Pokémon GO in IOS

★★★★★

★★★★★ Far fallen from its heyday

What once brought the world together, and remained for a long time as a way to get out of the house (for those who were already capable of doing so), Pokemon Go has become a shameless cash grab that has and continues to drive away longtime fans and newcomers alike. No longer is it possible to do everything in game without spending real money: once, spending money was simply a fast pass, but nothing was entirely hidden behind paywalls. Now, entire events, Pokemon, and items are locked away from those not willing to shell out cash for a company frantically grabbing at every penny they can scrape together before they lose the license to a once phenomenal game. That’s not even getting into the decrease in quality of Pokemon within the game. Dozens upon dozens of people will plan, gather, and yes, pay, to raid a powerful Pokemon and be rewarded with a subpar Pokemon of their own. (And there’s no exaggeration on “dozens and dozens” as certain types of Pokemon raids now require upwards of 40 people to even make a decent attempt to defeat - ostracizing people in rural areas, disabled people, or even just anyone who doesn’t have the sheer amount of time, resources, and people to do these raids. And with less and less people seeing the point in playing, that number continues to grow.) The current state of the game is a crying shame, and a mockery of what it once was, and I can only hope that someday it bounces back.

★★★★★ Used to be great…

So there are a lot of these going around now, but I figure I’ll add to it just in case it can help change anything since it seems like the only thing Niantic hears is press or money. I played the beta. I played day 1. I left and came back a few times. I played during the pandemic. I have seen this game evolve over time. Some changes were good, some were bad. The game went from being able to play for fun, to having a pressure to spend money to play, to being required to spend money to play to get things in the game (like shiny mew??). All of this progressed over time until we get here, a point where the game is unplayable unless you pay money or actively avoid 90% of the features that were added and not removed. This game has gone from one that I would happily put money into due to the enjoyment, connectivity, and socialization I got out of it, but now? Now I don’t plan on playing it until a lot of these issues get fixed. It costs then nothing to keep Covid protections in game. It costs them nothing to allow for remote raiding, especially for remote players. It costs them nothing to make the game better in ways that truly matter and have already been done. Instead, they add stickers. Instead, they remove the ability to get legendaries unless you live in an area with a decently sized player base. Instead, they push people out while trying to claim inclusitivity because it doesn’t match their finances.

★★★★★ Captivating anti-consumer game

I'll start with the positives, it's a very immersive game that is rewarding (sometimes) to invest your time in. That being said, it is wildly impractical for the average person. As many others have said, unless you have consistent and close people to play the game with, you're out of luck. Unless you have lots of time on your hands and no other obligations, you're out of luck. I can understand the need for everything not to be so easy that it isn't rewarding, that is a huge problem that videogames have now. There still doesn't need to be price hikes on remote raids, or increased pokemon aggression (and WOW what a bad decision on Niantic's part), or ticket paywalls to get desirable pokemon/items, or any of the other anti-player changes to the game. It becomes less about skill and investment and more about how much free time you have and how much money to spend. I'd rather pay a one-time price to play the game than deal with the nonsensical things that you run into playing this game. It could definitely use more polishing as well, even now with the game having been out for so, so long it still runs terribly. Lag, glitches, and general clunkiness all around don't feel like a well-made game. To wrap it all up, as many others have said, the new TOS are unethical in EVERY WAY. If you haven't downloaded the game yet, don't. If you haven't started playing it, don't. Don't even entertain the idea of supporting this company.

★★★★★ Lots of Bugs and very slow progression

I really love pokemon, and honestly the game is fun at times. But there are a lot of issues. 1. In pvp, there is a bug in the game where if you get hit by a charge move and you have one ready to go, it will sometimes just throw that move out without you tapping anything. It is very annoying and has lost me many games as I would try to farm a pokemon down and it’ll just toss my move out and waste all the energy I have accumulated. It does not happen everytime, but it happens more often than it should 2. The game is VERY hard to grind. Especially if you live in a less populated area such as myself, I find that a lot of the time I am running out of potions and/or pokeballs. The nearest urban area for me is more than an hour away and there is only a couple pokestops along with one gym near my area. 3. The system to get pokecoins is very tedious. You can only get 50 a day and to upgrade storage or item space it takes 4 days worth of coins for each, and thats only if you manage to max out for the day. The item space is not a problem for me as I actually need MORE items, but the pokestorage is a huge problem as I am consistently having to dump what little coins I have into the storage. Because of this, I have no coins left to buy remote raid passes, meaning I can’t even get legendary pokemon unless the raid appears at my local gym, and then I have to hope there is enough people to beat it.

