Let me talk about the conclusion first. I have played this game for a week, and the overall feeling is that "the playability is still there, but the popularity is really visibly fading." Many people attribute its popularity to its simple and rude way of passing time, and many people criticize it for being boring in the later stages. In fact, both of them are right.
As for the picture, the stick figure theme is not really beautiful to be honest, but it is very recognizable. The black and white line villain has a natural "ancestral feeling". Brothers who have played in the 4399 era can accept this style of painting almost at a glance. In addition, there are tribal-themed thatched houses, wooden fences, and bonfires. Although the colors are simple, the battle time and space special effects are quite dazzling. When skills are hit, the whole screen will jump with numbers. It can also run smoothly on mid-to-low-end mobile phones. This is very friendly to players in the sinking market.
In terms of gameplay, the core is to build troops, upgrade, grab resources, and push maps. In the early stage, you can constantly unlock new units, from minions with wooden sticks to hunters carrying bows and arrows, to warriors riding wild beasts in the later stage. Collecting and cultivating them is full of pleasure. The most exciting thing about it is "watching your villain go crazy and attack the enemy's defenses". The feeling of crushing is really good. But the problem is that this sense of enjoyment encounters a bottleneck in the mid-term. The upgrade time of the troops often starts at ten hours. Attacking enemy tribes starts to overturn frequently. You will obviously feel that the value is stuck. In the past ten minutes, you went online to grab a handful, and then you went online three times a day to collect food. The popularity naturally dropped.
Hainan Xingkong Jump Technology, the developer of krypton gold, is quite restrained. At least so far, I have not found a button to force krypton gold. The 0 yuan purchase setting means that you can play without spending any money. Of course, the premise is that you have to be patient and trade time for resources. The few gift packs in the mall are acceleration and a small amount of materials. The gap between ordinary players and heavy Krypton players is not too big, and the experience of low-Krypton players is quite comfortable.
Socially, it's a bit awkward. There are no guild battles or real-time teaming functions. You can only rely on tribe message boards to interact, or play rankings. It feels like a single-player strategy game with an online skin. If you don't have friends to study the formations with you later on, it's easy to get bored while playing. In fact, the most playable part of this kind of strategic war game is the offensive and defensive game between people, but the current matching mechanism and depth of interaction cannot sustain long-term enthusiasm.
So back to the topic itself, why is it so popular? Because it combines the classic stickman IP with a mild strategy, it is extremely suitable for fragmented time, and it is free, has a low threshold, and has funny graphics, which just hits the taste of a group of office workers and students. And why does it cool down so quickly? The core reason is the lack of depth in the content. The further the game goes on, the more it becomes like an "infinite loop of numerical iterations." The differences in arms gradually reduce to the size of numbers in the later stages. There are fewer tactics and strategies. Resource acquisition slows down. Once the novelty wears off, there will naturally not be that many people left.
Finally, let's give a brief evaluation. The graphics score is 7 points, and the gameplay is 6.5 points. It is krypton-friendly but has hidden costs. It is socially awkward, but if you can add clan wars and compete with friends in the future, it should be able to save a wave. Overall, I give it a score of 6.8, which is considered a passable time-killing game, but if you want to be a long-term main gamer, you still have to wait and see the official follow-up updates. I'm a game reviewer, see you in the next post. 😄