This was (also) a mistake. 00:00 - Intro 01:43 - Evony 09:52 - Total Battle 13:37 - Watcher of Realms 17:10 - Hydroneer 22:53 - AFK Journey 29:48 - Outro
I remember seeing that ad. I also got one from Nikki goddess or something like that. The ad had one of the characters riding a giant bullet while she was barely wearing anything. I reported that ad and the next ad got me angry due to the timing. Either the company knew about the complaints against it and changed it or something else but the new ad had the characters chest covered with their logo. And now I keep seeing that ad but since she's "censored" they don't see anything wrong with it. Same with idle tower or what ever it was. It had a giant woman spreading her legs and a giant number is censoring it. But tell me, am I the only one able to see the topic for ads? Like what their products are under? Because I've been getting a lot of NSFW ads here lately but they are advertised as make-up products....
@@Simipourfangirl NSFW adds on youtube? Haven't seen those types of adds here from what I recall. Google does like to personalize your adds though, so they could be targeting you for some weird reason. The main add I see is on youtube is afk journey.
@@olegezic4209 Thats why inflation is so high right now. If only people wouldh understand that they save 80000% we wouldh not be in this mess in the first place. To bad it was a "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" deal...
So Evony's ads are *infamous*, about ten years ago they were spamming them everywhere and it was all scantily-clad women saying "come play my lord" - it was so infamous other games started making fun of it in their ads. Interesting that they never stopped with terrible clickbait ads that don't represent the game, they just changed them to fit the format that's working these days.
GaiaOnline is more than likely a spot where I saw way too many of these ads. I'm just mindfucked that they lived long enough to hit the mobile market, since I was seeing those ads on desktop for the longest time like "Okay even I'm not too stupid horny enough to click on THAT."
Honestly, there is this one ad from afk journey called: "Echoes of Devastation" where the girl and the man fight for the gods or something idk and we get to see that they used to be childhood friends.. that kinda reminds me of that one scene from nimona where she was once friends with Gloreth.. Only to be ruined due to... Well... (If you watched that scene from nimona and watched that ad from afk journey. Then you would understand on what I'm talking about)
Hydroneer has some very undeniable jank, but I like it. Especially after you've set up your first automation. Also, whomever told you to sell products isn't really being helpful. Selling bars that you produce is the best way of getting money, and you'll want to buy a pickaxe as soon as possible so you can reach the bottom and must valuable patch of dirt. You get heavier resources the lower the dirt you've excavated is.
Yeah, I think Hydroneer is an odd one for this video. Its not a mobile game looking to hook you into micro-transactions at every turn, like most of the others. Its a niche game for people who like to build machines. I'm surprised they advertise on TH-cam.
Yeah, a real indie game, one I actually like, getting only a 4 when crappy mobile RPGs get 4.5 - 5 is kinda insulting. It's supposed to be a bit silly of a factory game with item piles and whatnot. No idea what caused the lag, but worse stuff happens in AAA games, let alone small indie titles. I didn't even know they could afford ads, let alone have them.
i wished the whales who keep those mobile games afloat would spent their money on something more productive, so many indie games that could do so much with that kind of money.
Yeah, but an indie game will never get off the ground bloated with microtransactions, so how are they supposed to make their investment dollars back? 🙄
Imagine trying to argue with that kind of person, the enablers and defenders. "Let people enjoy what they want" "We don't all have time to invest" "Sounds like you're poor" It's maddening.
An indie game won't charge that much. Whales do buy those games too, man. I buy a lot of indie games. That being said, I also would never fund a single one of these garbage heaps xD.
that Hydroneer wound up in this video kinda suprised me, considering there is a sort of "lets play/break" series by the channel "Let's Game it Out" (5.6 mio subs) about it on youtube. It suprised me they fell in through the same filter as Evony lol
Yeah, he should stick to to the crappy mobile games, indie games often cater to their audience. Their audience is not people who even remotely enjoy gatcha games. Also the fact that he just sold his swords to the jewler, instead of a better shop, means he did't actually explore the map.
@@trevorhaddox6884 to be fair the eastern style gacha games are designed to have all the "good" stuff front loaded (because they have to hook you somehow). So since he was only playing an hour of each I can see how the stock market mechanic in hydroneer was missed.
Yeah. I'm gonna sound shitty here but I unliked the video because of that. I have to say I appreciate that maybe B as a TH-cam doesn't like strategy or sim games, but just the context of Hydroneer's existence puts it above the others. B is rating these games on his experience and personal perception, but that felt bad.
@@MarsofAritia Ah yes, the old ragebait of "every building game is just Minecraft", as if it was somehow the first sandbox game ever (it's not). Bro, Hydroneer isn't even a survival game, at all, you can't even die even stepping directly into lava. It's a factory and economy game. It's closer to Satisfactory, but still different.
Ah yes, Sappho, the general. Sappho, famous poet and origin of the word Sapphic. A general. Person who probably never saw a battle. A general. She doesn't exactly look Greek either. Very pale skinned and platinum blonde.
Poet, general, potato, potata. Same diff. And didn't you know that ancient Greece and Rome were 100% white? Have you never seen their statues? Geez, get a load of this guy... Sike
@@snakewithapen5489😮💨 Yes, I'm very aware of that, and you remember correctly... Check again in some history/archaeology publication. I hoped it would be obvious to anyone that my comment was purely facetious by adding a "sike" at the end.
