Backgammon Reviews

So while this seems a little more realistic than other this app games available in Backgammon Store it still suffers from the not so random dice roll generator. I understand losing games. I’m fine with that. It’s the constant losing I take issue with. The player you play against continually gets great rolls. If it was random the human player would also randomly great rolls. But that’s not the case. While the vs opponent gets a run that they need to put you in a no win situation it doesn’t come around to the player having the same run. The developers say it’s random but if it was random the player would randomly have a game that they stomp their opponent. That doesn’t happen with this game. It’s the constant stomping by the vs player that ruins it. After a bit it’s just no fun. Seeing your opponent roll high doubles 4 times in a game and you either get double 1s or no doubles at all. If you do roll double 6s it’s often when you’re on the rail or in a spot where you can’t move 6 pipes cause they aren’t available. I understand if it’s like this sometimes, but this is more often than sometimes. Still a smidge better than LotB, but not much. I’m not sure what the answer is. I just wish it was really random because you would randomly have a good game.

First of all..the developer say’s they have a 4.6 out of 5 rating. That’s the first lie. If you look at the Read All on reviews there are 10 times as many 1s and 2s as 4s or 5s. I did not take the time to go through and total All Reviews but I can guarantee you that if totaled by an independent source their rating would be a 3 to 3.5 AT BEST! This what happens when you let the “crooks” regulate themselves. Look at how many reviews say the dice rolls ARE NOT random, something is WRONG when everyone is saying it. I would suggest if you are thinking of downloading Backgammon that you look at Read All reviews don’t just look at their “rigged” overall rating of 4.6. Cause that’s a lie.

Next the Developer Responses are so cockamamie as to be ludicrous. They read like my 7 year old granddaughter wrote them..

Bottom line if you think your being “cheated” by all means write a review but go one step further and let their advertisers know that you would never by anything that is advertised by “cheats”!!!

The developers will tell you the same thing over and over: the deal is random and the program doesn’t cheat. Lies! It is programmed to win and it sets the roll so that you have to expose your pips but you can’t ever hit its. When it is behind it will give itself several doubles to win.

Just to test the nonsense I had six spaces closed and only the 1 was open. I sent a pip to knock it off and SEVEN CONSECUTIVE TIMES it gave itself a 1! How statistically probable is that? If it knocks you off after offering a double, it will have 2 spaces closed and BOOP, you can’t get on. You have 5 spaces closed and it gets on. Once it needed exactly 6-3 to hit me and get out of trouble and 4 straight times it gave itself 6-3 after I knocked it off! Ridiculous!

Several times I have knocked off 2 or more of its pips with one open space and… you guessed it: Doubles! Then 5-6 doubles to lap you and miraculously win. It’s a complete joke that they claim this game doesn’t cheat to win.

I like the graphics, I like the movement. after playing many games, I have found that once you become comfortable playing the game the programmers screw you. I have played hundreds of thousands of games of this app (over 40+ years) but this program gets to a point where it only rolls doubles for the opponent whilst you can only roll unusable combinations. It's like all the current computer games which are designed to teach you the only winning hand is to delete Backgammon . I could have predicted the response of the developer – in fact I did predict the response of the programmer. they claim everything is as a result of a random number generator – that may be true after they've eliminated certain combinations already, depending on whether it's the program player or the live player. it would have been a wonderful game if they programmed it straight -but when in multiple games in sequence, the computer rolls high doubles on every roll & the human is given low non-usuable combinations on EVERY roll - that's not random. I was just amazed at how many times that the computer snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat in many consecutive games. I finally figured out the correct winning strategy – I deleted Backgammon .

I never fails, the computer almost always gets the dice roll. Always gets multiple multiple doubles. It lets you win a few times then bam it totally slaughters you. I can put multiple guys in the hole but the computer still wins. If you complain like I did about the doubles well, I don’t know how much I believe in coincidences like this. But not only do I rarely get doubles or the dice toss, I seem to be getting all low rolls. 2,3,1’s makes it impossible to win. I will keep the game because I like to play. But I may need an anxiety pill now and again.

