Players deliberately lower their trophy count prior to the frequent events in order to be matched with players who have lower stats, which makes it impossible for the lower ranked players to win. These lower ranked players lose valuable event tickets fighting players they literally cannot beat due to differences in the players stats/equipment. People do this by joining regular matches over and over and over again, quitting immediately, lowering their trophy count. There is no penalty for the players that do this, even though it wastes honest players’ time. Banning them from matchmaking for 15 minutes after they leave a match within the first 30 seconds and then an hour or more if they do it again on the same day would do a lot to solve this issue. Frankly it’s embarrassing that anyone would waste so much time de-ranking themselves just to get in-game rewards that ultimately dont change the gameplay; if you play the game normally, you get matched with players who have similar stats and the playing field is relatively close to equal. Tbh this game would be better if there were no stats and every match was an equal playing field, but that’s another matter entirely.

This is definitely a fun game to play and you can tell Zillion Wales put in a lot of time developing it. However, if you play regularly or want to get to the higher leagues, especially diamond or pro, then you will likely have to spend money to compete with the top players who spend a lot of money to upgrade their heroes. For forging artifacts, they will also not let you choose which artifact or hero you are forging the artifact for, but they can give you a artifact you already possess. The really powerful artifacts that all of the good players have also cost around 15,000 gems per artifact (it costs $50 to obtain 12,000 gems, which would not be enough for even one of those artifacts). Furthermore, even if you buy premium, you still have to watch several 30 second ads or use gems to open chests (usually paying for premium on any site or app gets rid of ads). Passive skills is another way they try to get you to spend money, as you can only upgrade passive skills with gold and runes. They say passive skills are permanent skills that every hero uses, so I think they should be determined by how many games you have played and/or won, not by how much gold you can spend. Overall, it is a fun game to play, but you can usually tell which games you are going to lose based on your opponents’ hero and artifacts (which flash up right before the game starts).

I originally gave this game 4 stars, but after playing more I’ve found the AI to be a complete hinderance to just enjoying the game. The computer knows INSTANTLY where your units are going and how many are being sent, this is evident because it will not send a single unit if it knows I haven’t sent enough to take the point. The moment the number of infantry I send exceeds the amount holding a point, it will send reinforcements. It’s infuriating, because this creates multiple loops during gameplay that are completely unenjoyable to manage. I need to send a small fake squad from a point to bait the computer, then once it’s answered with reinforcements, I need to change the focus of attack to another point, the computer will compensate, then I must pivot again, and again, and again. I’ve literally gotten the game stuck in a loop where they wont stop sending every single unit that spawns - only because it knows the numbers are in it’s favor. I clicked and sent every unit for about 2-3min until it had finally widdled down my numbers. It’s possible to have fun playing on expert because all you’re doing is basically memorizing what decisions the computer makes and exploiting that knowledge. Please fix your game, it’s not fun to play when the deck is so wildly stacked against you. If I can’t see the total number of units the AI has on a point, then it shouldn’t be able to see mine either.

Mushroom Wars was one of the most unique and original indie games I had ever played on the PS3. The gameplay in MW2 is still solid, but the pay to win mechanics ruin the experience. I’ve played a lot of mobile games with similar issues, but this game has the most predatory monetization schemes I’ve ever seen. It’s really sad to see such a great game ruined by greed. As much as I still love the gameplay, here’s no way I could recommend this game to anyone in its current state. They go so far as to offer a battle pass with the usual free and premium rewards, but they lock you out of ever being able to reach the later free rewards by putting them on a timer that makes it literally impossible (there’s even a pop-up message in-game that tells you this). And if you thought you could at least have fun playing the campaign while you wait on timers for multiplayer, that’s too bad because they lock that behind a paywall also. I almost never leave reviews for games, but this one has surprised me at every turn with more and more desperate attempts to squeeze money out of you. I’m not at all against paying for good games and I’ve been happily paying full price for them, as well as buying the premium pass for the games I play the most. Obviously, developers need to keep their companies operating, but it’s pathetic how hard they try to force people into spending more and more (especially for titles like this that require much less than full-sized games).