I'll admit it, I enjoy afk journey. I've played it about a month now, just finished the main story, and I'm probably 2 or 3 days from getting level cap. On the "getting a lot of legendaries" thing, it becomes less of a problem when you consider legendary is the third lowest rank out of eight, and you increase the power of your heroes by combining copies: Epic>epic+>legendary>+>mythic>+>supreme>supreme + Each character unlocks an ability at each of the "+" ranks and after reaching supreme they get an upgradable "unique weapon" Like you noticed, they throw out free pulls and level up mats like candy. A lot of different events and daily tasks give a trickle of resources needed to buy specific heroes from the in-game shops. And probably what is most interesting to me: when I reach level cap I'll be able to enter the first "season" that started a few days ago. From what I hear, you go to a different continent with a new world map, level reset (keep rarity) and a bunch more rewards. All in all, it does a really good job of "making number go up" without it feeling soulless, irrelevant, or specifically cash-grabby. Not to say it's not filled with a lot of the usual suspects of monetization, but they don't have a lot of the worst ones. F2p is fully playable, with no quality of life features locked behind a pay wall or members only zones. You'll progress slower than someone with the $10 subscription and you'll never reach the heights of the whales, but you can still enjoy the full game for free.
the level reset isn't actually a reset, but another level bar basically. Your normal resonance level stats still apply but season levels impact stats WAY more than normal levels, so it's still like a soft reset. I've been playing for a bit longer, and being one of the weakest players in my guild is quite painful. (Kinda my fault I happened to get into the server's #2 guild with over half of them having spent some amount of money but ehh, them's the breaks)
I love this game, but I'm still a little unsure about the season system. having all my progress erased after 90 days seems weird to me. I think the f2p limited cosmetics might make up for it, but idk yet
You forgot the best part of evony: the mystery puzzle was only added because law forced them to put elements in their ads into their games. Its amazing
I saw a lot of people referencing that series in the reviews for the game. I totally understand that it's fun for some, but it just didn't click for me
Watch Let’s Game it Outs Hydroneer series! You’ll love it, even if you didn’t enjoy the game. Heck you might enjoy it even more seeing how much he absolutely ruins the game lol
Watcher of Realms just tried to be Arknights, except it's much less complex. Arknights had class variety, you chose who to deploy when to deploy them, sometimes you had to switch the units mid fight according on the enemy type, and it was just that much better.
It's arknights catered to the non weeb western audience, which wouldve been fine if they actually pulled all the mechanics, instead they just took the bare minimum and stole some maps and called it a day.
Yes! Arknights mentioned! The game also has way more strategic death than whatever this knock off is, and in-depth world building with lots of stories that can be played through at any time for people interested in that
They both have classes, and arknights isn’t the first tower defence and nor the last. Similar to PtN except for the part some maps leave your ranged units on the path of enemies that needs a tank/frontliner in front/range of them. I’m not a fan of either, but arknight has the gameplay and I don’t mind chibi style but the artstyle they chose in game is a turn off for me.
This unlocked a core memory of 12-year-old me playing those browser games where you endlessly upgrade individual buildings, produce units, then go into an overworld to send out raids that take hours to reach their target. I *think*(?) Die Stämme (Tribal Wars) kinda popularized that genre in the early 2000s . I have semi-fond memories of some of them. Ogame is the only one I remember the name of, which was a space-based one and I also remember one where you had a dragon hero unit to accompany your army and hang out in your castle that you'd have to feed and level up.
Kingdom Rush 10/10 game. Remember spending hours onto it but it seems it got completely wiped out of my mind, until i was seeing it in your video. Thanks for that! :D
i played AFK arena for a while and its biggest pull for me was definitely the art (and, after i got into it, the story tidbits you find in character bios and such. i especially liked lucretia's story). if i remember right, once you get out of the opening hours, progression winds up being a lot more based on pulling duplicates of your heroes so you can upgrade them to higher rarities--which is why it's so easy to get legendaries. i assume AFK journey is similar on that
@@domie1420 it's just cookie clicker bruh, chill. i haven't spent a dime and i just log in for a few battles a day even though it's garbage. friend wanted me to get into it and idunno man it's fun sometimes, i like trying to upgrade my shit without spending money like the whales
I’m shocked that of all the scamy games that have come and gone throughout the decades, Evony is still around all these years latter. I’m 30 and I think I still must have been in elementary when I saw the first ads for it before they started using lewd fantasy art to bait sign-ups; actually remember playing it for a bit before getting extremely bored.
Shoutout to this legend who mentioned the most underrated and lowkey best saga of tower defense games: Kindom Rush. Thank you master! I used to play and you made my day by positively reviewing it ❤
Lnao i dunno who you sre yet....dunno about the first one of these videos....and i wasnt even looking for this ttpe of content ...lol all that being said....your motivational speach followed by the deamatic CHARGE! Cracked me up and i may check out another vid or two on the channel lol
Also, just a thought, it would be interesting to watch the same ads that made you download those games so we can compare them. As I said, I thought this would maybe be interesting, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your work lol.
Star Rail has been advertised to me so many times and while it's a gacha game, and made by hoyoverse. I've been impressed with it. While an hour of gameplay won't satisfy much and you can easily be distracted by side quests, if you manage to play until you reach Penacony, the story and visuals just ... hit different ig.
