Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Look at the icon for this game. See the pins (or rods or whatever you want to call them)? I got this game because while I was playing another game I was shown an ad for this game, where the idea was to pull pins to make things happen, and you want to make the good thing happen instead of the bad thing. As that kind of game, which was how it was advertised to me and thus how I'm rating it, this product earns a rating of zero stars, but I can't give it that, so I begrudgingly give it one star. I've played nearly 400 levels of this game, and been presented with only half a dozen or so mini-levels. Most of the mini-levels aren't even the pin-pulling mini-levels. So, if you're here thinking you're going to be pulling pins, you are sorely mistaken. Adding pin-pulling to the game is a marketing ploy, pure and simple. Having even a couple of pin-pulling mini-levels in the game is enough to deny claims of false advertising, perhaps, but that doesn't make the practice an ethical one. It is unethical to the core. Some might say the game is described on the web site as a match-three game, and that is a bit clearer on the desktop version of the web site than in the app store on the tablet, where I downloaded the game. I've seen ads for other games that advertise this pin-pulling feature, and downloaded some. None of them had me pulling pins when I began play. I uninstalled every one of them after playing for perhaps thirty minutes and not seeing any pin-pulling. I kept playing Homescapes in hope of seeing more pin-pulling mini-levels, but it's been probably 100 levels since I've seen one. So now it's uninstalled too. Even if you're here for a match-three game, Homescapes is designed to sucker you into paying real money for in-game items to get you past the ridiculously difficult levels. What makes some of these levels so difficult is the extremely low number of moves allowed in which to attain the level's objective. You're allowed to start the level with bonus items such as bombs, rockets, planes, and globes that do special things to clear lots of items in one move, but when you select these items to start a level with, they're placed in the worst possible positions on the level to give you any help, and sometimes they mess up an arrangement of pieces designed by the developers to get the level started. So you're better off not selecting any bonus items to start most of the levels. But you need them to have any chance at clearing the level. Thing is, sometimes the bonus items fall in just the right place to be helpful. So the idea is that you'll want to keep selecting them each time you play, and when you run out, you'll spend real money to buy more. I could keep going on about how this game is designed to make you need to spend money to keep making progress. Even if you were to spend money on bonus items, there's no guarantee they will help. As a brain game, Homescapes fails to impress me. You need luck to win, and "luck" in an app is computer programming masquerading as randomness, which can be easily weighed for you or against you without your ever realizing it, because you can't see the source code. Playing Homescapes is basically an exercise in patience and waiting for "luck" to give you opportunities you can leverage towards winning, and having the in-game resources you'll need at the end of the game to finish it off, because on many levels you won't start with enough moves to win. There were many times I almost finish the level, getting within one or two pieces, and at that point, the temptation to do what is necessary to clear those last pieces is great, especially knowing that it is within your grasp if you're just willing to pay. I'm not against developers of games being paid for their work. But this in-app purchasing isn't for me. Make me watch ads. Charge me a flat upfront fee if you want, but then the game had better be what you have led me to believe it is. Highly recommend that you avoid this game if you expect to be pulling pins.