The writer of the article must play GoW as much as the devs do 🙂

[awryan]

Full article:

Every Free Puzzle Game On Nintendo Switch, Ranked

Gems of War section:

I don’t feel like the writer actually played the game for very long. Or at the very least, didn’t know ingots could be found in pvp.

[Snooj]

I generally avoid reviews like this because they are so often from people who played the game just enough to write their first impression.

I have found most of the games I like via reddit. Actually, when I first heard of Gems of War (google store recommended it), I looked up its subreddit and noped out. It’s dead. It took a year after hearing about this game before trying it out.

For giggles I looked up the subreddit again just now and check out the sticky. It’s almost a year old! Now that we have more community managers actually, going to tag @Jeto here to bring attention to the subreddit. If the devs’ dont want it, pass ownership to the playerbase to mod it.

[Fourdottwoone]

It requires players to be strategic about using their mana, as it’s easy to run out of it after enough matches against other skilled players.

Maybe the author just played some other games in between, like Counterstrike or Pac Man, and got confused.

[Zetta_Composer]

@awryan

I don’t feel like the writer actually played the game for very long.

I feel that way about 90% of the gaming articles I read online. This one in particular reads like clickbait written to fill space, provide SEO material, and/or meet a quota. Every entry follows a basic two paragraph template that barely tells you anything useful.

[Cairnso]

Oh bugger. I’ve been missing an entire section of the game. How do I equip weapons and armour to my troops!? I’ve been hoarding it on my hero forever.
And they can learn new spells!? Excuse me!?
I’m so bad I haven’t seen any of this.

[igniteice]

players have to level up troops and equip them with armor and weapons, while also discovering new attacks and spells along the way

What game is this guy talking about? Because none of that happens in Gems of War.

[sylverscale]

We have to level up troops, I’ll give them that.

[LADYofCAO]

I’ll give em; microtransactions [ though they should say real dollars-not be coy] and the grind.

Even a developer responding , back when GoW cared;, so sensitive once to their game getting reasonable player reviews and trying to keep expanding their player base --even in 2017 ; yes a developer actually responded to a review I wrote; when I wrote- in a player review; “GoW is a grind,”

Replied:

" It’s correct that some players find the game a little ‘grindy’ but this is relatively true for most free-to-play games where it can take a little longer to earn things than it would for a paying player. As an end-game player, things are naturally more difficult."

There we have it - the game is ‘a little grind’. I suppose we all define 'little" and “grind” with our own degrees. The gap between free and pay never has and never will stop growing -it cant and never could really be defined as “only a little longer”- unless several months or years is not little to get the same in game items-

Oh and finally what we are continually confronting - the game getting naturally difficult for end gamers - just how naturally difficult - I think it would be better as unnaturally difficult ; even frustratingly difficult ; for example what it actually takes to power and level kingdoms.
What do we do; we grind, we use microtransaction judiciously and we just thank Frank for drip feeding us when it gets naturally difficult.

[jpraveensn]

Those are surely first impressions. Players with level 500 even, in this game don’t understand all the mechanics of this game.

[PowerPlay]

Screenrant

Yeah, that’s all I needed to read. ScreenRant NEVER does their research when it comes to making listicle bullshit like that. Some of that “information” is factually incorrect(your hero can use weapons, but not troops, ingots can be farmed in PvP and Arena) and outright f–king lies(you cannot BUY gear, except for armor to improve gold/soul/XP gains and past weapons that were powercrept last year, and there are no abilities to upgrade the way they seemingly imply; there are traits but you can grind out the traitstones, and class levels go up by using them) and even them saying it’s fun has become its own misnomer.

Long story short, don’t trust sites like ScreenRant and BuzzFeed. 90% of the time they’re talking out of their ass and the other 10% of the time they’re thinking of new ways to do the former.