Penacony made that game for me. I liked Jarilo VI, but space china was such a huge drag that I stopped playing for a bit because of it. I come back for 2.0 and bam, the craziness of Penacony is exactly what I was hoping for in HSR. Hoyoverse know how to make quality stuff.
I'm sure you're joking, but for any others who are actually wondering, he's an INSANELY underrated TH-camr and streamer named: Dukaja He's doing an uncapped subathon on Twitch, has been for months, and actively posts on TH-cam, I hope he sees the traction he deserves
@@MaakaSakuranbo i just mean that he commented it in a seemingly sarcastic way. And it sounds like something one of his community members would comment, lul
That was absolutely hilarious when you boldly mounted your likely futile attack on some seemingly nearby mid-level deity only to discover it might just as well have been in a far distant star system for how long it would take for you to reach it in game time.
24:30 This practice is well known amongst graphic designers. The idea of a "contest" where the winner gets the privileve of being paid for the work he's already done. Like my teacher once said: is it ok if I invite 10 bakers to bake me a wedding cake, and only pay for the one I like? No? Then why is it ok for a client to do the same to us (graphic designers)? It's illegal in some places.
4:02 - I like it when games lock settings behind the intro. Being blasted the entire intro really gives a strong positive first impression. Playing at 30fps because I can't turn down graphical settings only improves upon the already strong positive first impression. Visuals being terrible because of said higher-set graphical settings perfects the positive first impression. (Because most games default with motion blur and other crap on)
"Need specific team comps to beat ultra challenging fights" Thats just an excuse to force players to buy, level, gear, upgrade, evolve, shine, advance, remort, and a dozen other words for "upgrade" every hero to access content because they make more money if every character in your 500 hero game is needed for something somewhere.
I played Evony back in 2009. Back then it was just a base builder game and you sent your army to attack other players. You basically had to join a clan/guild, or else you'd never make any progress. I don't remember what sort of microtransactions there were back then, but I'm sure they were there. I only remember the game because I somehow joined a clan of all Europeans. They were all really good people. Had a lot of fun conversations with them. Basically, the polar opposite of just about every online community nowadays.
I've been playing AFK Journey for months, as a f2p player, and it's been a great game, the new season and characters are great, and there's always something new.
Oh, a follow up! Nice! First of all, it feels weird to see Dukaja (or just Duk) as the thumbnail. I’ve been following him since Q3/Q4 of last year, funny guy and a chill content creator, mostly doing Hoyoverse games like Genshin and Honkai 3rd/Star Rail, but a few gachas on the way. Now to the games. I’ve played Watcher of Realms for a month out of pure spite. It was not a pleasant experience, a lot of grinding (you have to manually leave on auto for materials, sometimes repeating a stage 50 times to gather materials), QoL locked behind paywall, bad rates and so on. Would not recommend at all, i was probably crazy. And they have my most disliked upgrading system, which resolves around using a set amount of other units as fodder, so you can raise the original unit star by one. Now, into AFK Journey, most points are already made in this video, but there is a major point that a lot of idle games do: the SSRs units are “easy” to get, because you need to get other copies of the same unit to further strengh them. For example, you need an extra copy to level them up to red border. Then two copies, then two copies again, and so on. It’s the initial honeymoon phase, but leaves a bad aftertaste in a few weeks.
Kids are very vulnerable to prizes/points. Honestly that points, mega points, gold star system is probably incredible at getting kids to do chores. I may adapt a similar system, albeit with some tangible rewards at the end of the loop.
as a teacher, we learned that this is the exact thing you should not do because kids need to learn and understand why certain chores must be done (so they do them willingly). i admit, it is tempting though
Here's the funny thing, I wasn't going to play AFKJ because of the invasive ads, but it was because of these ads that I checked out your video, which told me that the game can be at least somewhat enjoyable - so maybe I'll give it a go. So, I guess the ads did work in the end, albeit in a very convoluted way.
I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like Hydroneer. I had a blast with that game about two years ago, but I understand it's not for everyone. No inventory, grindy start, janky interactions via dropping items and the placement system being horrible can definitely turn people off. But I actually enjoyed the gridny start, it was pretty chill and when I first automated water it felt like great progress. But if you want that game that will "prove that automation can be fun" then I definitely recommend Factorio.
I’ve been bombed with AFK Journey so much I’m just annoyed by it (I’ve also blocked the ads on TH-cam but it seems it’s not working 😅), well thanks for sharing with us you opinion! Super appreciated, no I know I don’t wanna play any of them, well maybe Hydrogen-something, that look like a game made for VR. Now you should do the same with games offers you on IG, and start a new series on mobile rubbish games 😁 Thanks for your work mate!
I think I plaed that Evony Base building/Overworld Combo since more thant 15 yrears in ever new popping up game. Especially that Base building is like everywere in Browser Games.
I remember playing a game called "7th Dragon", "7 Dragons", or something like that. It was an Evony-like game and it was the first of the genre I'd played. I had a decent amount of fun as a kid on Internet Explorer, acknowledging that I, as a kid, definitely had the time to close the game and let the Keep, Walls, Farms, etc take hours to build. Support for it must've dried up shortly after I stopped playing, because I went back after a while and couldn't find it. And how crazy is it that Evony has become its own genre?
