One thing I first look for is if the game can be played in portrait mode. Which this game does, so that’s a win. Plus, it is free to play and you do not need to pay to win which in itself is yet again another win. There is always something to do, always something to level up, and lots of customization. Again, another win. I know I’m not alone in the criteria of what I look for in a game, so let me just say this game checks all the boxes. It does not require a lot of mechanics on your end so you can in fact play with one hand. This game has set a bar above many others.

The game sells itself as idle when it’s barely even semi idle, you need energy to play which runs out pretty quick if you play the way the tutorials show you to play. The tutorials are so obvious too, but the devs think we’re all 5yr old idiots so they constantly hold your hand to show you what every single icon does when they’re literally doing the same thing every other game is doing. There’s also a lot of ads, tons, but they’re kind of necessary because of what watching the ad gives you, extra quest attempts, money, whatever. It’s mostly fine, but if you want to do everything like I do then you end up doing this for at least an hour and it’s just another bad game design to keep you playing. The popups are the worst. Hey buy this special priced thing, hey buy this other special price thing, hey….it’s dumb. The latest update added dual classing, which forces you to play as the other class and build it up as well. Annoying….This is where I uninstalled the game. I don’t like melee classes, in fact I HATE melee classes, but because I chose Arcanist at the beginning I now have to dual play as the melee class which I care so little about I don’t even remember its class name. Now I have to switch back and forth depending on what I’m doing like guild battles or whatever which is so stupid because if you’re not paying attention you might end up fighting in a high ranking battle as the wrong character. There’s also daily quests tied to doing this dual classing thing and an event as well…so nope. Done. Never seeing me again. Forcing me into playing things I don’t want to play is a fast track to deleting your app. Bye bye.

This is a fun daily check-in type of game that takes a good engaging bit of time to work through. The daily tasks are good for idling, and the art and Diablo-esque characters are amazing! My problem is that I downloaded “Loot”fiend for the Loot! I’ll pay for an event/season pass in games like this, only if I can play mostly free. In this game, to get anything unique or even really rare, you HAVE to pay a ton. The event passes are sold per event and priced $15-$50 dollars. Just to play in a relaxed way you have to throw out $30 or $5+/month. Even participating diligently each day in an event, gives unimpressive, common gifts instead of useful, rare items. Not for loot collectors. Builds are ridiculously more powerful with the items that can only be purchased through packs, top-ups, and passes. $5/month would be reasonable if still being able to compete with paying players were a factor. However, the best players are only those who pay HIGH prices, because the best equipment is only really available with payment.

I enjoyed the game a lot, it has satisfying mechanics with big damage numbers and a good amount of unique builds to try out. BUT, it is also exceedingly P2W. It’s possible to enjoy F2P, but you will eventually hit a paywall where it becomes very sluggish to progress without the lifetime/monthly passes & premium bundles for haste scrolls. Particularly, the Umbral/Ancestral Realm’s auto-run options requiring you to buy the monthly passes and the absurd amount of time (1 month++) it takes to upgrade your gear rarity without manually getting 12 haste scrolls/minute at a time (this is capped daily and without the auto-collect bundle, will take hours to do) or buying premium bundles for immediate 100s/1000s. Not even mentioning just how ridiculous the difference in progress between a F2P and P2P account can be, especially in leaderboards and PvP. If you have a few $100 to spend, I’d recommend this game, but for F2P, it really does become a slog. 3/5