Don't Subscribe to Apple Arcade Without Reading This First

It wasn't long ago that Techlifers ran an article exploring Apple Arcade. I subscribed to the free version of the service for that publication, ie the one-month trial period.

I subscribed, played, played again and played one last time. My opinion about the Apple novelty released in September this year is unfortunately not the most positive: she is not ready and therefore not worth it. In this article I will explain my opinion better.

To start my test, I downloaded the Murder Mystery Machine game. A suspense game, in which you are the police officer Cassandra Clark and you need to investigate murders. The game is in third person, where clicks make the character move and interact with objects.

Each level has its objective, but most of the time it's talking to suspects, collecting evidence, and then connecting the clues to make deductions of who the killer is, when, and why.

I confess that I was quite addicted to the game. Despite being a bit still, I found it challenging and interesting. But then the problems started: bugs and the number of phases. It makes you give up on a game (or just beat it) and then you need a new game... but then, where are the options?

Bugs

Speaking initially of Murder Mystery Machine, there were times when the game crashed and I lost my progress. Every gamer loses patience with situations like these, but I didn't get too annoyed - mainly because the game crashed a few minutes after starting, so the lost progress wasn't that significant.

The worst was when I tried to play other Apple Arcade games. After a lot to look for (subject for another topic in the article), I decided to give a game a chance that I thought was interesting because it was different from all the ones I've played: Neo Cab.

According to Arcade's description, Neo Cab is a game in which you impersonate an app driver and drive through city streets interacting with passengers and making choices. I knew it would be a slower game, but I found the proposal interesting and wanted to see how the game would run (thinking that MMM already crashed and Neo Cab seemed heavier).

I didn't even spend 10 minutes playing. The game crashed so much, but so much, that I totally lost patience. Not to mention the out-of-sync lines and misconfigured scene passages. I also wonder until now what his proposal was, because it had nothing to do with what was described in Apple Arcade - or maybe I didn't play enough. But let's focus on the bugs: once again a game that wasn't the best.

And then I did a third test: Jenny LeClue. The game follows the same logic as Murder Mystery Machine, also being suspenseful. In it, you impersonate Jenny LeClue and need to solve a murder, looking for clues, connecting dots and making choices. The difference is that the game is more diverse, "active" - ​​and even a little childish. It has a lot of conversation, simpler graphics, but more action too.

Like the Neo Cab, Jenny LeClue has bugs. Many bugs. Starting with misconfigured characters, with eyes in the wrong places. Then, between one scene and another, the black screen that seems infinite and you wonder if the game crashed or if you should wait a little longer. However, he's more lively and dynamic - and that's a plus point.

Another criticism of Jenny LeClue is that progress isn't always saved and passed from device to device, so it's preferable to play it all on one device. In Mystery Murder Machine, that was perfect. In Neo Cab I didn't even get to test it because I was so irritated with the bugs.

The Apple Arcade ratings of the three games are very similar to mine. Although some have good grades, many people complain about bugs, devices heating up, games crashing and lack of sync between devices. It made me realize how I wasn't the only one experiencing this and how it can be a general Apple Arcade problem.

Few levels, little interest

Returning to Murder Mystery Machine, the game has only TWO cases. Each case has something around 4 phases, that is, the game only has 8 phases launched. This was quite disappointing for me - even more so since I was actually interested in the game.

When you finish playing it, it appears that "there will be other chapters soon", but it is not known when. What I did - and I imagine a lot of people may have done too - was to delete the game without knowing if I'll remember to look for it to play it again.

Neo Cab I confess that I don't even know if it's complete or not because I played for a very short time. Jenny LeClue is still an open question - I've played it a lot and it's not finished, but I've seen reviews on Apple Arcade saying it's not complete either.

It is understandable that the games are being finished and chapters (or phases) added little by little. But at the same time this causes interest in games to be lost and it may be more interesting to leave Apple Arcade to sign when it is more complete.

few options

Following the line of reasoning of the previous review, it's understandable that Apple Arcade still doesn't have a wide variety of games. Between the 14th and 15th of November alone, four games were released and that's great! But is it worth subscribing to the service right now?

It may be that for some people Apple Arcade already has too many titles. For me specifically, it was quite difficult to find games that interested me. I think I spent more time reviewing games and thinking about whether or not to download them than actually playing them. But of course, this is very personal and varies from person to person.

But after all, is it worth subscribing to Apple Arcade?

I would say that at this very moment, not.

Apple's proposal is extremely interesting and it is possible to see that the platform will bring games different from the "usual". But everything is still very raw. Both the games and the platform itself need a few more months to improve, have bugs fixed and more stages developed.

Therefore, I believe it is best to wait a few more months before paying R$ 9,90.