If you want to see the full potential of Hydroneer, you should watch Let's Game it Out. He's really funny and actually is willing enough to have the patience to grind for the items. And also, these types of games usually requires creativity and thinking outside the box skills to finds exploits within the game so it became less grindy. People like Josh from Let's Game it Out or the Spiffing Brits who centralized their content on finding exploits or loopholes in games.
I've noticed this top level kingdom building/management game with the overworld is everywhere with a different coat of paint. From 40k tacticua to Evony to war of kings and to that anime girl version who's name I can't remember. At first I thought it was a game engine but they're all SO similar and SO alike that I'm assuming it's some kind of pre-made or tutorial game and these are all essentially asset flips with different art dragged and dropped into the respective folders
Evony is an EXTREMELY old one. The original evony I remember my dad playing back in mid 2000's, and it was just as predative as it is now. Looking back at how I remembered the game back then and how it looks now, the only key difference to my mind is that you can choose the culture for some pretty negligible benefits. It also might be a different game entirely than the game my dad played (maybe this is a remake specifically for IOS/android in mind, and the PC came afterwards) but I was genuinely surprised at how this game looks pretty much identical after 20 years.
15:25 the Kingdom Rush series is one of the handful of mobile games that are actualyl worth playing. They even justify spending real money on them for real.
I like how even this doesn't explain who the pink-haired guy is. Why is he so obviously reading from a script? The ad is like thirty seconds long. That hard to memorise, eh?
Back in my day, Evony was advertised in website banner ads using real women in lingerie saying they are waiting for you.
Evony has been around for quite some time... I think back then it was just the mediocre base builder
"You deserve an orgy today"
Yeah I am that old
Yeah fr, their ads were just porn
I remember seeing that ad. I also got one from Nikki goddess or something like that. The ad had one of the characters riding a giant bullet while she was barely wearing anything. I reported that ad and the next ad got me angry due to the timing. Either the company knew about the complaints against it and changed it or something else but the new ad had the characters chest covered with their logo. And now I keep seeing that ad but since she's "censored" they don't see anything wrong with it.
Same with idle tower or what ever it was. It had a giant woman spreading her legs and a giant number is censoring it.
But tell me, am I the only one able to see the topic for ads? Like what their products are under? Because I've been getting a lot of NSFW ads here lately but they are advertised as make-up products....
@@Simipourfangirl NSFW adds on youtube? Haven't seen those types of adds here from what I recall. Google does like to personalize your adds though, so they could be targeting you for some weird reason. The main add I see is on youtube is afk journey.
.99 cent Evony bundle was the deal of a lifetime
YOU WILL BE LOSING MONEY IF YOU DONT BUY IT 😂😂😂😂
@@olegezic4209 The Order of Ezic rises
@@olegezic4209 Thats why inflation is so high right now. If only people wouldh understand that they save 80000% we wouldh not be in this mess in the first place. To bad it was a "ONCE IN A LIFETIME" deal...
@@eintyp4389 true
I hope your brain eventually makes a full recovery after being subjected to these games.
Pog
TH-cam recommending the most brain dead games possible.
11:13 I knew it, people speak Portuguese and not Polish in Poland.
Portugal is an Eastern European country after all.
So Evony's ads are *infamous*, about ten years ago they were spamming them everywhere and it was all scantily-clad women saying "come play my lord" - it was so infamous other games started making fun of it in their ads. Interesting that they never stopped with terrible clickbait ads that don't represent the game, they just changed them to fit the format that's working these days.
I remember too! Yeah, it used to be a questionable browser game I think
GaiaOnline is more than likely a spot where I saw way too many of these ads. I'm just mindfucked that they lived long enough to hit the mobile market, since I was seeing those ads on desktop for the longest time like "Okay even I'm not too stupid horny enough to click on THAT."
Have to respect that Evony has managed to stick around 15 years.
These days, their ads have devolved into putting an ai pic on screen for 30 secs
Very funny that I got an ad for AFK journey right before the video, it's everywhere lately
I got an ad for it at the end of the video haha
Honestly, there is this one ad from afk journey called: "Echoes of Devastation" where the girl and the man fight for the gods or something idk and we get to see that they used to be childhood friends.. that kinda reminds me of that one scene from nimona where she was once friends with Gloreth.. Only to be ruined due to...
Well...
(If you watched that scene from nimona and watched that ad from afk journey. Then you would understand on what I'm talking about)
@@Wroar2020s Every time I hear that girl it makes me want to sacrifice her to a god :)
Hydroneer has some very undeniable jank, but I like it. Especially after you've set up your first automation.
Also, whomever told you to sell products isn't really being helpful.
Selling bars that you produce is the best way of getting money, and you'll want to buy a pickaxe as soon as possible so you can reach the bottom and must valuable patch of dirt.
You get heavier resources the lower the dirt you've excavated is.
Yeah, I think Hydroneer is an odd one for this video. Its not a mobile game looking to hook you into micro-transactions at every turn, like most of the others. Its a niche game for people who like to build machines. I'm surprised they advertise on TH-cam.
@@neilyoung5851 They have to advertise somewhere, but it's definitely strange to see it amid the terrible storefronts macerating as games.