★★★★★ Please fix this

I’ve had this app since 2023. In my 2 (almost 3) years of owning this app, I’ve not had a single day of good luck. I did delete it for a while and redownloaded about a month ago and the same pattern continues. Additionally, I’ve had the same quest to catch 10 Pokémon using daily adventure incense for longest time and I use my incense every single day. I’ve caught 1. I’ve caught every single Pokémon who shows up while I’m using incense and in half an hour out of every single day, I’ve caught one Pokémon using those incense. I hate how Pokémon can’t be traded again even after a month and I hate how anything over ≈ 800 CP takes 1M stardust to trade. I hate that pokeballs don’t regenerate within a certain amount of time (ie. If you’re out of pokeballs you get a new one in like 7 minutes). And lastly, I hate that there is nothing to do without Wi-Fi. I have no service on my phone and can’t afford a cell plan or a new phone. Because of this, I can’t spin poke stops (despite my 10+ quests to do so) or participate in raids or gyms (again, despite 10+ quests). Pokémon Go is for the walking man. As such, not every person has unlimited data. If Pokémon go could accept this and incorporate something without Wi-Fi, I’d be playing significantly more. I will still be playing because, as said in the jingle, you’ve gotta catch them all, but maybe if Pokémon go fixed some of this, I’d spend more time (and probably more money) on their app. Thank you.

★★★★★ Account Issues

First off, I’m a huge Pokémon fan! Have been all my life. I got super far in my original account but then it wasn’t letting me buy stuff in the shop with my coins I had. So I figured I’d log out and go back in. Now it’s saying my password isn’t correct which I know it is. But then I requested an email to change it. They said it was sent but I never got it. I tried retrying and it said the link is active for 48 hours. Does that mean I’ll get the email within 48 hours or I have 48 hours? I tried using a made up email just to see what would happen and they said there’s no account on there with that email. Just wanted to be sure the email wasn’t a problem. So why is it not allowing me to change my password by sending me an email?? Also I made a second one just for the meantime but on this one it won’t allow me progress with egg hatching and/or buddy Pokémon getting candies. I turned all settings on for allowing my location and all that. My battery saving mode isn’t on either. Aside from that, I can’t add friends. It said that it won’t load and to try again later. All I’m saying is that on my original account, everything was okay. I was even playing earlier this morning. Is there anything that can be done? I can’t even really get the full experience because the events have to do with my buddy getting candies and also hatching eggs. What can be done?? I’m just upset because I put so much time and effort into this all for this to happen...

★★★★★ Games keeps getting worse

Not worth wasting money on anymore unless you already know other players. In addition to making stuff like Community Days worse and more expensive, every update now seems to be focused on making the game unplayable for solo players. Which is stupid and unnecessary because OF COURSE I would be playing with friends if I could. The problem is that I don’t know anyone else who plays anymore. So by doing things like jacking up the prices of remote raid passes, replacing regular raids with in-person only raids, and adding a bunch of research that requires other players to complete, you’re not encouraging me to play more with other people. You’re just being petty and punishing me for not having other people to play with. I haven’t been able to level up in almost a year because even though I have the XP, the level requirement includes doing a bunch of trades. I haven’t been able to complete this special research about doing stuff in parties for over a year because I can’t form a party. The last straw was this timed research where you choose between Candela and Arlo, only they don’t tell you upfront that if you choose Candela, you just can’t complete it unless you have someone to trade with. And this is their Valentine’s Day week research where they’re essentially mocking me for not having any friends who play Pokemon GO. Well, how about I just stop giving you money altogether then? How’s that? Happy Valentine’s Day, Niantic, you lost a longtime player.