By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Anyone waffling on whether returning to play Niantic Lab’s Pokémon GO will find the latest add-ons worthwhile. The latest updates finally give players a sense of dealing with threats as Ash did in the anime. Unlike the comedy antics of Jessie and James of Team Rocket, the brutes in the augmented reality game are not easy to defeat. If there’s ever a time to create a motivation to keep on playing, it’s to find and grind those weaker pocket monsters into candies to power up the better ones.
The previous add-on’s were window-dressing. They offered no substance. The player vs player option was very lacklustre because all that mattered was who had the fastest finger (and virtual creature with the best move set) to defeat opponents. The higher level raids simply depended on being on a local Discord group to coordinate just for the sake of candies and bragging. Even finding more of your favourite critter with the current radar can be tedious. I’m still waiting for an improved version to filter results than to see if rare Pokémon are nearby.
I monitored all the announcements to find a reason to return to regularly playing. It never happened until now.
The Team Rocket leaders (Sierra, Arlo and Cliff ) are tough. I battled the basic grunts, and really had no reason beyond the first 20 to keep on going. Not even my 100IV level 40 best of the best can easily knock out their gladiators in one go. The battle system doesn’t share the same dynamics as with PvP fights. My only complaint is in how Pokemon can not dodge (and avoiding damage)! This added feature can make a huge difference in these confrontations.
A lot of heals and revives will get used in the process to find the best team. As a result, players have to wander around to spin stops to find those salves. Eventually, players will have to chat between one another (or go online) to find strategies that work.
After a long three year and three month wait, Niantic finally has a game.
No one can find taking down Team Rocket or the organization easy and right away. This villainous organization is here for good and the rewards are terrific when you can best them. This time, they won’t be blasting off right away like those Community day prizes.
