DISCLAIMERS:
- the reviewer has not finished the game with 100% completion
- the game was played on various iPhones using the United States version of the game
Since its official launch in 2016 Clash Royale has surprisingly gotten significantly better. Deck slots have increased, a battle pass has been introduced, tons of new modes have been added, and much more has happened to the game since launch. This review will judge the game as it is in early 2020 on its own merits.
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The gameplay of Clash Royale is its biggest focus as is true of almost every mobile game. It essentially plays like an extremely simplified StarCraft. Players build decks of 8 (sometimes more) cards, with the cards being either minions and spells. Once in a game they play against (usually) one other person and both people start with (usually) four random cards in hand. The players then put their cards on a grid of places (most of the depth comes from this placement part) on their side or on the enemies side if a tower is destroyed if its a minion or anywhere if its a spell or for some types of minions. Each side (usually) has two princess towers on the side and a king tower in the back in the middle, and once every tower is destroyed on one side or once time runs out the player with the most towers left wins. Overall this system surprisingly never gets particularly boring or repetitive because Clash Royale is a bit of a pay-to-win game as many of the modes use card levels and it takes a very long time to get to the highest card levels unless you pay real money, and the more money you pay the easier it is to get there, but at least there is a hard cap. The game provides plenty of things to do from playing the ranked mode, to participating in the daily Clan Wars, to trying to get a good record in the challenges against other players.
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In terms of sound Clash Royale doesn’t impress at all really but its also a mobile game so who cares?
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Technically Clash Royale isn’t particularly impressive, though thats not really a bad thing for a mobile game. All of the graphics are seemingly prerendered but the whole game still looks good overall. This likely makes the battery life use much lower than it would be if the game was rendered in 3D. The only real problem is that the game constantly forces an online connection and when there are any problems with connection the match you were in is often almost impossible to rejoin.
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As is true of most mobile games Clash Royale doesn’t have any story. It does contain some Clash of Clans fan service but its not exactly point worthy.
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As a free-to-play game Clash Royale‘s value deserves a closer look than most games. The monetization has changed over time but as of early 2020. At the moment players can either buy gems which let them get a lot of gold, purchase rare chests, buy emotes, buy some random custom options from the shop, or shorten the time to open a chest or they can buy the “Pass Royale” which is basically the same as Fortnite’s Battle Pass. In terms of what you get for free, playing matches against random players in whatever mode gets you chests that open for different amounts of time depending on how good the rewards inside are, though chest slots are limited. All players also get the free side of the Pass Royale which is basically the same slightly above average chest over and over every 10 destroyed enemy towers. Recently players have also received more rewards than ever for how well they rank in the 1v1 ranked mode, too. At this point it is easier to level up than ever but the reviewer would still estimate that it takes about a year of playing daily to get to an enjoyable level where you don’t feel like you are losing just because your card selection sucks. Alternatively you could spend probably close to if not more than 100 dollars to get there closer by any significant amount of time. Recently a lot of cosmetics have begun to get offered and there are many modes where card levels don’t matter so it seems that they game is moving away from this pay-to-win system, though. Still, Clash Royale is probably one of the most fair games of this type that makes you feel possibly more than any other game like you are getting somewhere that is worth getting to by playing it.
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Overall the reviewer would give the game an 8.5 out of 10.
