IDracula

From Zanecorpwiki

All in all, this is currently my favorite iPhone game and has been for some time. Well balanced, fun, easy to jump into with real room for growth. Throw in a variety of game modes, each fun to play on it's own and this game would still be my number at four times the price (though I may not have bought it in the first place...). If you liked the classic SmashTV, you'll love iDracula.

The Good Bits

Did I mention SmashTV? The 90's game SmashTV where you and a friend waded through wave after wave of unfortunate clone-zombies collecting toasters in a iRunning Man/i style imagining of the future of the TV game show? That was a great game. This is just as good.

In some ways better. The level up system, where you choose new powers and upgrades lets you customize your character and provides more game space to explore. The power ups are more evenly balanced and don't require you to frantically sprint from one short lived power-up to the next.

The difficulty increase is very nicely tuned, and the different game modes afford different play times (for a skilled player) of between 2 to 15 minutes.

The graphics are quite good, and the sound is really fun. With the pop-metal song Killing Spree it really gives the feel of a fast-action Blade meets Guy Ritchie thing.

The Bad Bits

There's only two out-and-out problems with the game. In the wave game mode, the creatures drop money and you buy equipment with money (whereas in the survival modes, they drop the power ups). This is the big improvement in the second (current) version of the game and took it from one of the better games on my phone to the best.

The problem is that during a fight, you're constantly moving away from the creatures which means that after you've won the round, you have to go back and find all the money. What makes it really bad--rather than just annoying--is the fact that if you go to the next level before getting all the money, the money disappears. This means you have to spend a good minute after the busier rounds walking around picking up money. It doesn't add anything but time, and in a long game, you can spend a good 30% of your time searching for piles of gold. It really should just add the money to your cash automatically, leave the cash between the rounds, or the compass should point out where the cash is.

Since it was a new feature in the second version, the interface for buying the power ups is a little tacked on and error prone. Would be nice to have a cleaner interface there, but it's a minor point.

The second problem is with the difficulty. As is, it ramps nicely in the middle part, but then the monster's get much harder much faster while you're character power's up much slower. The result is that you get overwhelmed. After a point, there's nothing you could do to survive (or, if there is, it's way to hard without difficulty settings). It's a bit unbalanced and frustrating.

Hopes and Dreams

First and foremost, fix the cash problem. It's a no brainer and would be easy enough to do. Second, fix the power up purchase interface and you'd have a game with no real problems.

For myself, I'd like to see two new features in the game. First, a mode or option that makes it possible to win... I believe the rounds just get harder and harder, after awhile powerful, super-fast monsters just start pouring in and there's really no hope of surviving. I find that a annoying. I want to get to a boss or something. It's nice to see how far you can go, but it would be nice to have difficulty options or better yet, this would be a game where adaptive difficulty might work well.

The second enhancement would be even easier... almost a no-brainer. I want to be able to be able to buy all the power ups available in survival modes in the wave mode. Faster running, armor, panic, blood lust. These are cool. Also, in the rush mode, there's a circular saw weapon that, as far as I can tell, is not available in the rest of the game.