champions. And that is 100% pay-to-win.
I know that running a game costs money and I understand it, but there are ways to make money without creating actually handicapping anyone. The best example is any game that just sales skins and animations. Fortnite made a lot of cash just by selling skins. Imagine implementing that here - everyone gets the same chances, but if you want your skullcrusher to just look differently or have a unique end-of-the-battle animation, just pay 10 USD or something like that. As a free-to-play game devs, you should aim at getting the biggest player base and just making the game attractive enough to persuade new free-to-play users to invest cash into it. If I started the game now and got that amount of crashes on day 1, I would be gone for sure. In addition - the game has a campaign that you can get through in around 2 months. That's it. You get 3 sacred shards - which can give you an epic more often than a legendary... and that's pretty much it. You have to wait a month to get another shot. That is asking for a lot of dedication just for a chance to get a random epic. After that, it's just a game for people who must get 100% things in the game or be number 1 in the arena.
There is a game that figured the summoning part, but I will not advertise it here. I just described some problems with the game that I see. Some have a simple solution. I could provide some, but I will go with the game's policy: "Buy random answers pack, now only 50USD".
I don't know how many people will agree with me. All of the above just makes me happy that I did not invest any money into the game and pushes me away even more from doing that. I'm just 1 guy, but if I feel like that, many more can feel the same... and that are potential customers that the game will never get and eventually lose.
Cheers.