I just loaded up Pokemon Go today… Pretty cool ideas in this game using AR for an immersive Pokemon experience. For those of you who have played it, what are you thoughts? What do you think would make it better, and what do you like about it already?
Sorry for the rant in advance! I’ve been playing for the past few days. So far there’s a lot of things I like about the game, more so than dislikes. However I there are some features that I feel are missing and would give a better experience.
To sum things up I’ll make a list of pros and cons:
Pros:
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The music, sounds, graphics and overall feel are very stylized and Pokemon-esque. It’s clean, simple and works well for it’s purpose.
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The idea of the game is fresh. I’ve heard there was another game previous by the same company, Ingress I believe? Of course it wasn’t as popular as Pokemon Go is now because of the fan base, so a lot of people are new to the idea of using location and capturing objectives irl. It was something new for me. It’s unique and I quite enjoy it.
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As someone who grew up playing Pokemon Red on a Gameboy it’s nice that the game is based on the original generation (from what I can tell so far). Personally I feel distanced with the newer generations so this really brought the game home for me.
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It’s immersive; It gets you out and about and eager to search for new Pokemon. I’m normally not excited about going for walks / bike rides but since the app came out I haven’t been able to stop.
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Oh the people you meet! I went for a bike ride with my boyfriend last night around midnight. We ended up staying out for 3 hours and ran into so many other groups it was crazy! If you saw somebody walking around with their phone in their hand you can pretty much assume they were playing. Just ask “What team are you guys on?” and initiate conversation. It’s a wonderful way to meet new people with the same interests.
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The way of capturing Pokemon works well. It’s easy enough that anyone can do it, although it does get more difficult as you progress.
Cons:
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There is no tutorial. Every game should have one. The mechanics, such as the ones for Pokemon battles, are different from previous games so it can be very confusing. If someone wouldn’t have told me to spin the coin at a Pokestop I would have been waiting for something to happen. I had to turn to the online community for answers.
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As most people have experienced there are a lot of server issues. It seems like the company didn’t anticipate how many people would end up playing. I couldn’t use the game the first day after launch because it was so populated. Meanwhile there are friends of mine that already had an inventory of Pokemon, not sure how. I’m sure there are a lot of fixes to come and a lot of problems are generated by the amount of people using the game. These issues will dissolve over time so I’m not worried.
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Sometimes I have to reset the app to get it to work properly. My GPS would randomly stop working or the Pokestops wouldn’t give me items. Things seems to have gotten better as I haven’t had any issues since yesterday afternoon.
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I was hoping for more battles since that’s what Pokemon is about. With all of the people you run into playing the game it’s disappointing that there is no battle feature, or even a friends list. Right now the only way of initiating a battle is through the gym. For some people the gyms are really out of the way.
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I’m not a fan of the way the battles work. It’s a step in another direction from the usual Pokemon fight scene which is turn based. Maybe it’s just because it’s something I’m not used to yet.
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In more rural areas (I’ve heard that) it’s harder for people to find Pokemon, stops or gyms. People who live in populated cities have more of an advantage.
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Unless you plan on walking for a ton of miles you won’t run into an abundance of Pokemon. I wish the spawns were more dense. Maybe they do this to keep you playing for longer since it’s harder to catch them?
As far as what works best, I’ve tried a few methods (car, bike, walking) and biking seems to be the most efficient. Walking is too slow and you won’t run into very many Pokemon. Driving around in a car and playing (as the passenger! Don’t drive and play!) is too fast. You’ll often miss stops, gyms and Pokemon. There’s also a speed limit to when your “steps” don’t count towards hatching eggs as well. I’ve heard 12 mph and also 25m mph so I’m not sure what it is yet. Biking is a decent pace. You’ll be able to stop to catch Pokemon and gyms and you also stay under the speed limit so you’ll be able to hatch your eggs.
Overall I’m liking the game. I hope for some changes come but I’d continue to play it the way it is now.
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I agree with a lot of your points. I’ve been playing for a few days now and I’m in a rural area, so I’ve gotten a fraction of the number of pokemon people in cities have caught. On the plus side, I control a gym in my town and it probably won’t be contested very often.
