Hooked Inc Reviews

I used to hop on this game fairly often when watching something or whenever i had a little freetime to waste and it was easy entertainment for free. Recently I hopped on the game and it is now completely flooded with ads. Before ads were optional, for example you could watch an ad to open a treasure chest or watch an ad to spin the wheel and get a point multiplier. Games that do this are the best kinds of games because you actually find it worth it to watch ads for rewards since you’re not constantly getting swamped in ads. Now they have changed the game and you basically get an ad everytime you do anything(claim a reward, open a crate, buy something, just randomly in the middle of playing). Ontop of that there is no ad cooldown so you can watch an ad to spin the wheel and then immediately get another ad 3 seconds later. Sadly in the creators atempt to earn more money by flooding the game with ads they probably are earning less by pushing people away considering i went from jumping on and watching 20-50 ads voluntarily(since it was actually to earn something) and now i barely play and when i do i usually stop after about the 5th ad. Hopefully the change this it just makes it feel like one of those terrible games that needs all the help it can get to succeed even though its a good game and even has in game currency purchases.

I wrote to support, no answer, and I’m having the same problem a lot of people seem to be having. Why is my XP rate at a crawl?? Will increase my rating when the problem is fixed.
Update: I’ve written support three times. No response, no fix. I still get a lot of XP at the right rate, then it’s gone and back to a crawl. I can only imaging people who spent money on this are outraged. FIX YOUR GAME!!
2nd update: same issue. I prestige, everything is good, then as soon as I close and reopen HookedInc , same problem. No response. No fix. Sorry to anyone who has wasted time and worse, wasted money on this game. It’s not even my game but I feel like someone should apologize. To the developers, you could have just left it alone, it was a fine game, but you decided to ruin it. Again, very sorry for anyone who has wasted time watching ads, or worse, spending money on this game. It used to be fun. Now it’s garbage.
3rd update: Finally received a response. They said they’re going to do an update that will restore normal XP rate. I’ll believe it when I see it. No word as to how they’re making up for lost time/money.

I have hit 2 massive walls in the game that prevent any progression whatsoever. After the 12th zone, everything gets idiotically expensive and after 2 weeks, I’m 1% of the way there, primarily because offline income is only based on upgrades and not crew and items as well. Also the 31st quest is to get 10 crew, however even getting 5 without paying the devs is a challenge. Since the gems you pay for the crew doubles every time you buy one, and it’s a premium currency only available from quests (and the lucky wheel) that quest is basically impossible

Edit- pay wall moved back an area, now watching ads for bonuses doesn’t give you the reward. Add a way to get gems from normal gameplay (ad free) and also fix the arena (I’ve played this game for almost a year and people get a ridiculous amount more money in the 6-minute tournaments than I get in normal gameplay - their money is trillions upon trillions more - I get 10 billion in a tournament, 100 nonillion in normal gameplay, and they get 13 septendecillion - which has somewhere around 23 more zeroes after it than 100 nonillion) and this gets 5 stars.

Edit - game freezes a lot now

So I do like the game but there are some big things I feel need fixing. Number one being the fact if you want fishing experience (at least any to really matter.) it resets all of your boat upgrades, upgraded fishing stuff, and how far along you are on the map, which is really dumb. I clicked the button by mistake and honestly I’m thinking over uninstalling the game over it (or at least timing a very long break from it.), it took a lot of time to get as fair as I was and I’m really not sure I want to waste more time on it, very frustrating. A game should be fun, not annoy you with something like this. 2) I really feel if I’m looking at my crew, items, map, etc. the game should pause not keep going so you’re missing a bunch of items and fish. I had a few other reasons but I honestly can’t recall them all. It could be a really good game if it was worked on more and these things were fixed. If it gets updated and it seems better I’ll change my rating but for now I will not be playing for some time. I do hope this game does well those!

I’ve played this game for a couple of years now and I always thought it was amazing. The music and the noises when you catch the fish are great and the art style is incredible, however… I maybe stopped playing for about one to two weeks tops and all the sudden AD AD AD AD AD! Ads are everywhere now. When I opened HookedInc . When I open a chest. When I claim money. When I broke my streak. When i claimed a prize from catching certain fish. Also just randomly playing and having another ad right after an ad just played. It’s very annoying. I only played for maybe 10-15 mins as well. Not a long period of time for having seen about 15-20 ads. Now I get it, the game already had a few ads here and there but before I at least enjoyed the game and I don’t mind watching an ad here and there to claim a few gems but this is excessive and makes the game so much less enjoyable. I used to enjoy clicking on all the boat upgrades myself and now it does it for you automatically so even if you wanted to move to deeper waters you can’t if there’s a boat upgrade to be had. Definitely deleting because I don’t like games that try to annoy me into buying something to get rid of the ads they didn’t need in the first place. These people are money hungry for sure.

