Soundmap: Find Your Songs

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Wonderful concept; needs polished As much as I’d love to give Soundmap 5 stars, there are some oddities that prevent me from doing so. But I’ll start with the good: profile page customization is virtually limitless, the action of completing trades is simple and easy, the favorite artists implementation is great, quests are as useful as they are difficult, and the varying editions and types of drops you’ll find make the experience endlessly entertaining. Leagues also add a fun level of competition without being overbearing, and the Friday new music boxes are a great weekly reward to look forward to. Furthermore, the seasonal events and sound passes are great in terms of both value and interest, regardless of if you buy the extra tier of the sound pass. However, there are some elements that are a bit annoying. For one, the games section, which while interesting, is not going to keep you interested beyond a couple minutes and needs to be expanded upon greatly (credit where it’s due, this section does say soon for new features which is a hopeful sign). Second, are the purchasable features, specifically Soundmap Pro. Whereas the sound pass is good value for money, and entirely unnecessary, what with a valuable free tier, the relationship between Soundmap pro and other purchasable features is not. With such a name, you’d think every feature would be fully available, but it isn’t. Trades and auctions for songs are still limited as normal, stuck behind a separate trade boost. I can understand the trade boost being available for those who don’t want to spend the larger amount for Soundmap Pro yet still have a short-term boost, but not as something that isn’t included in the “pro” tier. This is exaggerated by the very volatile nature of the in-game economy, though this is far more the fault of users than the design. Gems however are an unbalanced currency that could be fixed by either increasing their occurrence by 25-40% or by lowering the cost of gem-only items by the same amount. Even with the three issues I felt were worth pointing out, Soundmap is still a great experience and therefore gets 4 stars.