My addition to this game. After play for even more time. I believe this game is completely rigged. The computer almost always goes first. It always gets lots of doubles and even if your ahead and should win the computer will get more doubles and wins. I’ve deleted the game at this point. It hard to okay when you know it’s rigged. Good riddance to this game.

I agree with ‘fun but frustrating’. I can lose up to 10 games in a row and every single roll the dice gives the opponent is perfection nearly every time. If you are “unlucky” enough to actually capture the opponent’s chip then you will either get gotten or they will roll doubles EVERY TIME! I noticed a lot too that whenever you aren’t covered they always have the opportunity to get you but sometimes don’t….until the next roll where you have another chip uncovered that benefits the opponent (and that’s because of the roll you were given). Most always the numbers on their doubles are twice as big as yours as well. I loved this game when I started playing it but now it frustrates me to no end to where I’m about to delete Backgammon . I have played a whole lot of this app in real life and nobody, I mean nobody, ever has the perfect rolls all the time, time after time after time. I want to play, I don’t mind losing from time to time either, BUT up to 10 times in a row (and get slaughtered every time)????? Come on now. I’ve been playing Backgammon for awhile but the developer(s) have taken the fun and ‘the challenge’ out of the game. Any way to fix this developer(s) to make it more fair to the challenger?????

This game allows for only one starting position which is a little frustrating. Worse however is that the increased difficulty just gives you worse dice rolls and the ‘opponent’ better rolls instead of keeping the dice fair and making the opponent a better player. For instance the ‘expert’ opponent will leave open guys in their home quadrant and put me on the bar from the same area. An actual expert would never make such a move. The dice rolling and opponent in general could use a bit of work. The interface is great though. The ads are also a bit excessive. I thought they were fine at first but the longer you have Backgammon downloaded, the more frequent the ads become.

Furthermore, they show ‘double dice totals’ between the player and opponent as a way to show that the RNG is doing a good job. I’ve been tracking these doubles and when playing against ‘expert’ I often get something like double 5’s when I have a guy on the bar and 5 is the only space I can’t go.

Developer: Instead of making dice rolls worse at high difficulties PLEASE just make the opponent play better and maintain actually fair dice rolls.

Update: Upon further investigation, the ‘expert’ actually plays worse than the ‘easy’ mode.

Update: Several reviews after mine (first posted 1-9) have been answered and mine has not. Is it because Im right and the dev knows it?

Update 2: They answered my review but it was a canned answer as if they did not read it. They know what they’re doing.

UPDATE…. This game still shows favorably toward the computer… obviously others feel the exact same way… if it is designed to be the luck of the roll , then I am terribly unlucky… Quite frankly, it is unreal how unfair it appears 90% of the time…. I do not know enough of the behind the scenes…algorithms or whatever you call it… BUT something is not right! I have played tooooo many times for a very long time and everything is the same…almost predictable! Just saying…just a shame….😞

I have been playing for a while now. Although I do get doubles from time to time, it seems very rigged for the computer to always get 2 to 3 sets of doubles in the final quadrant. I have given it enough time to see if it equals out or balances out and it doesn’t. I have tried different ways of playing each game after I lose and inevitably the computer gives my opponent two and three sets of doubles in a row. It’s gotten to the point where it’s not fun anymore. I’m not a sore loser. But accept the challenge after I do lose to replay and try a different strategy. Time to move on…

I had fun with this game at first. The dice rolls seemed to be fair. But the challenges are a different story. No matter what move I make, the AI has a planned solution to back me into a corner. I’ve played some levels more than 7 times before the game decides it’s ok for me to win the level. Just about every challenge has the board set up so that I’m at a serious disadvantage, and then, surprise surprise, my dice rolls leave me exposed while the AI rolls let him cover every time. The dice combo to knock my checker out, lo and behold, are perfectly rolled every time. And then, my rolls of course are blocked so I can’t get back in; once the AI checkers are all covered, I get the roll I need. Until the game decides to let me win, and then the AI does really stupid stuff that a real player would never do. The only good thing about this game is it’s free. I paid the little bit to remove the ads. I wish I didn’t. The game is too rigged to be fun.