I also agree with you about battles. They’re confusing, and they go fast so I haven’t had a good opportunity to learn what to do and to perfect any kind of technique. I’m hoping they will continue to develop this part of the game as future versions roll out. I’ve turned to the Pokemon Go reddit page a few times for tips and hints.
I think what Niantic it doing is rolling out a basic version of the game and implementing more features with updates… It’s pretty vanilla right now but I’m looking forward to more features being added. I noticed when the game had been out for about 2 days, the number of available pokemon increased from 74 to 124 or whatever it is now, so I’m optimistic that it will receive ongoing improvements and additions. The server seems to be stabilizing now too, which is nice.
I’m looking forward to getting into an urban area to walk around and get a more “full experience” sometime. It sure is a lot of fun to walk around and catch pokemon in “real life”!
In the future, I’m hoping for a friends list, trainer battles/challenges, pokemon trading (maybe… not sure if it would work), and maybe some mini games to play with your pokemon to level them up, instead of so heavily relying on currencies and microtransactions. I’m looking forward to what they do with this game!
I play pokemon go and it is a fun game! Level 21 thanks to lucky egg + mass evolution.
I saw you guys talking about the battle system and the server issues and I though I would fill you in on some mechanics as well as some you might not know about 
Though I must agree, their tutorial sucks! Use the help option when you press on the pokeball at the top right, you will find more help there.
Things you might not know
I though I would give you guys some tips first:
- When catching a Pokemon that circles isn’t just for bonus xp, the smaller it is, the greater the catch chance.
- Catch everything and try and sit down for 30min with a lucky egg and mass evolve, you want around 60-74 Pokemon ready to evolve. Use the favorite system to speed it up!
- If you spin a pokestop and it says try again later, you got it, move on.
Server
There has been huge errors with the servers and them going that, but that is Nintendo’s fault, not Niantics, the people hosting the servers. Originally they wanted to put in all the generations of Pokemon and wanted a lot of cash upfront to build the servers, but Nintendo only gave them rights to the first gen and gave them less than a forth of the money they asked for, so a lot less servers as well. That is the cause of those issues. Sure there still would have been problems in the beginning, but that is why they continue.
Battles + future battle options
When battling you will see a yellow flash, that is when you dodge. Ignore the animation, they yellow flash says all. Also you want to put slow attackers on gyms, they attack at a set rate, and faster attackers as your assault party. Nuff said in that department. Also they are going to add trainer battles soon. Figured you would want to know.
Future additions
- They are going to add daycare’s just like in the original ones. Ditto isn’t in the game yet btw, they are working on those mechanics.
- They will be adding Pokemon trading!
- they will be adding other generations, and they are talking about tying them to seasons, winter, summer, fall, spring. This isn’t 100% though.
- They are talking about adding a PC where you can store unlimited Pokemon.
the last 2 aren’t confirmed and they are planning on adding others that
I don’t know about. My sources are limited but that is all I know. Hope this helps!
EDIT: Got new info, Nintendo controlled pre release stuff for the community. It’s Niantics fault they don’t talk, not nintendoe’s. My bad
I did give a try for 5 minutes on my iPad mini 4 , I was not impressed. I am also not a fan of Pokemon . But it’s a very cool idea and I am very interested into AR. Who knows maybe I make a AR game, obviously not MMO, but something of tiny scale and much easier to make.
What would you like to see in the game to help you enjoy it more? What didn’t you like about it?
I’ve particularly enjoyed the sense of community around the game. I’ve gone out frequently in my city and met various people (strangers) also playing, and had a laugh with them about the game’s popularity. Strangers work together to take over gyms, provide lures, etc. Very community-oriented.
That being said, I’m still looking forward to more team-oriented mechanics like trading, friends lists, etc. I think the game has a lot of potential.
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Player trading and player battles are coming soon apparantly.
I dont like the GPS getting out of whack its even inconsistant between two phones in the same location. I cant tell if thats the api or the google api.
The other thing i dont like is that some people live in rural areas devoid of pokestops and pokemon spawns and thats just wrong. Focusing on a town yes but sort the countryside out where you would expect to see them!
We have a facebook team set up for our town and regularly plan hit meets to take over gyms.
(I am sat on two atm 
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I am only level 14 at the moment but considering i am mobility challenged it takes a little longer but living in the town center where constantly lures are going off helps.
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