[h1]Introduction:[/h1]
Grove Fisher is an incremental idle game where you fish in a pond, gain money, unlock new fish, unlock more ponds, upgrade ponds, etc! It's made by a relatively new solo developer. It's a short game, and the amount of content within is very painstakingly small. Features that offers almost nothing, braindead grinding, more close attention than actual idling, and more!
[h3]A small note:[/h3]
This solo developer has a lot of potential within the incremental niche genre of games, and not stopping there! Currently working on "Unboxathon", another incremental game, go check that one out! I'll keep a close eye on this developer, but Grove Fisher is forgettable. Hit or miss? Definitely a misser in my book, here's why:
[h1]Upgrading:[/h1] 2 / 5
Meh. Ponds can be upgraded, from reeling speed to increase luck to catch better fish, very straight forward. You'll start off with one, and can unlock a superb total of EIGHT ponds. Which isn't much, hence my total playtime, but don't let that distract you! I'll mention it again further along in my review.
[h1]Automation:[/h1] 1 / 5
Silly. The sheer lack of automation this game has to offer is annoying. The only automatic feature is auto-fishing. Upgrading ponds, treasure collecting, new fish? ALL other features need attention from the player to progress further.
[h1]NEW fish!:[/h1] 0 / 5
If upgrading the ponds were already a huge pain in the ass, watch 'til you unlock new fish... It's a separate upgrade tab where you need to BUY the fish you can catch. Like it's some kind of upgrade masquerading as a fishing license.
[h1]Mutations?:[/h1] 0 / 5
ANOTHER feature that has the SAME premise! You know how many mutations there're for you to unlock and use? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ five! [b]FIVE![/b] Could've gone haywire with this idea, but instead has this ungrateful, unfinished look to it.
The other thing you can do within this tab is you can convert money into DNA points, just for another currency!
[h1]"Prestige":[/h1] 0 / 5
Or "relocate", like the dev describes. And when you prestige you gain HOOKS... you guessed it, ANOTHER currency! Great! Just what we need more of!
[h1]Skill tree:[/h1] 2 / 5
It's OK. A short tree with below decent unlockable skills. The crux really is when you level-up you gain "SP" (skill point), but the SP gets off the board abruptly half-way through the game and focusses on money, hooks and DNA points instead to unlock new skills! Why not give the player a choice on what currency to use to unlock said skills?
[h1]Treasure:[/h1] 1 / 5
Ehh... I really don't know what to think. They give below decent buffs, some are silly easter eggs from other games, films or other media, some gave me a good chuckle. But the amount? Definitely not 40+ like it tells you in the trailer. I didn't count or kept track of the amount, but not 40 I'd tell you.
Would you count that as a lie to sell a product? I'd say yes for sure! But if lying will get you this far, what more can you do within marketing?
[h1]The GRIND:[/h1] 0 / 5
Insufferable. See my playtime? It's actually somewhere around 2 active hours or so. The grind towards "Virus-Fish" is really time consuming. There's quite a time gap of upgrading enough, but just NOT ENOUGH to boost the overall money-gain. Meaning a lot of time watching ducks or skipping rocks around the ponds, and actually waiting 'til you've got enough to buy unlock the last fish.
Like it was a hail Mary moment to include that last bit of content in here, and to make it so rudely expensive is just another slap in the face. [i]However I made it, but was it worth it?[/i] [b]Absolutely not![/b] My patience was running thin like the water's pH! But I wasn't there to witness it, I kept it running for the last few hours or so.
[h1]Descriptions:[/h1] -1 / 5
Unnecessary. [i]"It's so cute", "Why is it so cute though?"...[/i] Is quirkiness really a personality trait? Descriptions that adds absolutely nothing, and I really mean NOTHING AT ALL! No lore or useful information. Moving letters, rainbow colored text... you could've just left the text field empty.
[h3]Overall:[/h3]
What looked like a decent idler for 4,99€, quickly become a dumbfound game not worth your time nor money. This short piece of entertainment has more quirkiness than features, and it shows...
If you're thinking on buying this game because it look fun, be extra weary that it isn't all together a fun or enjoyable experience. But if it's achievements you're after, be my guest! Took some time, but it's way faster than other idle games. Which in reality defeats the whole premise of getting achievements! For it should feel rewarding, and in this case: It isn't!
[h1]2 / 10[/h1]
[b][i]" ;) face is whinky me thinky"
