Based in Glasgow, All 4 Games promises to foster talent and build on the company’s history of innovation, but with Hollyoaks and Made In Chelsea as the source material, FINLAY SCOTT is sceptical.
Hollyoaks The Game
Ever wanted to play Candy Crush with a Hollyoaks theme? The CEO of Channel 4 does, apparently. Loudly proclaiming on its store page Classic Match 3 I can see the terms ‘innovation’ and ‘creative talent’ withering away already.
Nevertheless, the game is addictive, as the twitter comments show. After all, Candy Crush didn’t get 100 million downloads for nothing. Unfortunately the formula doesn’t seem to have paid off for Channel 4; the game only has 50,000 downloads. I wish Channel 4 had been more innovative, I mean - without insulting Hollyoaks - I wasn’t expecting Half Life 3: Hollyoaks edition, but a bit more than matching up lines of jewels would have been nice.
I would like to commend Channel 4 on a feature (or rather lack of): How they used microtransactions. Too often, people spend hundreds of pounds to feed their addiction (because believe it or not, these games are very addictive) and it must have taken integrity to resist the urge to make heaps of cash.
Sure, there are in-app-purchases, but they are only to purchase more levels, and since the game is free and ad-less, I think that’s reasonable.
Verdict: 2/5
Made in Chelsea
You know what I said before about Channel 4 having the integrity not to fill their games with microtransactions and 'buy coins now' mechanics? Yeah, forget that. Made in Chelsea is like the Sims without all that makes the Sims good, and in its face we have a poorly designed 'twitter simulator' where the only goal is to gain virtual followers (represented solely by a number).
As you play the game, you can interact with the people of Chelsea-ville and form friendships, enemies, and hook-up with other characters. The catch? Everything is reliant on the in-game 'jewels' system. Want a taxi (because buses or cars don't exist as far as I can tell)? That'll be two jewels. Want to form a relationship with a guy? According to the tutorial, all you need to do is bribe him with five jewels!
Now, I've not played the full game (I still have a shred of standards, you know) but I can guarentee you the only way to progress is to buy jewels off the virtual store. Even the base progression mechanic, followers, can be bought. I mean why play the game when you can just skip all that, right? Seriously, if I hear 'well done, babe' one more time I'm going to vomit. I have a hard time believing this was made in 2015 by a professional company.
I'm sorry, I don't see the point of 'All 4 Games' if this is the benchmark. It's not much of a commercial success (somewhere on the 10,000 mark according to GPlay for downloads), it's definetely not innovative, arty, or intellectual, nor is it graphically pleasing in the slightest. C'mon Channel 4, you must be able to do better than this. Which leads me on to the one game I have high hopes for:
My Verdict: 2/5
The Snowman
Flying around the world at 10 miles an hour. It’s not particularly innovative, nor is it taxing. But I have to wonder if the point of this game is to play it, or to view it.
Featuring an odd combination of on-rails shooter (experienced by tapping snowflakes), and hunting for hidden objects, it’s simple and repetitive, but that doesn’t take away from it.
The Snowman is not a game for tapping frantically, ratios, or competition, it is a first and foremost a great Christmas chill out. I wouldn’t sit and play it for hours (as I have been unfortunately known to do with other games) but there’s far worse ways to spend 95p.
It has a few flaws: namely, it’s a bit dull. I know I said it’s "not a game for frantic tapping", but there’s only so long I can stare at low-poly houses on my 5 inch screen before my mind starts to drift. Sure it’s nice, but I’m used to running games on Ultra on a 21 inch monitor, and the experiences don’t compare.
I know I’m being unfair, because the vast amount of people do not care about that kind of thing but a bit more visual effects wouldn’t go amiss. I’m not even going to talk about the buggy snow on my phone either. Nevertheless, this looks like a game with real enthusiasm and heart put into it.
Hollyoaks, in comparison, looks like an aging CEO sat down one day and said "Right. What’s popular and makes money? Make me that for next Tuesday". It’s a great start in terms of creative talent. It’s not revolutionary, but at least it’s got heart. More of this, please. I’m glad I downloaded this instead of Made In Chelsea: The Game.
Verdict: 3/5
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