Casual Gaming Review: Merge Mansion
Title of Game:
Merge Mansion (Version 1.4.1)
Developer:
Metacore Games Oy
Game Type:
Merge
General Play Loop:
Merge items to uncover different tools and specialty items you’ll need to fulfil specific tasks. For example, merging together tools until you have a screwdriver and screws to fix up the bridge in the garden.
General Review:
You are Maddie, the grand-daughter of a grandmother who needs some help cleaning up the estate. The estate is in dire need of gardening, painting, and other general clean-up activities. The grand-mother is really good at giving you only parts of the story before heading off to do something else. This makes for some interesting story-telling. And I have not felt the need to just speed through the story portions to get back to the game play. Another piece of the intriguing story comes with every level up and occasionally with the completion of an area. For example, if you fix the statue, Grandmother might give you a tantalizing snippet like “Oh yes, that was from when he had the company.” Then, she goes off to make tea while you’re working and never actually finishes the story. I do hope that there’s a payoff that makes the storytelling worth it, but I haven’t finished the game completely. I doubt that I ever will since the developers keep talking about new features and areas coming out.
The story starts in the shed where you have a few dusty boxes to empty. And then you merge items together. There are multiple merge trees that develop over time. It gets difficult to remember them sometimes. Especially when there is a rare item. I confess that I did rely on the wiki to figure out which tool box or bucket I was supposed to be merging from in order to get the blue paint in a can. I was right with my original guess, but the paint cans are rare, so I hadn’t gotten one in a while.
There is an information bar which actually tells you when you have gotten to the end of a merge chain. When you get to the end of a merge chain, the items in question will either create merge items — for example, the red tool box is the end of its chain and it produces three types of items: tools that lead to the red themed handles, screws, and paint cans — or they are the needed item themselves — for example a flower bed is an item you need for flowers. It also produces butterflies, but those productions do not require you to use energy.
This is an energy, experience, and coin based game. Every time you click on an item to produce a base item, you use energy. This means that you are either limited to the 100 energy units you can earn at a time. (2 minutes per energy unit. Which means it’s approximately three hours to rebuild the energy bar back to the top.) Or you can use rubies to buy energy. The price for energy increase for each hit on a given day. For example, the first hit of energy costs 5 rubies, but the second refill costs 10 rubies. This is not terrible as you can earn rubies in the game, but as it increases in price, the temptation to buy rubies also increases.
The coins you earn in the game can be used to buy boxes which contain items or energy briefcases (as mentioned below.) Coins also allow you to increase your inventory spaces. Each space costs more coins than the last. But it definitely gives you a target to save up for and it is a good strategic use of your coins. The higher tasks often require multiple copies of an item. This means that you can tuck three flower arrangements into your inventory while you work on the fourth in order to complete the task.
Experience is gained by merging items. Merging items to a particular level gains you a star. These stars can be combined before you turn them in, which increases the experience. It’s not exactly exponential, but there is a gain from being patient and combining the experience when you have space. Experience can be collected as soon as it’s been dropped as well. This becomes necessary when you realize you’re running out of space on the board.
Events become playable after you complete the hood ornament quest. As with all events, they are similar to, but not on the same field as the main gameplay. The events have their own experience and merge chains. And the end of an event, it provides item drops that can be used complete the main storyline. There is no separate energy bar for these events though, so you will either need to use rubies to refill your bar or stop playing the main puzzle in favor of the event.
Every day you receive a free piggy bank. (These can be merged to get better payouts.) The piggy bank provides coins which can be merged to their top tier and rubies which can be merged to their top tier.
You can also purchase an energy briefcase every day for 50 coins. This, sadly, cannot be merged. This provides a random amount of energy, but generally, at least 40 lightning bolts has been my experience. Your mileage may vary.
Overall, I really do enjoy the gameplay. The items merge fairly easily. And though there are some chains that don’t make a lot of sense — the cans that go through a transformation into a dollhouse at one point which make no sense to me — there are still hints available for most items. There is a little icon next to each item you need to create and if you’ve “discovered” the items, it will show up there. For example: to get the mop, first you need the feather duster. However, the items which generate drops have their own time-outs and it’s unclear how much time it takes for each one to regenerate. There’s a little clock icon which tracks the regeneration, but it does not make it clear how long it will actually take.
It is a game which you can walk away from. It is an actual casual game. Unlike some other games, the tasks to do not change or disappear if you don’t complete them within the day. This means that if you have five minutes, you can open up the game and merge a few items, then put it away and play later. You can take your time gathering supplies and tools to complete each objective. Also, there is no competitive advantage gained from buying rubies.
I also took a spin around the map to look at the areas which I haven’t opened yet. (Areas open according to your experience rank.) There are some very intriguing structures on the estate which I can’t wait to get to and learn about.
Are there micropayments?:
Yes, for rubies. Rubies can pay for energy or for needed items. Note: Most items can also be purchased with coins, it just depends on the day. What is available in the “shop” changes each day. I believe it traces generally to your experience level.
Are there ads? (Can I pay to get rid of them?):
There are no ads in this game. Though I do expect there will be ads for ruby deals occasionally. The minimal intrusion is something that I really appreciate.
