Rick G Earth is a tactical mobile title by ZOO Corporation. Similar to Kantai Collection (Kancolle), the game personifies military vehicles and weapons which players can collect and bring to combat. Building teams of up to 6 units, players engage in tactical combat missions against an Magma Army invasion on a hex grid map.
Visuals
Fans of Kancolle may be slightly disappointed with the character design of Rick G Earth. Despite the overall design of the characters aren’t on par with Kancolle, the game does feature a wide variety of character types, which adds a certain sense of individualism to each character. The main enemies in Rick G Earth, the Magma Army also requires a peculiar taste to appreciate, but in my opinion, they add a little more in making the game different from similar games already in the market.
The game could improve on the visual effects of the battle scenes. Unit movement and trading blows with other units is deprived of almost any sort of effects making the overall visual experience somewhat anti-climatic.
Gameplay
From a gamer’s perspective, the game does seem quite shallow initially as the girls armor breaks upon losing hp, becoming more and more revealing in some cases, but powering through the beginning of the game, Rick G Earth actually packs a lot of content and depth for players who thoroughly enjoys the tactical genre.
Whilst most tactical games requires players to really learn what each units does, and what their effective against, Rick G Earth incorporates a character development system and equipment system which really gives the game an additional layer of precautions that player can take before each mission. Changing the load-out of your character makes a great difference to their role on the battle field, from adding additional damage to armored vehicle types, your infantry units can rely on their innate high mobility to perform effective hit and run tactics to open up a path for your big guns.
For gamers who seeks realism in their games, Rick G Earth has a somewhat “permanent death” system. During missions when your unit takes damage, the damage remains after the mission, meaning that players will have to repair their units after each mission if you want to start every mission with healthy units. If at any point during the mission your unit takes damage beyond repair, the unit is “permanently” lost, the only way to get these units back is through the revive system in the repair unit menu. However, this feature requires players to buy the premium currency of the game.
Final Thoughts
Rick G Earth is definitely worth a try in my book. the level of sophistication allows you to truly put together a team that is unique to you.
Although the affects of having a truly personalized team doesn’t seem obvious during PvE. During the games PvP system it creates a new world for mobile tactical PvP. Even if the opponent has the same units as you do, different load-outs makes them perform entirely different roles which adds a element of surprise for each PvP battle.
The game can start off a little grueling at first, but once you get through the initial slope, the game snowballs into a great tactical title for mobile devices.