I know hydroneer exclusively from Let's Game It Out but it looks cool
Yeah, a real indie game, one I actually like, getting only a 4 when crappy mobile RPGs get 4.5 - 5 is kinda insulting. It's supposed to be a bit silly of a factory game with item piles and whatnot. No idea what caused the lag, but worse stuff happens in AAA games, let alone small indie titles. I didn't even know they could afford ads, let alone have them.
i was playing Hydroneer while i put this on to listen to in the background lol threw me off for a moment
i wished the whales who keep those mobile games afloat would spent their money on something more productive, so many indie games that could do so much with that kind of money.
Yeah, but an indie game will never get off the ground bloated with microtransactions, so how are they supposed to make their investment dollars back? 🙄
@@snakewithapen5489 Right, they are not interested in games, they just get suckered in. Damn, whales will be whales.
Imagine trying to argue with that kind of person, the enablers and defenders.
"Let people enjoy what they want"
"We don't all have time to invest"
"Sounds like you're poor"
It's maddening.
An indie game won't charge that much. Whales do buy those games too, man. I buy a lot of indie games. That being said, I also would never fund a single one of these garbage heaps xD.
my condolences regarding your sister
that Hydroneer wound up in this video kinda suprised me, considering there is a sort of "lets play/break" series by the channel "Let's Game it Out" (5.6 mio subs) about it on youtube. It suprised me they fell in through the same filter as Evony lol
That Markiplier AFK Journey Advertisement has been haunting my dreams.
Watcher of Realms is literally just an Arknights clone without the artstyle or the futuristic theme. The gameplay is pretty much identical...
What do you meaaaaan...! It's a neo "from the future" avantgarde Tactical RPG!
my thoughts the same
Evony is ANCIENT. I remember them having the sketchy banner ads in the late 2000's.
Giving Hydroneer (an actual game) a lower score than AFKj and WoR (predatory Skinner boxes).... bruh
Yeah, he should stick to to the crappy mobile games, indie games often cater to their audience. Their audience is not people who even remotely enjoy gatcha games. Also the fact that he just sold his swords to the jewler, instead of a better shop, means he did't actually explore the map.
@@trevorhaddox6884 to be fair the eastern style gacha games are designed to have all the "good" stuff front loaded (because they have to hook you somehow). So since he was only playing an hour of each I can see how the stock market mechanic in hydroneer was missed.
Yeah. I'm gonna sound shitty here but I unliked the video because of that.
I have to say I appreciate that maybe B as a TH-cam doesn't like strategy or sim games, but just the context of Hydroneer's existence puts it above the others.
B is rating these games on his experience and personal perception, but that felt bad.
he's right. minecraft and it's clones are so boring
@@MarsofAritia Ah yes, the old ragebait of "every building game is just Minecraft", as if it was somehow the first sandbox game ever (it's not). Bro, Hydroneer isn't even a survival game, at all, you can't even die even stepping directly into lava. It's a factory and economy game. It's closer to Satisfactory, but still different.
Ah yes, Sappho, the general.
Sappho, famous poet and origin of the word Sapphic. A general.
Person who probably never saw a battle. A general.
She doesn't exactly look Greek either. Very pale skinned and platinum blonde.
Poet, general, potato, potata. Same diff.
And didn't you know that ancient Greece and Rome were 100% white? Have you never seen their statues? Geez, get a load of this guy...
Sike
@LocalSlasher I read somewhere that marble statues used to be painted colorfully, but also I don't remember _where_ I read it so this might be false
@@snakewithapen5489😮💨 Yes, I'm very aware of that, and you remember correctly... Check again in some history/archaeology publication. I hoped it would be obvious to anyone that my comment was purely facetious by adding a "sike" at the end.
Isn't there a famos quote "They should have sent a poet"
@@akrybion From the film called 'Contact'. I should get around to watching it, thanks for the reminder
I'll admit it, I enjoy afk journey. I've played it about a month now, just finished the main story, and I'm probably 2 or 3 days from getting level cap.
On the "getting a lot of legendaries" thing, it becomes less of a problem when you consider legendary is the third lowest rank out of eight, and you increase the power of your heroes by combining copies:
Epic>epic+>legendary>+>mythic>+>supreme>supreme +
Each character unlocks an ability at each of the "+" ranks and after reaching supreme they get an upgradable "unique weapon"
Like you noticed, they throw out free pulls and level up mats like candy. A lot of different events and daily tasks give a trickle of resources needed to buy specific heroes from the in-game shops.
And probably what is most interesting to me: when I reach level cap I'll be able to enter the first "season" that started a few days ago. From what I hear, you go to a different continent with a new world map, level reset (keep rarity) and a bunch more rewards.
All in all, it does a really good job of "making number go up" without it feeling soulless, irrelevant, or specifically cash-grabby. Not to say it's not filled with a lot of the usual suspects of monetization, but they don't have a lot of the worst ones. F2p is fully playable, with no quality of life features locked behind a pay wall or members only zones. You'll progress slower than someone with the $10 subscription and you'll never reach the heights of the whales, but you can still enjoy the full game for free.
the level reset isn't actually a reset, but another level bar basically. Your normal resonance level stats still apply but season levels impact stats WAY more than normal levels, so it's still like a soft reset. I've been playing for a bit longer, and being one of the weakest players in my guild is quite painful. (Kinda my fault I happened to get into the server's #2 guild with over half of them having spent some amount of money but ehh, them's the breaks)
I love this game, but I'm still a little unsure about the season system. having all my progress erased after 90 days seems weird to me. I think the f2p limited cosmetics might make up for it, but idk yet
You forgot the best part of evony: the mystery puzzle was only added because law forced them to put elements in their ads into their games. Its amazing
Just finished the first one. Very considerate, CB!
