zombie-themed match-3 with a few unique(ish) selling points. used to be paid, only 5 bucks but still didn't sell, so it was made free. actually free, no payment necessary, no dlc, iap or other nonsense. well, not monetary nonsense anyway.
100+ levels unlocked one by one, with individual leaderboards. instead of the usual matching techniques, it employs an explosive one. the cursor is a cross or other shape depending on bomb type, places one in the highlighted area, provided there are at least 3 of the same color, covered by the pattern. poker rules also apply, so 3 blue + 2 green and such are better and result in other kind of bombs on the field.
once spells are unlocked, they have to be charged with different colors, then can be used with hotkeys as well, but [b]controls are buggy[/b]. bringing up the pause menu often keeps the cursor on the level in the background and you'll only get the menu cursor after successfully placing another bomb first. on a darkened level covered partially by the menu. great stuff. oh, and [b]the spell amulet resets with every level or retry[/b], incredibly tedious.
another annoyance right out of the gate is [b]only the bronze goal for the level is shown beforehand[/b], instead of saying 12k for bronze, 20 for silver, 30 for gold or whatever. let me know what I'm aiming for, dammit. only telling the player the rest after finishing the level, and still only showing the next goal on level select is a ♥♥♥♥ move on top of a ♥♥♥♥ move. and if there's a non-score task as well, you can't even see the score goal while playing.
[b]replaying a level still plays all the tutorial dialog every time[/b], has to be skipped sentence by sentence. it was taken out, then put back for some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up reason. [b]can't restart a level[/b], gotta quit and select it from the map again, where level numbers are only shown on mouseover. [b]no replay level (or any) button on the level complete screen[/b] either, unless you fail.
[b]no difficulty settings is a major problem[/b], what with [b]most levels being limited-resource/turn[/b], only a certain amount of bombs to achieve the goal with. the dispenser doles out munition randomly, so you might want to discard the current one without the counter decreasing. can be done once per turn but bombs are limited, so it's a mixed blessing at best. no two ways about the goal, if you're told to get 10 supplies, gotta get them all to pass, only the score is negotiable. not getting enough points for a bronze still unlocks the next stage, but [b]the level ends after reaching the current score goal even if you have bombs left[/b] and could get more points or multipliers for a better rating. remaining bombs are auto-used on the level but it might not be enough.
guiding survivors to the end/bottom of a level is tedious too, as [b]cleared path tiles turn back to impassable ones in a matter of seconds, it's not turn-based[/b]. that's on top of other varieties of [b]timed levels and boss fights[/b], but seeing as[b] I gave up on level 15 after a billion attempts[/b], I didn't get to experience those. lucky me.
there are [b]multiple playable characters[/b]. you start with 2, find more on the way, can have up to 5 with one active. they all have their own [b]upgradable talents that need way too much xp[/b], so it's probably best to stick to one, except you might find better ones later. there are equippable trinkets that are very rare. at first I thought you got them from special crates on some levels that only break... somehow, but the contents are only for a score bonus. there are also [b]events on the map[/b], may or may not end with a reward or punishment based on choices and possibly rng. said events aren't highlighted, gotta mouseover the whole screen to find them.
the story is presented in a subpar fashion as well, [b]full of grammatical errors[/b] (missing apostrophes, your/you're mixup, etc.). mandatory typewriter effect, have to click the skip button specifically to make sentences appear instantly. no voiceovers or constant gibberish, but random brief noises for each line, like zombies growling or the main guy scratching his throat every. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. time.
decent settings otherwise: separate volumes (music and sfx only, nothing for speech noises), rebindable controls(!), resolutions, windowed mode, gfx quality, toggles for screen shake, match finder and hero notifications (whatever they are). there are loading screen tips but loading times are non-existant and they can't be viewed elsewhere, rendering them useless.
some of it is done well and shakes the pretty stale genre up a bit, but mostly not in a good way. with goals not clearly disclosed, no difficulty settings, annoying mechanics and other stuff, [b]it could hardly be further from recommendable[/b]. wouldn't be hard to turn it into something enjoyable, but there were only 2 small patches 2 months after release and with going free the dev threw in the towel for good.
