Are you evil enough to play?

[Simon]

A few years back I found this game in the software bins at the Devonshire Mall. "Evil Genius" is a dungeon building sim that came out about 10 years ago. I have been using WINE to run it on my system. But you can play the online version FREE and through your browser! Sure they attempt to sell you on diamonds, but you can still have tons of fun without spending a dime.





These are in game pictures of my evil lair, I named it the Onyx Sanctum. Even hung my flag up in the office. "Evil Genius Online" (EGO) is a spoof of those James Bond bad guys we love. I always wanted a shark pool, chemical lab, and now I have those.

Here is the --> homepage <-- and since this runs in the browser you know it works great for Linux.

[woodsmoke]

kewl!
woodsmoke

[MoonRise]

Nice!!

[GreyGeek]

Curious, I checked the Apple Store. It's there, but the reviews are mostly negative. Big problems: can't get trade secrets, can't buy your way out of annoying videos and ads that play at startup. Must make friends to make progress but few play the Apple version. The game is designed to mine money from users, according to one reviewer.

[Simon]

Curious, I checked the Apple Store. It's there, but the reviews are mostly negative. Big problems: can't get trade secrets, can't buy your way out of annoying videos and ads that play at startup. Must make friends to make progress but few play the Apple version. The game is designed to mine money from users, according to one reviewer.

To be honest, I don't know about the Apple version. I really don't know what "trade secrets" are exactly, I don't get any ads (could be my ad blocker?) but the company who made it has put this out there mostly to promote their other software products for gaming consoles. I honestly don't know who doesn't want to get paid for their hard work? But according to the game, I can either spend $2.25 CAD on 15 gems or fill out online surveys for free gems. They start you off with some gems as many games do. All the gems benefit is to speed up tasks. I read some negative reviews too, but the game offers fair look into the original for free. The reviews I read after playing the online version sound like a bunch of whiner babies to me.

For example;

Complaint: Timed walls, this game is chock full of expensive micro-transactions that will drain your wallet (or purse) dry.
No, if you MUST speed up a task that takes 8 hours to complete then you are obviously playing far too much and need to take that break for sleep and work.

Complaint: Must upgrade your command center (which requires more items) and lockers to upgrade your minion count.
Yes, isn't just awful when a video game requires you to do something to get to the next level? So far I ask the gaming community and they send me these needed items at no cost.

Complaint: Too much experience points required between levels, making the game an absolute slog to play through.
I only started to play this weekend and after a few hours I am at level 10. This reviewer is not trying to like this game at all.

Complaint: You need to log onto facebook and install the app in order to play it. Need i say more?
This sounds like a review of Facebook and not the game.

Yes, I still prefer the old original game on CD. If you can find it, then play it through WINE. The online game (if you are on Facebook) offers you to play with or make friends and/or enemies in the game. You can sabotage your buddies lair sending in your spies once a day. This is not possible in the older game. It was designed as stand alone had some sloppy AI, which isn't much of a challenge after a while. In fact, I quickly figured out how to ninja the original system at the very start and allowed the game to run over night collecting up millions before actually getting into the meat and potatoes of the game.

I can't imagine this new version will have much more of a "shelf life" as the old one has. After some time it is bound to get redundant and will cease to amuse any player.

Have fun!

[GreyGeek]

My youngest grandson and I played Dragonvale on our iPhones. Buying gems to speed up the game or buy expensive land or dragons is the developers primary income source. The arena battles, or growing dragon food, can take 24 real time hours or more, forcing one to use gems or leave the app running in the background. How can the developers restrain from not using their app to spy and generate demographic data to sell to corporations?