Games worth discovering

Wandering Ark is a fun gacha that doesn't resort to cheap pay-to-win tricks

2K View2024-01-06

SHOULD I PLAY THE WANDERING ARK?

Give this one a go if you're into gacha games, slingshot mechanics, PVP, or post-apocalyptic settings. I'm usually very suspicious about gacha titles and the all too frequent pay-to-win strategies that keep the game from being fun without. Luckily, The Wandering Ark was consistently entertaining and has generous drops. Best of all, I didn't have to pay anything!

TIME PLAYED

I'm around four hours into The Wandering Ark and have unlocked several different game modes, like Nuclear Garden, a monster-collecting mode, as well as a deathmatch arena-style match called Captain's Battle. I've also been able to upgrade my characters and boost my roster with some cool heroes.

WHAT'S AWESOME ABOUT THE WANDERING ARK?

• The slingshot battle system. Aiming and launching my hero into a group of enemies was a lot of fun. Honestly, it took more strategy than I initially thought it would. I had to consider enemy formations, special skills, and the best areas to launch my character to get the widest array of damage. There was an auto-combat feature, but it's these awesome slingshot mechanics that make The Wandering Ark such a blast to play. I don't know why anyone would want to sit on the sidelines and let the computer do all of the work.

• The blended animation. The Wandering Ark blends pixelated art and hand-drawn animation to create an interesting and unique post-apocalyptic world. I liked the strange character designs, which included a cool chick with a giant robot arm and a mercenary with a mohawk and a gnarly gas mask. Artistry like this really brought out the world and made me more interested in collecting the various characters.

• Competitive PVP action. Switching up the gameplay and testing my skills against some living breathing humans is always nice. It didn't take too long to find matches either, and though I'm still a long way from actually being skilled enough to whip some ass in Captain's Battle, I liked having an extra incentive for upgrading and building up my heroes.

• The gacha drops. So far, I've been able to get some great heroes, and I haven't paid a thing. There was never a time I had to wait for energy or something like that to reroll. I'm not sure if The Wandering Ark will stay this way, but right now, the lack of an aggressive monetization system is really encouraging.

• Pokémon styled monster creator. I have no idea how this fits into the narrative at all, but in The Wandering Ark, I could raise these little Pokémon styled monsters that could add bonuses to my characters. Does it make sense? Nope! Is it awesome? Hell yeah.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT THE WANDERING ARK?

• The weird plot. Traveling around the post-apocalyptic world in a mobile ark and getting into fights is a cool premise, but aside from this, the narrative isn't anything worth investing in. It was a bit hard to follow, and I wasn't really interested in any of the character's personal stories.

• The sound. The Wandering Ark has decent voice acting and tunes, but they randomly cut out on my device. Don't know if that's a bug with the game or my device, but switching from voice-acted scenes to scenes that were text-only was jarring.