Wordscapes 12+

This game I’ve had for several years now, it’s honestly one of the only games that doesn’t eventually become boring and even though it’s got a basic concept, there’s so many little things that make it great. It has to be said, that if you play for a few months and are still hooked, it’s definitely worth getting the no ads thing since it’s a cheap one time purchase, but even if you don’t, they don’t come on often enough to be too annoying, so I applaud the developers for that. Second, the game IS primarily single player, but when you get to a certain point you can join teams, and compete against other teams in weekly tournaments. You also get a team chat which is pretty nice, and some really high playing teams have like real life email chains or WhatsApp chats and you can make real friends that way. Also there are events throughout the week that let you earn cool portraits for your avatar, or butterflies that don’t really have a use but are pretty and you can name them stupid things once you upgrade them to the max level. Overall, the game is entertaining, has a broad spectrum of things to do, and it isn’t a money trap, all you need is skill and logic, and if you begin with none, I guarantee you Wordscapes will increase your proportions of both.

I love this game and play it often. However, there are many things that could be improved. For instance, the dictionary of words this app uses is strangely inconsistent. The game allows you play certain slang/abbreviations such as ‘exec’ and ‘repo’ but there is no reliability about these types of words. The word ‘cred’ is not valid, for example. I don’t understand how they decide which informal/improper words are allowed and which aren’t. Also, the word ‘verde’ is playable but ‘bleu’ is not. ‘Yin’ is valid but ‘yang’ is not.

My biggest problem with this app is the fact that I have paid actual money so that I don’t get ads, but despite that fact, I still get banner ads on the bottom of the screen constantly. There is always an ad there and it often features flashing/distracting imagery or contains inappropriate themes. When I paid to get rid of ads, I paid to get rid of all ads. There was never any clear statement that paying to remove ads would only work for pop ups. This is extremely misleading and unfair. It is unacceptable to provide the option of paying legitimate currency to go ad-free and then not fulfilling that promise. Ad-free means ad-free. I have reached out to Wordscapes customer service several times about this matter and have been ignored every time. At this point, I want a refund if they’re going to keep putting advertisements in when I’ve specifically paid money to avoid that.

So far I really enjoy Wordscapes. I’m on level 1356. So far, I’m familiar with the vast majority of the words. I especially like that the words are not rare and unusual. If they were, I would not play. The backgrounds are pretty. However, there are several things that clutter the screen. As someone else mentioned, a " coins full " message keeps showing, with an option to buy the coins you have already earned. I won’t do that. It’s annoying. If the words ever get so bizarre that I can’t solve them, I will quit. There are other pictures on the screen and icons you can earn, but they are confusing and useless to me, so I ignore them. Also, it's too easy for my finger to accidentally tap on the “help” clues that cost far too many coins. I don’t use them intentionally, and it’s very annoying when I accidentally tap on one and lose a hundred or more coins. It’s easy to look up help on the internet if you are stuck For me, though, if I ever find that I have to look up words, I will quit. I don’t mind using a clue once in a while, but the clues cost way too many coins, compared with other games I’ve played. All in all though, the game works well on my iPad 4th generation now that I updated to the newest iOS version.