App Army Assembles - Did our community get its head around VMOD?
The App Army has their buttons pushed
VMOD is a simple, elegant puzzle game about pushing buttons and finding connections between them. It looks gorgeous, and it tickles your brain from time to time as well.
But what do we know? We're just some fools running a website about mobile games. So we decided to give our community of mobile gaming fanatics, the App Army, their hands on the game as well.
You can read their reviews below, but we know what you really want - your own chance of getting the best and latest games for absolutely naught beyond giving us a review.
Well you can! Just join our App Army over on Facebook (make sure to answer the short questions given to you!) and each week you'll have a shot at playing a big game of that week.
And better yet, you can chat about mobile games with other fans of the platform, make some friends, and get some wonderful, stimulating conversation in your life.
Sound good? Then go join the App Army! And come right back to read the reviews of VMOD!
Dries Pretorius - iPad Air
VMOD looks to be in the same class as Klocki, Push, Up Left Out, and the brilliant Eloh. I really enjoy this school of games, and while VMOD is a noble effort, it ticks only the least important box of the three essential factors - intuitive interface - with the lack of an Undo button weighing on that achievement.
The second factor is a language of logic which is gradually introduced and extrapolated on to create elaborate and complex problems. VMOD's language of logic is never quite clear, and the temptation to brute force solutions is more likely to yield a positive outcome than attempting to glean the logic through struggle and repetition.
The third factor is progression of concept. Klocki stands out for me as a game that consistently took me by surprise - just as you think you have got the hang of how to apply the language, the context flips in a new direction, and you have to adapt your logic.
VMOD doesn't quite stick either of these - if the puzzles couldn't be brute forced, it could be classified as enigmatic, for a unique audience of masochists, but as it stands, it is a weak entry into a well-established genre of mobile puzzlers.
1
Jojó Reis - iPad Pro
I played a few hours - the game is a puzzler and with difficult challenges where it requires great concentration to win.
The soundtrack and visuals are very simple and cool. It is a good game to play anywhere and to kill time with. I liked it!
2
Paul Manchester - iPhone SE
Dull, repetitive, uninspired... those are the highlights.
There really isn't anything here that hasn't been done to death already, and certainly nothing has been added to make this stand out. The game is reasonably polished and looks nice enough, but beyond that I found it difficult to stick with and didn't get that 'one more go' feeling at any point.
Some of the puzzles I found a little frustrating, leading to more guesswork than actual logic being applied. Not a game I recommend unless you're a diehard fan of the genre.
3
Pierpaolo Morgante - iPhone 6S
Honestly, I found it pretty boring. I wouldn’t spend money to get it, since it is just a(nother) puzzle game like many others on the App Store that you can get for free.
I played through all the levels, and I didn’t find one that is challenging enough. I had a hard time with a couple of them, but I solved them just by guessing, not with any actual strategy. It has good graphics, but the soundtrack is not noteworthy.
I don’t think this is a good quality for this kind of game... It is not a game that I recommend.
4
Bruno Ramalho - iPhone X
First, I must say that the game has a nice interface with great graphics and animations, and the haptic feedback works very well to make us "feel" the game.
The game itself is not new in terms of mechanics - it's like the years old Lights Out game, and there are loads of games like this on the App Store.
There is something new in VMOD in the way that, from level to level, a new type of connection appears between the various buttons, or even a new button appears that does things differently, which makes us wonder how they work, forcing us to try them out to see how they all influence each other.
It has a low number of puzzles to solve, and I found myself many times with no incentive to think about the solution and just taking guesses pressing buttons to force my way to the next level.
It's a pity because the game looks really good, but it didn't grab my attention like so many other puzzle games do.
5
Mark Abukoff - iPhone XS
This puzzler looks great and sounds great but is, after a very short time, a study in boredom and frustration.
I’m reasonably good at puzzles like this, but after a very short time I was simply trying anything to solve and get onto the next puzzle. Where there should have been a logical method to solving them, there simply was none.
I enjoy puzzlers as a rule, and maybe if this was a free trial I’d be willing to recommend it. But as a paid title, I just can’t.
6
Oksana Ryan - iPad Pro
This game didn’t hold my attention for long. There was obviously an art to playing it, but for some reason it eluded me.
I managed to finish quite a few levels, but as the game progressed, there seemed to be no easy way to work out how the various combinations ran together.
The main fault I found was that there was no reset button, and after trying to remember which buttons switched on which, I found myself making random moves until I got it right. I love a good puzzle, but to me it didn’t offer a challenge to solve it to any degree of satisfaction.
7
Ed Davis - iPhone XR
I hadn’t heard about this game before it popped here and part of me can see why.
It has an overall simplistic view and feel to the game, which is pleasant to watch, but rather boring to play. After about 10 levels, it became a game of ‘click and hope for the best’.
Unless you are someone who can see puzzles the way this game wants you too, your experience will be very similar to this. There are new buttons introduced which adds new elements, but this just wasn’t enough to keep me hooked.
8
Steve Clarke
VMOD’s an OK puzzler with clean simple graphics. What you see if what you get really - press buttons, form connections, and try and get them all in the “on” position.
As someone who’s not generally a fan of puzzle games I can’t recommend it, but if the genre is your kind of thing, you’ll know if you’re interested after watching 30 seconds of gameplay.
9
Lalol Hernández Gómez - iPhone 7
Something I really like about the App Store nowadays is that you can find quality games of almost every genre imaginable. The quality bar by now is quite high, but when I gave VMOD a chance, I just found a polished interface and game but the puzzle mechanics behind weren’t clear at all.
After a while I was doing some trial and error that I didn’t enjoy. The experience isn’t intriguing to the point to keep playing, so I just gave up.
10
Roman Valerio - iPad Air
At first glance, the game in question was supposed to be a sort of successor to Hook, Klocki, Push, and similar nice little iOS puzzlers, but it miserably failed in this respect.
I'll be frank to say that I've spent very limited time playing it and it's all because VMOD (what a really weird title!) lacks any twist whatsoever. I could not find any algorithm in solving the puzzles and just pushed all buttons in a random order until I succeeded. If they ask me to complete the same levels twice, I highly doubt that I'll be up to the task.
There is no memorable soundtrack, or in case there is one it completely slipped my attention. To sum it all up, if you are looking for any possible way to waste your time, this game might be it.
As for me I'll be on the lookout for more creative, intriguing and thought-provoking mobile games, which I am sure will be aplenty in 2019.
11
Quincy Jones - iPhone 8 Plus
The game gets old really fast. I mean really, really fast. Within 15 minutes of play, I had seen all I needed to see, which was more of the same with no real excitement or replay value.
Maybe hardcore puzzle lovers might see it differently, but in my case I wasn’t impressed by the game at all, and ended up basically tapping everything and anything just to finish a level.
Definitely a ride I won’t take again.