I do what I can :)
you'd probably have more fun watching someone else play hydroneer, like Let's Game It Out.
i'm serious. his hydroneer series is a masterpiece.
I saw a lot of people referencing that series in the reviews for the game. I totally understand that it's fun for some, but it just didn't click for me
@@Command_B trust me. Let's Game It Out *makes* it fun. He had so much fun in fact that they put a wanted poster for him in the game.
I mostly have just seen DF play Hydroneer
yeah i guess you've never seen real fun @@SapphireAegis
Watch Let’s Game it Outs Hydroneer series! You’ll love it, even if you didn’t enjoy the game. Heck you might enjoy it even more seeing how much he absolutely ruins the game lol
Watcher of Realms just tried to be Arknights, except it's much less complex. Arknights had class variety, you chose who to deploy when to deploy them, sometimes you had to switch the units mid fight according on the enemy type, and it was just that much better.
It's arknights catered to the non weeb western audience, which wouldve been fine if they actually pulled all the mechanics, instead they just took the bare minimum and stole some maps and called it a day.
Yes! Arknights mentioned! The game also has way more strategic death than whatever this knock off is, and in-depth world building with lots of stories that can be played through at any time for people interested in that
@@wiseorcainthelake you don't have to be a weeb to play a good anime game lol
@@iconica9516 it is a turn off for some.
They both have classes, and arknights isn’t the first tower defence and nor the last. Similar to PtN except for the part some maps leave your ranged units on the path of enemies that needs a tank/frontliner in front/range of them. I’m not a fan of either, but arknight has the gameplay and I don’t mind chibi style but the artstyle they chose in game is a turn off for me.
7:03 Pleasantly surprised at the unironic use of fortnight in a sentence
This unlocked a core memory of 12-year-old me playing those browser games where you endlessly upgrade individual buildings, produce units, then go into an overworld to send out raids that take hours to reach their target. I *think*(?) Die Stämme (Tribal Wars) kinda popularized that genre in the early 2000s . I have semi-fond memories of some of them. Ogame is the only one I remember the name of, which was a space-based one and I also remember one where you had a dragon hero unit to accompany your army and hang out in your castle that you'd have to feed and level up.
Kingdom Rush 10/10 game. Remember spending hours onto it but it seems it got completely wiped out of my mind, until i was seeing it in your video. Thanks for that! :D
i played AFK arena for a while and its biggest pull for me was definitely the art (and, after i got into it, the story tidbits you find in character bios and such. i especially liked lucretia's story). if i remember right, once you get out of the opening hours, progression winds up being a lot more based on pulling duplicates of your heroes so you can upgrade them to higher rarities--which is why it's so easy to get legendaries. i assume AFK journey is similar on that
Same tbh, installed AFK Arena for the art and story, stayed for bone daddy Ainz and Prince of Persia lmao
You guys are clowns lol
@@domie1420 it's just cookie clicker bruh, chill. i haven't spent a dime and i just log in for a few battles a day even though it's garbage. friend wanted me to get into it and idunno man it's fun sometimes, i like trying to upgrade my shit without spending money like the whales
I’m shocked that of all the scamy games that have come and gone throughout the decades, Evony is still around all these years latter. I’m 30 and I think I still must have been in elementary when I saw the first ads for it before they started using lewd fantasy art to bait sign-ups; actually remember playing it for a bit before getting extremely bored.
This series is dope man, please keep making these!!!🤣😂
Glad you liked it!
i gotta say
i think your hydroneer save just corrupted with the update change
great video, glad i found your channel from the first part! you deserve the million views, i hope u keep making these
this series is gold
We need Gamers like him who dare to experiment with the saturated market of today mixed/cross platform games.
Nice video! Also nice choice of music (from Cult of the Lamb)
Shoutout to this legend who mentioned the most underrated and lowkey best saga of tower defense games: Kindom Rush. Thank you master! I used to play and you made my day by positively reviewing it ❤
Ur videos are great dude, keep it up
Thank you!
The first iteration of this series was my first Command B video. Great work!
I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't got a single HSR ad
Lnao i dunno who you sre yet....dunno about the first one of these videos....and i wasnt even looking for this ttpe of content ...lol all that being said....your motivational speach followed by the deamatic CHARGE! Cracked me up and i may check out another vid or two on the channel lol
This man's out in the trenches doing God's work.
You have my respect and subscription.
Really enjoyed your content! Subbed!
Much appreciated!
I love this video! Fun and fight!
Also, just a thought, it would be interesting to watch the same ads that made you download those games so we can compare them. As I said, I thought this would maybe be interesting, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your work lol.
Star Rail has been advertised to me so many times and while it's a gacha game, and made by hoyoverse. I've been impressed with it. While an hour of gameplay won't satisfy much and you can easily be distracted by side quests, if you manage to play until you reach Penacony, the story and visuals just ... hit different ig.
