The long-awaited arrival of one of the most talked about games of the past year is finally here! Pokémon Go has reached the App Store in the United States shortly after it was released in Australia and Europe earlier this past week. When I downloaded the game on it's release day this past Wednesday, I was impressed to see that it already had 50,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. Three days later, the game officially has over 100,000 downloads on the play store and that number is constantly growing.
When I downloaded the app and opened it, I was prompted to sign in to the game using either a Google account or a Trainer Club Account. Since the servers were down whenever I tried to create a Trainer account (and last time I checked, they still are), I had to sign in using my Google account. Once I was signed in and said "yes" to the app requesting permission to use location, GPS and your camera, I was then taken to an introductory screen where a Professor Willow introduces you to the game and asks you to help him gather up his research.
Professor Willow then asks you the notoriously pathetic question, "Are you a boy or a girl?" where you are then asked to customize your character. Initially, I was a bit underwhelmed due to the lack of variety the characters have. You couldn’t adjust different facial or biological features, only different skin colors, hats, clothing, and shoes. Also, you then get to choose a username. Be careful, as you are not allowed to use your first name or last name but rather a screen name.
After you are done making your avatar, you then are shown a map on your phone as to where you are at. While you are on the map, the three original starter Pokémon soon appear. You are given 20 Pokéballs and get to catch either Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle. Do not worry about the regret of not choosing one over the other, as you will have opportunities to find these starter Pokémon out in the wild.
While you can catch a bunch of common wild Pokémon not even 20 feet from your own house, there are multiple Pokéstops often marked by a blue cube. These stops have pictures of landmarks and spinning it would guarantee you experience points and prizes such as more Pokéballs and eggs. There are also gyms where you can battle Pokémon that are featured at the top of the marker. However, your trainer level has to be at least level five to play.
Although Pokémon Go is an interesting and immersive game, there are still some shortcomings with the gameplay. While you can wander the streets of your neighborhood using your phone to catch and train wild Pokémon, you cannot battle wild Pokémon with the Pokémon you have. You can only catch them or take photos of them. Battling Pokémon are only used at gyms. You can also transfer Pokémon to your professor in exchange for candy that you can use to eventually level up Pokémon and make it evolve. The lack of character customization causes a limit on the creativity of the players who would want to make their characters look like them. Another thing is the dreadful percentage of battery that the game uses because it relies on sheer power.
Although the game has its drawbacks, I am highly interested to watch and play this game to see if there would be any changes put forth by its developer, Niantic, to the user experience and functionality. Pokemon Go is highly worth a download and is definitely a good game to play during the warm days of summer.
