Doodle God Universe

Quality mixed with frustration

The Doodle God series has always been this way. On the one hand, getting a new combination is satisfying and seeing it reflected in the globe is a magical experience. On the other, after you’ve made all the reasonable guesses, you’re left with either using a hint, or going through every possible permutation of every new element you have unlocked. Worse, the game will periodically unlock recipes from old ingredient combinations, meaning that just because you tried a combo half an hour ago doesn’t mean you don’t have to try it again. All in all, the game is unique and entertaining enough to justify playing, but it’s far less a puzzle than it is an exercise in mashing things together. Finally, the apple arcade version is graphically incredible as you fill out the globe… but it’s also incomplete. Though if you’re already a subscriber, you might as well give it a shot.

Was fun for the maybe 20 minutes I could get it to run

After that, the app crashed and when I tried to reopen, I got stuck in a loading menu. Tried deleting and redownloading the app several times, but every time I would just get stuck loading. I tried playing with and without wifi, turning off Bluetooth mode, and letting it load for more than 10 minutes, all to no avail. My only guess as to what could be the problem is that I received multiple notifications when opening the app that my iCloud storage was full. I didn’t really have any intention of storage for a game I hadn’t played, and if that’s what’s causing the issue, that’s very frustrating. Additionally, going to this developer’s support page was kind of bizarre. The page was mostly barren, only a “check ticket status” option. There was now FAQ, and the only way to submit a request for support was to create an account. I did so, but was unable to access my account until confirming my email. I never received a confirmation email, and there was no way to ask them to resend. I’m currently updating my phone, which hopefully may solve the problem, but the experience has been frustrating.

A Bug?

I rarely write reviews honestly, but whenever playing Evolution+, I cannot get past number 348. I can’t use hints either because whenever I tap one, it blacks out and the countdown to receive a new hint starts. I also think it’s insane that you only received one new hint of each kind no matter how long it’s been since you opened the app. I opened the game after work and had only 3 hints, one for each type. I like the game, but I am dropping one star for the glitch and another because I think they should give you more than one hint. I’ll change my rating if these issues are fixed. The game is unplayable to me until they are. I already played through all the quests, so no need to reply and ask me if I have done the quests, developers…because I’ve noticed they do that crap a lot, and do not ask me to change my rating either. I will if they fix the problem (I noticed they tell people to change the ratings too in their unhelpful responses 🙄)

Solid Doodle God experience.

Overall pretty good. I did notice a few of the original elements such as those pertaining to Alcohol and Tobacco appear to have been cut, probably to keep this game more family-friendly compared to the original. The voiceover almost sounds like a Morgan Freeman impression (unless, against all odds, it is Morgan Freeman himself, but I’m strongly leaning toward impression here), which is fitting as he played God in Bruce/Evan Almighty. It’s also really cool that said voiceover has redubbed all the original success / failure lines from the original game when you achieve / flub a new combination, respectively. Rated 4 out of 5 stars for some of the elements from the original game being missing and not every element appears on the planet when you make it, but if I could give 4.5 out of 5, I would, because this game is worth it.

Cool concept, I guess

This is an interesting idea but often ends up being boring (trying every possible combination) and annoying (when you finally find the combo and it’s something you would have never found without brute-forcing). Sure, hints are available, but if you're like me you try not to use them much to keep in the “spirit of the game”. Maybe I'm just weird like that. Anyway, I’ve seen reviews that talk about this, but there are other things I haven't seen mentioned (1) The cast of characters on the icons is wonderfully diverse, but whoever made the planet view decided everyone should be white. Why?!? (2) The english is very broken in the challenges, at least the two that I tried. It damages the atmosphere of a “smart” game (which I think is what the devs are going for), as well as gives the message to the player that these updates were thrown together without much quality control. I suggest you look elsewhere for iterations on this concept.

Major let down

Let me start by saying that I *love* the original Doodle God games. I rarely purchase apps, and I bought 6/8 of the originals. This version, however, is so disappointing.. First, PLEASE make the option to stop seeing the planet animation available immediately instead of 10 elements in. It's so incredibly nauseating. On that topic, an accessibility option to stop the groups from wiggling up and down would also be a really good idea. (I tried to find this option in settings.. if I've missed it and you tell me where to fix it, I will adjust the rating for this portion of the review.) I'm also very disappointed that the really useful upgrades are no longer available. "Elements without pairs," "Show final elements," and "Disable repetition" were so helpful, especially if you didn't want too much of a hint. "Disable repetition" was SUCH a time saver, and having read some of the negative reviews, seems as though it would be very appreciated.

Decent Remake of a classic genre of Games

This game is a wonderful, beautiful remake of a game in which I used to play years ago. For all those who have played Doodle God, Doodle Devil, or Little Alchemy, this is a great game as it adds wonderful graphics and designs with many of the important elements being added to the world once you’ve discovered them. This type of game is not for everyone as depending on your experience with the game, the game can go very slow or very fast (the game definitely speeds up once you’ve discovered Humans as they are able to interact with almost every group of elements, but that can be expected) Due to it being an Apple Arcade game, it does seem more child friendly than it’s past versions so I won’t keep my hopes up for a Doodle Devil remake.

Misattributes quotes repeatedly

In general, it’s a Doodle God game. You should already know what to expect for gameplay. You mash ingredients together hoping to unlock the next ingredient. Nothing new there. The new thing is that some of these things will “spawn” on your planet so you can visibly see the changes you make as you progress. Pretty cool! What annoys me is that when you unlock a recipe you get a blurb or quote and in this game the quote is often COMPLETELY misattributed, or is just labelled “proverb”. This is especially common when they quote a Bible verse. Instead of quoting the Bible it’s changed slightly and they just label it “Proverb”. For example, “You must separate the wheat from the chaff” is attributed as a generic “proverb”. Despite the fact that it’s VERY well known to have been part of Jesus’ parables. This is minor, but starts to feel intentional as it happens OVER and OVER again.

Fun, but Lacking Features & Content (comeback later)

I have not been following this game series and haven’t heard of previous titles. I like playing new games on Apple Arcade, so I was very excited when this one came out. The images and gameplay, along with the learning, are very remarkable. However, I feel like I’m missing something; my Quest and Puzzles remain locked. Whoever makes this game doesn’t provide the ability to send emails without hunting down their contact info, and there is a push for me to use other apps/sites to speak with community members, which seems shady. As a new game (which is how I’m rating it), I’m disappointed with the lack of content and guidance. I’m sure months or years from now, this game will have all the bells and whistles that the marketing hype eluded, but this game today doesn’t rise to the level of its potential.

Cant access evolution+

I’ve been waiting for the update on this game since I beat it a couple of months ago. I finally see that the game has been updated. I open the game and try to go into evolution+ and it says I’ve only discovered 100 out of 138 elements. I find that strange because I was pretty sure I beat the game, so I go back to the regular evolution and see that I do have all 138 elements. I clicked on the last evolution and it brought me to a screen with other peoples stars and tells me congratulations you’ve discovered all the elements, now go play evolution+ to discover more. I looked everywhere on the screen and there was no way to exit out back to the main menu. I tried exiting out of the game but that just reset the whole process. I would like to play but I don’t know what else to do or what I’m missing.

There are tons of new updates coming to the service this week, with remastered titles like Angry Birds Reloaded and Doodle God Universe.

Pocket Gamer Thu Aug 05 2021