Penacony made that game for me. I liked Jarilo VI, but space china was such a huge drag that I stopped playing for a bit because of it. I come back for 2.0 and bam, the craziness of Penacony is exactly what I was hoping for in HSR. Hoyoverse know how to make quality stuff.
@@SpenzOT The only part of Space China that's nice is being able to say no to Kafka.
I really wonder who that pink haired guy with the 200+ free summons is
I'm sure you're joking, but for any others who are actually wondering, he's an INSANELY underrated TH-camr and streamer named: Dukaja
He's doing an uncapped subathon on Twitch, has been for months, and actively posts on TH-cam, I hope he sees the traction he deserves
He is a youtuber i watch actually... it's always wierd when that happenes. He is a genshin/HSR youtuber and streamer named Dukaja.
@@DripMoment Why "sure you're joking"? Not everyone knows any random TH-camr
@@MaakaSakuranbo i just mean that he commented it in a seemingly sarcastic way. And it sounds like something one of his community members would comment, lul
I love the AFK Kingdom ad where the guy is making no effort to hide the fact he's reading from a script that's sitting to his right lol.
Hahaha! That movement speed on evony raids 😂😂 We all want to know how long that actually took! Great vid as always!
There's a timer for the march showing about 34 mins
It's very old school browser idle strategy MMO style. They've been around forever (way before FarmVille and then Cookie Clicker made idlers popular).
@@JamesDarcon2007 Ah good eye! Wow, that's a fat minute!
@@Kenionatus Oh jeez I didn't realize it was that old
Thank u for giving kingdom rush the attention it deserves 😭 used to backseat that game with my brother in middle school
unfortunetly this video has made me madly in love with hydroneer
That was absolutely hilarious when you boldly mounted your likely futile attack on some seemingly nearby mid-level deity only to discover it might just as well have been in a far distant star system for how long it would take for you to reach it in game time.
Can’t believe I was tricked to watch an add for AFK journey…. Well played sir
24:30 This practice is well known amongst graphic designers. The idea of a "contest" where the winner gets the privileve of being paid for the work he's already done. Like my teacher once said: is it ok if I invite 10 bakers to bake me a wedding cake, and only pay for the one I like? No? Then why is it ok for a client to do the same to us (graphic designers)? It's illegal in some places.
Interesting - makes sense. For how much the companies save it isn't surprising to hear the practice is used outside of games
I burst out laughing in the shopping centre just now as i saw your fearless troops charging full speed across the map at that demon Yasha hahahaha 😂
4:02 - I like it when games lock settings behind the intro. Being blasted the entire intro really gives a strong positive first impression.
Playing at 30fps because I can't turn down graphical settings only improves upon the already strong positive first impression.
Visuals being terrible because of said higher-set graphical settings perfects the positive first impression.
(Because most games default with motion blur and other crap on)
This dude understands the importance of commentary content. Bangin background music to help long term engagement lololol. Nice vid
"Need specific team comps to beat ultra challenging fights" Thats just an excuse to force players to buy, level, gear, upgrade, evolve, shine, advance, remort, and a dozen other words for "upgrade" every hero to access content because they make more money if every character in your 500 hero game is needed for something somewhere.
3:32 your voice in the "backround" reminds me of when im watching youtube while being in a voice chat with my friends
I played Evony back in 2009. Back then it was just a base builder game and you sent your army to attack other players. You basically had to join a clan/guild, or else you'd never make any progress. I don't remember what sort of microtransactions there were back then, but I'm sure they were there. I only remember the game because I somehow joined a clan of all Europeans. They were all really good people. Had a lot of fun conversations with them. Basically, the polar opposite of just about every online community nowadays.
AFK Journey has a banger of the main theme tbh and pretty neat artstyle. 10 of 10 for music alone.
I am sooooooooooooooooooo glad i never decided to be curious about those trash games being advertized, thanks for confirming my suspicions :)
13:37 Lol! I quite liked that voice, had a nice psychotic edge to it 😂
24:20 That is a very interesting tidbit, nice!
2:35 Never played Evony but after the second screen I instinctively thought "It's all 3 isn't it". Not so happy to be right
I've been playing AFK Journey for months, as a f2p player, and it's been a great game, the new season and characters are great, and there's always something new.
Bro as soon as i was the title, i knew you were a masochist maniac :')
"Let's Game It Out" makes great Hydroneer videos. Incredibly funny ^-^
Thank you for your service.
Oh, a follow up! Nice!
First of all, it feels weird to see Dukaja (or just Duk) as the thumbnail. I’ve been following him since Q3/Q4 of last year, funny guy and a chill content creator, mostly doing Hoyoverse games like Genshin and Honkai 3rd/Star Rail, but a few gachas on the way. Now to the games.
I’ve played Watcher of Realms for a month out of pure spite. It was not a pleasant experience, a lot of grinding (you have to manually leave on auto for materials, sometimes repeating a stage 50 times to gather materials), QoL locked behind paywall, bad rates and so on. Would not recommend at all, i was probably crazy. And they have my most disliked upgrading system, which resolves around using a set amount of other units as fodder, so you can raise the original unit star by one.
Now, into AFK Journey, most points are already made in this video, but there is a major point that a lot of idle games do: the SSRs units are “easy” to get, because you need to get other copies of the same unit to further strengh them. For example, you need an extra copy to level them up to red border. Then two copies, then two copies again, and so on. It’s the initial honeymoon phase, but leaves a bad aftertaste in a few weeks.
