App Army Assemble: Incidence - billiards or golf?

Incidence is a rather attractive minimal strategy game which sort-of mixes putt-putt golf with billiards.

The idea is that you only have four shots to make it to the hole at the end of the level. The catch here is that your ball only bounces six times, so you'd better make each bounce count.

However, is Incidence as good as it looks? It was deemed sadly underwhelming in its review as it said, "There are moments of brilliance here, but they're just that - moments. And all too often they're followed by an agonising and far from entertaining slog."

We love seeking second opinions here at Pocket Gamer and that's exactly what our hardened App Army is here for. Let's see what they made of it.

Paul Manchester

I like a simple puzzler, but this one seems to lack any soul (or music, or significant sound effects). When playing on an iPhone the view is consistently obscured by fingers and most of the skill seems to be playing finger twister to aim without simultaneously hampering your view of the direction indicator. It's also frustratingly easy to accidentally change the aim whilst releasing your finger from the screen, which is no good for a game reliant on pin-point accuracy. Overall, I played for around 15 minutes but felt that it was 10 minutes more than required.

Edit: I gave another try up to level 50. It got better with the controls, but was still a very dry experience. It reminds me of Vvvvvv but without the charm.

Glenn Goldberg

I have to disagree with Paul here. Incidence hits that "just one more try" note for me. It combines mini-golf and slingshot games into a nifty little physics puzzler. Granted, the aiming mechanic can occasionally be a bit twitchy, but I rarely made a bad shot because I couldn't aim. I made bad shots because I couldn't aim. The game doesn't need music or significant sound effects, in my opinion. Great level design and head scratching puzzles make Incidence a must-try.

Chanandler

I like the concept and the implementation. The game is simple and relaxing, to a point. I think it needs maybe a few more options -something like a 'hints' option where you could buy aim assists would be good. Overall though, it is pretty fun and not too hard on the brain.

It was weird breezing through 17 levels in about 15 minutes and then hitting a wall at 18. I must have tried that level about 50 times before switching off.

Joseph Mark Maceiko

I feel that Incidence is a solid game. I admit, I wasn't impressed at first, but the game grew on me. I ended up spending a decent amount of time on it and plan to play it again.

The gameplay mechanics are easy to pick up and I had no difficulty playing the game. The graphics are minimal, which is what the developer planned, and the lack of music is okay with me. The game starts off easy, but does become challenging in later levels. I almost quit a few times due to continued failures, but persevered and felt a sense of accomplishment when completing some of the more difficult levels.

There is some replay to the levels since you can try to reach the goals in less shots, and overall, I think the game is solid and fun to play. I would recommend it if you like physics-based puzzlers.

Chanandler (2.0)

I went back and tried level 18 again, and after another umpteen goes I finally beat it. Then made it to level 35 in the next 15 minutes. I definitely think the levels could do with a little balancing but as others have said, the sense of accomplishment when you do beat that particularly hard level is very high. I'm going to keep going and see how far I can get.

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