Backgammon - Board Games 12+

3.5 overall - mostly fun but feels a bit too rigged

Definitely mostly fun, I also paid to remove the ads because they are indeed very annoying. Few negatives: very skeptical of the die rolls adhering to natural/random probabilities. While not impossible, there are sequences of multiple doubles in a row back to back on both sides that are not infrequent. The opponent nearly always rolls perfectly such that they rarely end up with a blot. Also, when the opponent offers to double, the menu to agree or decline covers the board so you don’t have a way to consider based on your current position if you hadn’t immediately checked before the offer. But if you’re looking to learn or improve your strategy, it’s great for quick play and visualizing all your options.

Bad design, silly AI

If you enjoy the challenge of playing tic tac toe against a toddler while always going first, this is your game.
These comments all involve playing with the doubling cube being on (the only interesting way to play backgammon).
First, the game doesn’t follow the rules in that it allows the human player to see his roll prior to deciding to double. This is unfair to the AI player. At the same time, if the AI doubles the human player, the screen that pops up totally obscures the entire board so you better have a photographic memory to decide whether your position is such that you should accept.
The above problems seem to be one’s pretty easy for the developer to fix. The AI (or lack of it) is not so easy to fix. It simply plays in such a way that, while it follows the basic rules, does so in no discernibly strategic way. With some of its pieces still on the outer board but past all my pieces, as I am bearing off, the AI will allow itself to be gammoned by using its moves for pieces in its home board instead of bringing the outer pieces home. It appears to operate entirely according to pip count as it will take a double even while blocked from reentering the board just because it’s pip count is ten ahead. Under some circumstances it will even accept doubling at the end when it is mathematically impossible for it to win.
So if it’s really important to always win, this is the backgammon game for you.

Developer Response ,

Hello, we appreciate your constructive criticism of the game design and the AI's strategy. We understand the concern about seeing the roll before deciding to double and the pop-up screen obscuring the board. We'll take these into consideration and see what improvements we can make in the future. Regarding the AI's gameplay, we're constantly working to improve its strategic ability and will take your comments into account as we make further adjustments. We thank you for the review and hope you'll give our game another chance in the future.

Definitely rigged..

UPDATE…. This game still shows favorably toward the computer… obviously others feel the exact same way… if it is designed to be the luck of the roll , then I am terribly unlucky… Quite frankly, it is unreal how unfair it appears 90% of the time…. I do not know enough of the behind the scenes…algorithms or whatever you call it… BUT something is not right! I have played tooooo many times for a very long time and everything is the same…almost predictable! Just saying…just a shame….😞

I have been playing for a while now. Although I do get doubles from time to time, it seems very rigged for the computer to always get 2 to 3 sets of doubles in the final quadrant. I have given it enough time to see if it equals out or balances out and it doesn’t. I have tried different ways of playing each game after I lose and inevitably the computer gives my opponent two and three sets of doubles in a row. It’s gotten to the point where it’s not fun anymore. I’m not a sore loser. But accept the challenge after I do lose to replay and try a different strategy. Time to move on…

Developer Response ,

Hi there, thank you for sharing your feedback with us! We understand that you feel the game favors the computer and the rolls may seem predictable or unfair at times. We want to assure you that the game is designed to provide a fair and balanced experience for all players. The dice rolls are generated randomly through an algorithm to ensure that each roll is independent of the previous ones. However, we also acknowledge that streaks or patterns may sometimes occur due to the nature of random events. The law of large numbers states that as the number of occurrences increases, the observed results tend to align with the expected probabilities. It means that over a significant number of games, the distribution of rolls will converge towards the expected probabilities, but in individual games, some unusual patterns might occur. We constantly monitor player feedback and strive to improve the game's experience. Our team is committed to providing the best possible gameplay and will continue to work on enhancing the game's mechanics.