This is funny AF 🤣🤣🤣 Evony man
ngl the musics in Evony is quite intriguing
AYYY PART 2!
Kids are very vulnerable to prizes/points. Honestly that points, mega points, gold star system is probably incredible at getting kids to do chores. I may adapt a similar system, albeit with some tangible rewards at the end of the loop.
as a teacher, we learned that this is the exact thing you should not do because kids need to learn and understand why certain chores must be done (so they do them willingly). i admit, it is tempting though
I just remembered what this is called: gamification.
Low key best AFK Journey ad 😂😂😂😂
Came only for the AFK Journey review since I quite liked AFK Arena. So as a recompense for the limited watchtime here's a comment for the algorithm :)
pretty solid ads review, I got so damn irritated seeing that Evony ads and decided to just block it lmao.
Here's the funny thing, I wasn't going to play AFKJ because of the invasive ads, but it was because of these ads that I checked out your video, which told me that the game can be at least somewhat enjoyable - so maybe I'll give it a go. So, I guess the ads did work in the end, albeit in a very convoluted way.
I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like Hydroneer. I had a blast with that game about two years ago, but I understand it's not for everyone.
No inventory, grindy start, janky interactions via dropping items and the placement system being horrible can definitely turn people off.
But I actually enjoyed the gridny start, it was pretty chill and when I first automated water it felt like great progress. But if you want that game that will "prove that automation can be fun" then I definitely recommend Factorio.
good one, make more of these
I’ve been bombed with AFK Journey so much I’m just annoyed by it (I’ve also blocked the ads on TH-cam but it seems it’s not working 😅), well thanks for sharing with us you opinion! Super appreciated, no I know I don’t wanna play any of them, well maybe Hydrogen-something, that look like a game made for VR.
Now you should do the same with games offers you on IG, and start a new series on mobile rubbish games 😁
Thanks for your work mate!
EVONY is basically Wartune framework adapted to be something else.
The only ad I’ve seen on TH-cam for a fun and engaging game is for brawl stars. Can’t wait for part three so he can play it
I've seen tons of hero wars ads. This is the first time I've heard of AFK Journey.
Ah yes, Kingdom rush :) love that game. There is a couple of new(ish) titles under that series in the app store/apple arcade, all are great fun!!
The awaited sequel
I was surprised to see an actual game on this list that being hydroneer
I think I plaed that Evony Base building/Overworld Combo since more thant 15 yrears in ever new popping up game.
Especially that Base building is like everywere in Browser Games.
This is like the torment nexus version of iron pineapple’s series looking at souls likes.
Lmao "watcher of realms" is just the discount version of arknights 😂
I remember playing a game called "7th Dragon", "7 Dragons", or something like that. It was an Evony-like game and it was the first of the genre I'd played. I had a decent amount of fun as a kid on Internet Explorer, acknowledging that I, as a kid, definitely had the time to close the game and let the Keep, Walls, Farms, etc take hours to build.
Support for it must've dried up shortly after I stopped playing, because I went back after a while and couldn't find it. And how crazy is it that Evony has become its own genre?
Didn't expect afk journey to be rated that high^^
If you want to see the full potential of Hydroneer, you should watch Let's Game it Out. He's really funny and actually is willing enough to have the patience to grind for the items. And also, these types of games usually requires creativity and thinking outside the box skills to finds exploits within the game so it became less grindy. People like Josh from Let's Game it Out or the Spiffing Brits who centralized their content on finding exploits or loopholes in games.
Strange, I've never once seen an AFK ad. Never heard of it before this video.
waiting for part 3 now ♥
I've noticed this top level kingdom building/management game with the overworld is everywhere with a different coat of paint. From 40k tacticua to Evony to war of kings and to that anime girl version who's name I can't remember. At first I thought it was a game engine but they're all SO similar and SO alike that I'm assuming it's some kind of pre-made or tutorial game and these are all essentially asset flips with different art dragged and dropped into the respective folders
Indeed, when I watch most ads in full for my content creators (unless they are chock full of foreigners of) then I get more of those ads 😂
Before this video started I got a hero wars ad. 😂
I remember Evony, never played but thought it was a Wartune clone. Also still getting AFK Journey ads.
Evony is an EXTREMELY old one. The original evony I remember my dad playing back in mid 2000's, and it was just as predative as it is now. Looking back at how I remembered the game back then and how it looks now, the only key difference to my mind is that you can choose the culture for some pretty negligible benefits. It also might be a different game entirely than the game my dad played (maybe this is a remake specifically for IOS/android in mind, and the PC came afterwards) but I was genuinely surprised at how this game looks pretty much identical after 20 years.
A lot of the city builder games started adding those mini games so they can say that the game is just like the ads and not at all false advertising. 🧐
The base building part of Evony is he original mechanic. The other parts were added later.
15:25 the Kingdom Rush series is one of the handful of mobile games that are actualyl worth playing. They even justify spending real money on them for real.
I like how even this doesn't explain who the pink-haired guy is.
Why is he so obviously reading from a script? The ad is like thirty seconds long. That hard to memorise, eh?
We are on the verge of a new game genre "Evonylikes"
10:20 Feels like I'm reading something Charlie Kelly wrote
I can't wait for "I took every money taking course advertised to me on youtube!" I am very interested in those scams.