This game is incredibly addicting. It uses large numbers in the form of monetary rewards to create a false sense of novelty for its players. As a result, one will find themselves spending exorbitant amounts of time mindlessly swiping at the screen while concurrently amassing a wealth greater than the world’s total net worth and beyond. While enticing, goals become increasing unreachable and only attainable through a monetary investment in “gems”. In fact, it is nearly impossible to reach the final level, and for a purpose — to convince players of its constant sense of progression. Once your earnings seem to plateau you are sent back to the beginning, only this time, each successive level becomes easier to pass than before — deceptively regenerating the players’ faith in the game, only to hold them stagnantly at the final levels. The creators surely understand psychological/neurological principals of consumption. As such, they feed the consumers’ desires to progress mindlessly. In summation, do not waste your time with this game. It is uncreative, driven by profit, and will surely brainwash you to become a hopeless pawn of our greedy capitalistic society.

So this game starts out very fun and exciting and progress is at a good pace. Not to fast to have finished the game in a day or so but not to slow to feel like you are grinding every time you open HookedInc ......until you reach the mission to hire ten crew members. The only way to get that many gems is to buy them. Making finishing the game next to impossible unless you pay a large sum of real money to get crew members. While I understand that money helps developers pay bills and live and keep making games but at one point crew member number six takes 445 gems meaning crew member 7 will take near 600 something gems so on and so on. To the point that you will need to pay over 100 real dollars or what ever currency you use. Which in my mind for a phone app game is just plain robbery. So if you want a fun little game that you never intend to finish unless you wanna swipe your credit card a few times by all means download this game, but if you are like me and have doubts about a phone app game costing more than say 3 bucks stay away from this one because it will leave you disappointed and frustrated.

Many apps have a ad cool down, where once I’ve watched an ad willingly to get a reward, the normal actions that trigger ads won’t trigger. Idle world, for example, has this feature. This game… does not. If I watch an ad to double my reward on a crate, when the ad ends and I can hit claim, another ad plays. These ads are the type where “30 seconds maximum” is very loose, where after the 30 seconds, another 15 second clip plays, then you have to find the tiny x button while the information for the ad keeps popping up. And then there’s another one. These triggered ads don’t have a small timer before you can x out alike most unwanted ads; you have to watch the entire 45+ seconds to claim your reward. The crates come pretty frequently, too, so this happens many, many times. Oh, and if you exit out of HookedInc and come back in to trick the system into thinking you’ve already watched the ad, at any point? You get no reward and all the crates you’ve stacked up have $0 in them now. And airplane mode doesn’t work. It’s so simple to just disable the ad that pops up when I hut claim immediately after I’ve already watched an entire ad.

The game layout is great. The simple art is lovely. The mechanics are simple and easy to understand. Even the pacing of the game makes sense. Truly, a 5 star game. But the ads annoy me so, so much that I’m on the verge of deleting the game altogether.

Overall the game is a okay with a few tweaks it could be great. For one the crew challenge is ridiculous as they are way to expensive and you don’t get to choose the person. Unless you are able to afford them when you level up it’s almost impossible to get them without spending more money then is reasonable for a game like this.
It would also be nice if there was one more slot to equip your boat with equipment. Four slots is not enough if you want to catch birds or do the traps.
As of right now I am on the second to last level and it seems like it ends there. Maybe once you get there more opens up. I will say it’s quite a lot of money between the last 2 levels and the other ones. Not sure if they realize people play these games as a way to pass the time and starting over more than 15 times to beat one level and still have to wait to accumulate more is rather annoying.
I gave this game 3 stars because without significant updates it will be something people download and delete within a few days.

I got this game before all the “ads” happened. I remember playing this game for hours because of the music and art style. This game was great at entertaining its audience. There weren’t any forced ads either. The only times I had to watch an ad was went I wanted a reward from it. The wheel for example made you watch an ad to receive a boost plus you could get bonus gems. This made players like myself want to watch the ads to get more from the game. This was a time of happiness. I never stopped playing the game but I did leave it alone for a week or two. When I got back however, things had changed. The minute I opened HookedInc I was hit with an ad. This sort of surprised me since I never had an ad I didn’t click on open. Then it became way too frequent. Every time I opened a package, the side bar where you can buy things, and even the quests and news icons, I was hit with an ad. The worst part about this was I could never catch a break. Even when I watched an ad to get a reward, another ad would play right after. This really took the fun out of the game. The music and art style is still fantastic. I will always love how to play the game. But the ads have become too much and I’ve thought about deleting the game several times because of this. I hope those who read this find the game very fun to play. The ads are what is wrong with the game.

