[REVIEW] Merge Dragons

 

Most of the games I play are RPGs or other story-heavy experiences, but like pretty much everyone these days, I also dabble in mobile games too. More casual stuff there, to be sure, but mostly casual gaming.

But let it never be said that casual games can’t result in a person sinking hours of their time into something that shouldn’t, by all logic, be as entertaining as it is. Lately, this has been the case for me with a little game called Merge Dragons.

 Made by Gram Games, this game is exactly what it says on the box: you merge dragons. And other things. Into bigger things! Dragons and most items can be dragged together to merge together into a bigger and stronger form, resulting in more power, better items, and so on. They can be combined in groups of 3, though that’s not the only option. Have 6 level 1 Grass Dragons and think you should merge them to get 2 level 2 Grass Dragons? Sure, but the game gives you some mass-merging options so that you need only use 5 instead, to get the same result, allowing you to save that extra adorable little dragon for a future merge. In this way, there’s a degree of resource management to the game. Is it better to merge 3 things right now for a stronger version, or wait to get a couple more and have a more efficient merge that saves on resources?

 
Merging isn’t just limited to dragons. Got 3 saplings and want trees? Just merge them. Want bigger flowers? Merge them too. Your dragon randomly uncovered a pile of bones? Try merging them. Not everything in the game can be merged, mind you, but 95% of them can, leading to what feels like an unending but entertaining quest to see what comes next.

Part of the fun of this game is the anticipation of seeing what’s just around the corner, what new form your dragons or decorations might take when they’re merged into stronger versions. The art is also quite nice, as you can see in the image above that showcases the first 4 levels of Grass Dragon. The team behind this game’s art deserves some praise, I’d say; I really like the style.

TIME TO GO CAMPING!

 Is there anything to this game beyond constantly just merging stuff? Yes. Yes there is. First of all, there’s the Camp, which is where you’ll keep all of your dragons and items. Similar to how many mobile games of this sort work, the Camp is small at first, but as you merge dragons and increase your cumulative power level, other areas will unlock, allowing you to keep more things and discover new items that were previously hidden behind a wall of fog. Dragons perform actions while in Camp, too, such as harvesting energy from Life Flowers, which can in turn be used to heal blackened sections of land, land which has been corrupted by the evil Zomblins.

See? There’s a story to this game. It totally falls within my purview!

A VARIETY OF PUZZLES

 
Outside the Camp, there are puzzles to solve, which — you guessed it — involve merging things. They range from very easy in the first few levels, to irritatingly hard later on. Most of them are untimed, you can play around in the puzzle levels all you like, but some are Challenges, which are timed. And there’s one Challenge level that I’ve been stuck on for a freaking month now, unable to progress to further untimed levels because fnarg, I just can’t beat it. I can nearly reach the goal, but my times runs out and all my work is wasted.

Now, you can purchase additional time for Challenges using in-game premium currency called Gems. This is good. Gems can be either bought using real-world money, or randomly earned by doing well in puzzle levels or by accomplishing certain goals, which is also good. I’m glad that this game gives players the option to earn premium funds without demanding money of them, since not everybody can afford to do so. (That being said, the price for Gems is pretty reasonable, and generally on par with most mobile games that offer that kind of service.) What bothers me is that I’ve been stuck on that level for over a month and I’m starting to think that the only way I’ll beat it is to use Gems.

Not the game’s fault. Just a minor rant.

DON'T HAVE THE ENERGY FOR THIS

 
Like just about every mobile game these days, though, this game runs of energy, which is depleted by doing puzzle levels, with each level being worth a different amount of energy. Energy refills painfully slowly, and you’ll sometimes find yourself waiting hours to do another puzzle after completing just one, because that one took all of your available energy. You can spend Gems to refill it, of course, but otherwise, it’s all about playing the waiting game. I can’t fault Merge Dragons too badly for this, because that is a mobile standard these days, but I am going to say that it’s a mobile standard that pretty much nobody likes. It’s designed to keep stretching games out, to make it so that people can’t just power their way through an entire game in a single weekend and then never play it again, and I do understand that. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

Overall, though, I’m having more fun with Merge Dragons than I expected to, even if not being able to beat that level is frustrating. The art style is pleasant and bright, the mechanics are easy to learn but still offer a good amount of variety, and there are incentives to repeat puzzles in order to gain additional prizes. As a free game, it offers quite a lot, isn’t obnoxious about getting to you buy premium currency, and has so far convinced me to waste at least 40 hours since I started playing it, just merging things and seeing what I can do with my camp. I anticipate playing it for at least another 40, no doubt.

Even if I never beat that freaking Challenge.