I really wanted to enjoy this this app game, but it falls short in several frustrating ways. I understand the this app involves both skill and luck, but this game leads to heavily on luck, especially when you get to a higher level. the AI seems to get nothing but lucky rolls Constantly landing on my single checker, rolling doubles numerous times while I rarely get doubles myself. It honestly feels like that AI is rigged to win with sheer luck, And it’s hard to even compete.

As much as I enjoy strategy games When it comes to this app A fair balance between skill and luck is key. But here it feels like skill takes a backseat to random chance And that makes it frustrating. Higher levels it just feels like there’s no way to win without the game giving the AI ridiculous rolls. Definitely not worth it if you’re hoping for a challenge based on strategy rather than luck

I am not an expert by any stretch but I am not new either. This game is ridiculous!

Pros: 1) The ads are NOT bad, they are fast and interactive so I don't mind them and everyone has to get paid. 2) If you go into it KNOWING you are going to lose, its a decent past time. That's all I got for the pros.

Cons: Scenario 1: 1) When you lead the board the game will start making valid moves invalid and will force you to leave a single chip exposed. 2) Your opponent will then stick you on the bar 3) You will go NO LESS than 4 rolls with "No Move" 4) You will then fall 30 moves behind and lose.

Scenario 2: 1) When you FINALLY make it off the bar you will then find the chip stuck in "Home" will not be able to move ANYWHERE ON THE BOARD until AFTER the opponent has doubled up ALL chips to eliminate YOUR OPPORTUNITY to move them to the bar.

Scenario 3: IF you are lucky enough to make without encountering scenario 1 or 2 AND stay ahead, then you find that every other roll your opponent gets either double 5's or double 6's while you are stuck rolling 3, 5, or 4 thus making it IMPOSSIBLE to win.

If the above only happened every so often I would get it, I love being challenged. But out of the hundreds of games I have played I have only won 2 matches (first to 3).

Definitely fun to play, ads come up but you can normally shut them down at the 5 second mark. The worst part of the game is the dice rolls. Yeah the programmers keep replying they’re random but that’s absolutely false. Your opponent will get EXACTLY the perfect roll every time and you will get the worst roll possible. Yeah, you’ll get double 6’s… but only when it’s at the worst possible. If you get hit be prepared to roll 4 or 5 times to come back on (or the computer will get those perfect doubles to lock you out). Expert mode is even worse. You can look at the board and almost guess the rolls before they happen. Be prepared for the programmers to answer this with the standard “It’s all random”… after months of playing I guarantee it’s not. Although I don’t see the angle on why they cheat… there’s nothing at stake.

Game is fun but dice rolls are not random. You could be really far ahead and then the dice will roll 4-5 high doubles in a row for the computer making it impossible to win. Not statistically possible especially if it happens in multiple games in a row. Also the dice rarely ever gives the computer rolls in which they have to expose their pieces but will force you to expose your pieces in which the computer will get the perfect roll to send your piece to the bar. The game makers don’t care and will gaslight you into thinking that because you think it’s rigged anytime something negative happens you are reinforcing a false view. They just dismiss everyone’s complaints and say it’s our fault if we believe it’s rigged. You would think that if there are many people with the same complaints that they would want to fix the problems to make a high quality game rather than gaslight the users and stand by a faulty game.

Computer starts first way more than half the time. Computer always seems to roll doubles when clearing the board. Computer can gets its pieces back on the board much faster than I can. Works fine but the dice always seems to favor the computer. Update: It is a fun game but the random number generator is anything but random. The computer gets to go first over 75% of the time. Once you start clearing the board, the computer will almost always get doubles multiple times while you will be lucky to get them once every third game. Computer gets its pieces back on the board MUCH faster then it will let you get yours back on the board. Almost ready to delete this game and find a better this app game

I’m officially deleting this game. I love the interface and the way it works, but the constant unfair un-random dice rolls are just too much for me. Too bad. If they ever make the dice roller truly random, I would love this game.