I really enjoy playing this game. My husband plays it too and we like how you don’t have to pay to win. With some determination all the gems you need can be gotten by watching ads. And if you don’t want to watch ads? You never will, because ads only play when you want them to play. The idle fishing feature works great and the game is just plain fun!

BUT

The past few days the game has been glitching and crashing pretty regularly. I also have recently come across a problem where I spend gems on an upgrade and when I come back to the game later, my gems are still gone but the game shows no upgrade. Idle fishing has gotten really slow as well. I am coming back to the game after it has supposedly been idle fishing for 5 hrs, but the income shown could be made in about 3 mins of me playing the game. My husband has had the same problems. We want to keep playing this game, but we don’t see the point if these issues continue.

I find this game really relaxing. I like playing it. Just swipe your screen, you catch some fish it’s got a snappy little tune, birds even chirp. It’s like being outdoors. what’s not to like? The ads! I could put up with the ads at first - sometimes I find games that I really want to play so I don’t mind ads. I want to see them! But then the game asked me a question “do you want to spend 1.99 to get rid of forced ads?” and I said no! I don’t mind the ads. I find games that I maybe want to play! But now! It’s overkill! do you want to collect something? You have to watch an ad BEFORE you can collect an item, then As soon as you have collected it, you have to watch another ad. I have twice the many ads as I did before. It’s disheartening, because now I don’t want to collect the items the coins, the gems, because I have to watch two ads instead of one. Even when I don’t collect, it forces me to watch an ad every once in a while. It’s not gonna be long before I’m gonna have to give this game up entirely. You’re lucky I gave you three stars. It would’ve been five stars, before you doubled up on my ads. It’s overkill. All because I wouldn’t spend $1.99

I like the game but one thing I don’t like is why at the beginning there’s messages to show u how to play but u can’t skip them if I already know how to play or why the boss fish make the area dark and the first boss fish is so easy after playing for half an hour and once u can instant catch it still take a while to be able to catch the other boss fish overall the game is great and it’s fun I’ve played this on many different devices but they broke so I’ve been overall playing for 75% of a year and I am not a grown up or a teenager so that’s why this game is so fun and I haven’t seen ads on this game except today and I instantly downloaded it because I forgot about this game and just came back to playing this message took me 1 and a half minutes to write I’ve been using phones a while so I’m used to typeing a lot I can write so many sentences real fast besides the point but I pressed the star on the side of my screen and pressed the ratting one I don’t useally rate games only if I really like them and when I write a review it’s long as freak

I honestly have enjoyed this game for the past six weeks. It is one of those addictive screen scratcher games that makes you keep coming back. Unfortunately it has had its lifespan with me six weeks in now. I have almost 8.7 Quintillion dollars and it keeps getting more ridiculous. A fish that was once worth $50 is now worth 639 billion to 2 trillion dollars in value. Just a little unrealistic... and due to the extreme goals of going from four quadrillion dollars to 20 quintillion dollars, just to move to the next ocean to fish from, i’m suddenly bored and done with this game.

A note to the creators/developers: chill out on the unrealistic values. Don’t make me lose all of my boat statuses just to claim fishing experience. Way too many ads that are the same over and over again.

A note to future players to consider: keep your fingers clean and dust free. Make sure you have a screen protector because you rub and will scratch and edge lines in your screen or screensaver by playing this game.

There REALLY needs to be a confirmation on anything that costs gems, because I keep accidentally hitting buttons I didne’t mean to and spending my gems!
For example, I was saving up for a new crew member, but when I went to use a crew perk, I accidentally hit the “upgrade” button right next to it and spent 600 gems on that upgrade. That wasn’t even the first time I accidentally did that on that exact crew member.
The money curve on the last 3 fishing spots and late-game boat upgrades seems INSANE compared to previous locations. The cost jumps, like, 4 or 5 figures, which is way more than the previous curve.
Likewise, mission 48 randomlly requires an astronomical 3 million exp to complete, while the mission just before had WAY, WAY lower completion requirements. (for reference, I had less than 200,000 exp when I was given that mission)
Also, I’ve been getting a glitch where I can’t X out of an ad after it finishes (It seems to happen most often on the ads which say “thank you for watching” at the end) and so I have to restart HookedInc which deletes all the money I was trying to multiply.

