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It's free, but at what cost? Strange Hill is a cool adventure thriller with too many ads

4K View2023-10-09

Strange Hill

8.5

ScienceCartoonSci-fiActionPvECharacter CustomizationAdventureSpace

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Strange Hill is a story-driven adventure game with a lot of great ideas. You play as a young boy that rescues a talking robot that recently fell from the sky. Before long, he's fighting zombie rabbits, jumping through the sky, and uncovering incredibly weird secrets. It's a fun premise that feels straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, but I felt like my experience was constantly being interrupted by ads.

Ads are par for the course in free mobile games, but the ads in Strange Hill are really intrusive. There were times when ads played without any warning, and they startled me so much they basically felt like a jump scare. I also had to sit through ads every time I got attacked by rabbits or screwed up a platforming section. The controls are a little clunky, so trying to figure things out and get around was extremely frustrated. After sitting through dozens of ads, it was hard to motivate myself to keep playing.

What really sucks is that the constant ads aren't the only form of monetization in the game; it's also packed with microtransactions. I felt like I was constantly being pressured to spend my money on something, whether it was coins, crystals, or healing items. Of course, I could get around these purchases by watching ads, but that was a tough sell when I was already being subjected to an onslaught of ads.

And while the in-game store has lots of items for sale, I couldn't just pay a fee for an ad-free experience. The ads are baked into the experience, and they basically ruin what could have been a really fun game. Strange Hill has a fun cast of characters, and the puzzles are pretty solid. There were just so many ads that I never really felt like I could relax and enjoy the game.

Hopfully, Strange Hill switches up its monetization strategy in the future. Toning down the ads or giving players the option of upgrading their account would make the game substantially better. I can tell that a lot of love and care went into Strange Hill, but it's so desperate to suck money out of players that it's hard to appreciate the game for what it is.