So since I’m feeling wordy today, I’m gonna review another iOS game by a friend, and his studio project, Walk Through the Clock.
Concepts that brought Call connect into happening are most obscure to me. I can’t fully wrap my head around the reasons behind the idea of making an old school phone operator simulator. But hey, I’ve never heard of it being done before, and originality is rarely a bad thing.
Show us your party trick:
So we have a colour matching game, about connecting calls in a switchboard. Simple: you get a call from one of the plugs.. you connect one end of the terminal, it lights up in a different colour, and you connect the other end to the required color. Get the special rainbow nubs and you can enter bonus mode, to just rack up your points.
And as things go, shit starts hitting the fan really fast. Soon enough, smoke is coming out of the terminals, calls are coming in, you are picking up a cable and the call is already gone. And boom you’re fired Sally.
Call Connect’s presentation is nice, sharp and cohesive, everything is tidy and clear. Serviceable, is a term that comes to mind, it doesn’t dazzle, it doesn’t surprise, and it is a bit aesthetically sterile but it gets the job done. I could even say that the plainness is part of the whole call connect experience.
Once I get to know you:
Call connect is a simple straight forward premise, executed quite effectively. There’s an easy and hard mode and a pretty intense difficulty curve (which is a good challenge). But there isn’t much more to it than immediately meets the eye. The depth or enjoyment you find in it is solely determined by how much of a score hound you are. It isn’t bad but it definately isn’t for everyone.
When the difficulty ramps up, it’s hard to understand exactly what is going on in your switchboard, there is little noticeable contrast between elements, and although it can be argued that it is exactly the game’s purpose, it can be rather frustrating for a regular player.
In the heat of the callroom, controls start becoming hard to manage,
This, added to its dry stylistic approach might also become a barrier for new players.
It’s definately not a bad way to kill some time, but it grows old very quickly, and there is very little to lure you back into the game once you’ve moved on.
The bottom line
+Original concept.
+Sharp, Colourful, Clear and Functional Presentation.
+Good, intuitive tutorials and gameplay.
+Straight forward, quick and casual game sessions.
+Simple yet challenging.
-Aesthetics can be a bit static, sterile and clinical.
-Extremely unforgving difficulty wall.
-Little to no in-game progression or depth.
-Interface and graphic feedback can get very confusing as the game progresses.
Judgement day:
It works, and it will keep you engaged if you dig the premise. But there’s no intention to win you over.
