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An interesting premise, but far too many levels you depend on getting lucky. There are some levels that the dots just USUALLY don’t go your way and you can’t win no matter what moves you make. I’m currently stuck on a level that you can usually tell within the first five moves whether you have even a tiny chance. It seems that a lot of the levels are designed to be impossible to pass without playing dozens of times, waiting to get lucky…presumably in order to make you desperate enough to spend money. One star until that aspect is changed. I have no intention of playing a single level dozens d times just hoping the “random” arrangement of dots makes it possible for me to clear the board properly and win. To begin more specific: I’m at level 185. The arrangement of that board is such that you CANNOT win unless you just get lucky. You can make every move right if you want, and it isn’t enough; unless the game randomly gives you the color dots you need, you automatically lose. You can make every move right and still lose repeatedly. I’ve played the level countless times, and there is no trick, no technique, no strategy to it; the only possible way to get through it is for the game to just randomly drop the dots you need at the right time. I refuse to play a single level a thousand times hoping for luck. This is lazy game design to allow this.

It’s actually a super fun little game. There were a few things that annoyed me initially, but mainly just because I’m not a patient person. Every level or two I’d beat, they’d introduce a new feature that I didn’t see a way of avoiding to continue what my mind was already focused on instead of switching gears to whatever new shenanigans and being made to play it. Now that I’m further in the game, that doesn’t happen as often, and even if it did that alone wouldn’t be the cause of my 1 star review. Probably would have given it 4, or even 5, stars. It’s not that big a deal HOWEVER, what does annoy me is that there are these little maps where you have to find a set number of certain defined objects. They’re pretty fun and a good mindless exercise to do. But I can’t play them, because I refuse to spend money on this game, and the only way to play them is to spend money. That’s extremely harsh. I get having in-game currency and having the ability to buy it. However there should be a way to earn it, at a slower and perhaps more annoying or effort full way than just buying it of course. But not having a way to earn it by playing the game, having the only way to increase your coins be through purchasing them, and then requiring coins to even play pieces of the game … is ridiculous and I wish I could give negative stars for it. Do better.

I’ve been a longtime player of Two Dots, from back when it circulated around on a post of calming games. Like a lot of people, I was charmed with its simple design, its playability, and its challenging but rewarding levels. Sometimes I’d play for two hours and not notice any time had passed! Now, it’s an unnavigable mess that’s completely pay-to-win. Everything is a money grab, and even the new features I liked (the new Where’s Waldo-esque search puzzles) ended up locking me out because I wouldn’t pay for more gold, or the godforsaken gold mine, to keep playing. Every single puzzle could probably be solved in a minute if you’re willing to fork over dollar after dollar. Trying to keep track of the new puzzle features is a headache as well, and I can’t get behind consulting an off-app compendium to see how I’m supposed to solve something when the initial draw of the whole game was... minimalism. That, and why bother learning how to solve it when, again, you can just pay $5 or more and solve it in a few taps? I know people have to make money somehow, but this seems extreme if they’re locking players out of certain features. It is still a beautiful game, and I enjoyed some of the Pride-themed puzzles recently, but I’m probably going to end up deleting this app. The user experience feels rotten now and it just comes across as a cash grab wrapped in pretty packaging.