A game called Pokemon GO is (at the time of writing this post) slowly being released in various parts of the world. Niantic describes it as such:
Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Pikachu, and many other Pokémon have been discovered on planet Earth!
Now’s your chance to discover and capture the Pokémon all around you — so get your shoes on, step outside, and explore the world. You’ll join one of three teams and battle for the prestige and ownership of Gyms with your Pokémon at your side.
Now, the game is a lot like classic Pokemon games, a lot of like Ingress, and a lot of like neither.
First impression
In the beginning the game offers some brief tutorials which should be about enough to explain the basics of the game and get you playing. Sadly, due to a very high demand you would be stuck seeing either of these:
So, as you can see, not a lot of playing was done if you were unlucky enough to happen upon the servers combusting into the fiery flames scorching the anguished souls of wailing players. Even more so if you only could play during the time of day when you could be almost sure the game wouldn't work.
Frankly, if I were to be honest, for the first few levels (hours [kilometers]) the game is boring but for the fact it's Pokemon. You can't really do much besides walking around randomly, and I found that the best way to not get bored with it is to play passively, starting the app when you have to go out anyway to do other things. The pokemon you catch are weak and a bit repetitive (and it kind of doesn't change much later). It's basically you flinging your balls everywhere trying to gain levels as quickly as possible to unlock Gyms, new items and better, more interesting pokemon.
Later on you'll find more interesting creatures (usually while randomly opening the app), but to catch up with other players you will be forced to catch the same pokemon over and over again to evolve them and gain XP.
Gyms
When you reach level 5 you have to select one of the three teams you wish to play for and are given access to gyms. Contrary to Pokestops, which only give you items, Gyms are places where much of fun and frustration in the game will be coming from. Fun, because pokemon battles, frustration because you'll find quickly that many gyms will be taken over really strong pokemon you have no chance winning against. Remember when I mentioned catching and evolving the same pokemon over and over again? Yeah, you better go and do that for a dozen more levels.
If you only expect that getting good at fights is all there will be needed to win them, think again. You will need to catch good pokemon too, and it's a game of luck. And it is almost never as easy as finding a pokemon with a high CP rating. Most pokemon have randomly generated type and strength of attack. There are also hidden statistics which make, for example, HP of two same pokemon at the same CP different. So it is possible that your 1500CP creature will be better than 1900CP one. The 1900 may have more HP, but that can usually be fixed by force–feeding your 1500 a lot of candy to level them up.
Battles
The battles themselves are a lot different than what you might expect from a Pokemon game. Firstly, you cannot battle with other people. Secondly, the only battles take place in gyms. Available to you are three actions: attack (by tapping the screen), dodge (by swiping) and special attack (by pressing and holding). Some people complain about how simplified it is, but I think it's ideal given the type of game it is. You are walking around with your phone and you have to physically stay in range of the gym to play, fights need to be quick and simple, otherwise many people wouldn't have time to play if you wanted to attack many gyms. The pace of fights kind of adds more fluidity and speed to how quickly the status of gyms around you changes.
I feel like sometimes it has a lot of luck involved too, though. I mean, with the same pokemon, fighting the same pokemon in the same gym I often find myself both loosing and winning, even though I don't feel like I'm playing better or worse.
VR
VR Mode is really fun. I mean, pokemon don't really look all that realistic, but there's just something satisfying about seeing the 1000th weedle you meet jumping around before you. That and you can kind of stage some situations. Enough words here, more pics (the last two ones I've taken at work, I really shouldn't play while working, oops).
Finding pokemon
Catching new pokemon is a bit wonky sometimes. There are a few rarely happening bugs involved and I sometimes have problems with depth perception. I also found that turning VR off really helps, although that might just be me. Certainly it takes some skill to throw the pokeball properly.
Another way to gain new pokemon is to hatch eggs. Like in classic Pokemon games the eggs are hatched by walking enough of distance while they are in an incubator. You have one „Infifinte” incubator and can buy additional 3–use ones for money. The list is long and contains a lot of pokemon, not a lot that impressive too. Imagine seeing this:
Only to find that, for all 5 kilometers you walked to hatch it, you are met with another pidgey.
Bugs
Bugs are… well, certainly something. Really frustrating and sometimes ridiculously funny. We have everything, from Schrödinger's Pokeball, through internal tracker showing you are always 300m away from all pokemon, going past invisible phantom pokemon, to pokeballs you throw which never fall down and threaten to cover the sun forever.
Overall experience
Pokemon GO feels both casual and… „more involved” to me. If you want to just open the app occasionally while outside, or specifically plan a day out to play, it's up to you and it's all fun. I meet people who just play here and there for a few minutes, people who just focus on finding new pokemon and people who are really into gym battles all in one game. It's really well balanced in that aspect. For fans of collectibles there also are medals.
Medals you can gain are kind of what you might expect. You get medals for distance walked, number of pokemon caught, number of items acquired, evolutions, hatched eggs, specific types of pokemon caught and so on. The badges themselves have various levels too. Unlike Ingress, where a specific amount of badges was required for levels, at this point of time they don't provide anything but bragging rights. Right now there's 20 of them too, so it will take time to get the all.
Niantic also said that they are working on expanding how gyms work fixing the issues. I think we've got a really good, even is slightly bugged, base game which can be expanded on and on for years to come. We have a lot of generations of Pokemon to go through and I'm really interested what other mechanics Niantic will add to the game.
PS
Remember that Jigglypuff? I couldn't resist.