This game consists of the opponent getting mostly perfect rolls. They get to be 100% perfect rolls at the expert level. I played along long enough to know my opponent does not have any random rolls. Each and every roll is programmed to protect his chips and knock mine out. I can predict what numbers my opponent will roll each time. My chips knocked out but my opponent always seems to have the exact number needed to stack his chips up neatly and keep them well protected. When my opponent falls behind (likely fake), there will be a furious amount of double sixes to catch my opponent up. The final casting off of the chips is also met with high numbers and I often have a 1 and a 2. My opponent has double sixes. During my last casting off, when I have one last chip to remove I will get my doubles when they are not needed.

The developers of this game are cheating. It’s not even a game when the rolls are pre-programmed.

It does teach you how to play the game well, but it’s frustrating and not fair.

When I first started playing Backgammon I was winning my fair share of games After about a week of playing the AI gets on average 8 to 10 doubles per game. I could be ahead and then it starts rolling the doubles. So frustrating. While I like the style and looks of this game over others I’ve tried I am considering deleting Backgammon I just have to find one that plays the same and same game options that isn’t rigged to roll doubles
Like I said, in the beginning it will be fair. You’ll both hit a double the same amount of times. Maybe 2 to 4 times during each game. After you get hooked, you’ll see the AI hitting doubles around 8 times during the game. Especially when you’re near the end. You’ll have double pips off the board and it will jump right ahead of you to win the game.
So not fair.
I hope they can solve this problem. 🤞

Although the game makers claim that the dice rolled in the game are truly random, this is not the case. In order to keep the computer more competitive with the human players, the game designers have clearly given the computer rolling advantages that will make this version of this app frustrating for most players.

That said, it is free to play, and the copious ads that interrupt game play, can be skipped after only a few seconds, instead of the typical :30 ad timer found in other “free” games.

If you read through the other reviews, you can easily find the specifics of how the computer player “cheats” so as to make it a more challenging opponent. But it’s still a fine program otherwise, and scratches the this app itch when you’re bored, or just need a quick break.

Definitely mostly fun, I also paid to remove the ads because they are indeed very annoying. Few negatives: very skeptical of the die rolls adhering to natural/random probabilities. While not impossible, there are sequences of multiple doubles in a row back to back on both sides that are not infrequent. The opponent nearly always rolls perfectly such that they rarely end up with a blot. Also, when the opponent offers to double, the menu to agree or decline covers the board so you don’t have a way to consider based on your current position if you hadn’t immediately checked before the offer. But if you’re looking to learn or improve your strategy, it’s great for quick play and visualizing all your options.

I finally beat the game 15-0, 11-0, 5-0, 3-0, 1-0 but doing so took me so long because of the ads that will come up during it. There are way to many adds some even popping up 2-3 times a game. You can make a purchase for $6 dollars to get rid of them but seems like quite a bit if you ask me ($2.99 seems like a better price but who am I to judge them on their pricing).

I think the program maybe incentivizing taking opponents off the board since there was multiple opportunities I left open to test and it would skip over it despite not posing any additional risk to it.

Overall was a good game and the challenges were fun to explore. I wish the algorithm would change to see these openings as I think it would be more fun!

I enjoy playing this game. I do find that at times a particular player seems to be able to by pass everyone else in such short time that it seems like there there is a loophole the player has found that none of the rest of us have found. If you looked you’d see the same person wins every time by at least 100points. I’ve noticed some players have stopped playing altogether. It’ has a tendency to make you feel like why should I play because if I get ahead he’ll catch up and be so far ahead there’s no way to catch up. If something could be done about it I’m sure you would make a good number of players happy.