I wanted to see how many gems I could get before I bought the Christmas thing but then I see it 00:01 and then I look through my phone to see if I just missed a notification then saw that it gave no warning that the Christmas event was going to be over which made me really mad knowing that I wouldn’t loose any gems if I bought the thing because you earn gems from the even and it only costs 600 and I would earn 4 hundred back from the event using those gems that I earned to buy the thing so I just wanted to say what I thought and that I think the game should give heads up that you can’t get something anymore in blank amount of time especially when it is something you have to wait one year to get and when it is something you have to spend a lot of time on just to make it cheaper (this review took a lot of time for me to type of since I am on Mobile and I really hope this gets noticed) I don’t expect anything for the inconvenience but I would gladly take anything that is given.(sorry for bad grammar and punctuation mistakes)

I just downloaded this on 3/8/20 and then the next thing you know 200,000 million dollars! I couldn’t believe my eyes it’s amazing that there’s not a lot on ads and bugs on this game but it’s impossible to play when you have like 1,000 things showing on the side of your screen.i wish it could be were you could X them out so maybe add that to the game? Also anyone who plays this will think it’s kinda boring not to be rude but it just the ads are loonngg longer than a house please fix that or fix the ads and make them interesting at least make it we’re offline earnings have like just a 1 million+ if you have 3 million or if 7 million have 5 million+ so ya hope you provide for my review to be here and please fix so people can be happy and like this game a lot I’m not rude it’s just these things just make me wanna delete this game but the big fish also should be we’re it’s just a few hits like 20 hits and it’s dead this will keep kid happy and strong as if they could do anything because when the other update I hate when I was 4 it was amazing until my sis deleted it so each day I’ll revueiw and write about it hope y’all have a great day
P.s the games still amazing tho ;-;

This is an absolutely awesome idea for an idle game and one that i think could be done even better! My main gripes are two fold
1. You can’t get more fishermen without using the premium currency. This isn’t awful, but the other fishermen are such an essential mechanic that it kinda hurts that there’s no other way to get them
2. The ads and facebook connectivity are shoved down your throat. Yes, almost all the ads are optional, however, almost every random bonus and mission has an option for an ad boost. Again, not a deal breaker, but i’m just not a fan of having ads be such an integral part, and i assume late game it’s the only way to make the random bonuses worth it, but i’ll have to get back to you on that. Considering using my throwaway facebook account just to get a little bonus here and there
Otherwise, i adore the concept of a fishing idle game. Makes for a great aesthetic and makes for a calming little side project. I play a ton of idle games so i’m glad i came across this one, but i just wish i could like it more. Still, if you wanna pull a toy-blast-to-toon-blast and make something very similar but even more optimized for player enjoyment, i’d download that in a heartbeat! You have something great here and i wanna see more for sure <3

I think this game would be a good idea for an idle game and turn it into another version like a game called! Hooked ink 2 or something there could also be more boats and a lot more challenges and events! And a vip pass with free x2,3,4pr x5 this things for like £2.99 or for other people ¥2.99 and $2.99 it depends on region.

2) the fishing rods should have cool effects not the other things or even both! There should be more things by the way the game is great the way it is I just want to give some suggestions so yeah!

3) the (regions) the regions should have a lot more to do with language or the money logos as shown but I guess you can do that by what type of phone h got or in setting but not all phones can do that but yeah I think there should be a setting:). Bye the game is great keep up the good work

What I love about this game is how the gem currency isn’t such a blockade. It takes a lot of adds but at least it’s possible within the day to get multiple upgrades to items and crew members threw spinning the wheel. Some descriptions of items or crew and what they do have been unclear to me and still are. I wish there was a little “Fisherman’s Manual.” Eagerly waiting for them to name the fish in the later levels, design and add more fish and levels. Add a crew member that gives you more item slots. I feel there are too many really good items that you want to be using at the same tim but can’t. Epic cards are way too rare. I got 1 from the 1050 chest with a possible of 1-4. I strongly believe with that many gems, at least 3 should be guaranteed considering people may spend money to buy these chests instead of spinning the wheel. Taking that into consideration, their store is currently overpriced. I only buy during promotions.

“This game is fun! I think there should be a bit more fish. So here’s some ideas. Like add something called a raspberry dice fish it’s a square fish that’s white with red dots like the color of a raspberry and it’s eye is red with it on a dot. Then there’s the Pyro Pyramid Whale. It’s a yellow gold orange it’s usually found in the morning and it’s front is a pyramid shape and it’s eye is a peanut butter color. Then there’s a miniature pyro pyramid whale called a sunbutter dolphin. It’s also in the mornings and it’s smaller than a dolphin and its the size of a Greybob. It has black lines. That’s it. Hope you add my ideas :D if you do please give me credit. :D Il make more reviews about more fish ideas. And some ideas to add into the game. And the raspberry dice fish is common! The sunbutter dolphin is common same with the pyro pyramid whale and they are so super duper truper quadruper easy to catch.”