Mutants: Genetic Gladiators

I started playing Mutants: Genetic Gladiators by Kobojo about two weeks back. In this game, the player is a Psy-Captain, guiding his Mutants to victory in arena fights of 3 versus (usually, but not always) 3. What makes the fights much better is the 4x animation option to speed things along.

The all-important 4x option at the bottom of the screen!

(I should note that I am playing Mutants because I needed a break from a certain other popular Facebook 3 versus 3 game. That game got too demanding with lots of things to do in limited time. And the fights there were getting too long.)

Anyway, things are much simpler in Mutants: Genetic Gladiators. Each Mutant has two Genes, which determine the attacks he/she/it has. The first Gene also determines the resistances and vulnerabilities of the Mutant.

Other than that, each Mutant has a Speed attribute. Faster Mutants go first in a fight and attacks more often. Slower Mutants will have more hit points to withstand early attacks and deliver powerful attacks when their turn arrives. A glance at the turn order at the top of the screen at the start of a fight will give an idea of the relative Speeds of the Mutants.

Because of the simplicity of the Mutant design, it is possible to gauge the opposition at the start of the fight. It is also easy to see immediately if one is in very deep water. Deep boiling water.

What is interesting is that during a fight, a Rare Mutant has the same combat potential as a Common Mutant. Their Genes and Speed may be different but every species of Mutant has the same potential in a fight - there is no overpowered Mutant. This makes things more even in PvP.

Update 26 November 2013:
After playing for some time, I found that certain Mutants do have better stats than the standard breedable Mutants. Mutants won from PVE and PVP tend to have better stats.
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Mutants have different combat potentials when Stars are involved. A Mutant may have a Star (Bronze, Silver or Gold) which would increase its stats. Thus, real-money spenders can gain an advantage by buying Gold Star Mutants. A Rare Mutant with a Gold Star still is as effective as a Common Mutant with a Gold Star. Because of this, people who do not pay-to-play can still work hard to get a Common Gold Star Mutant and have a reasonable chance in PvP.

Though every species of Mutant has the same combat potential, it does not mean that Rare Mutants are useless. The value of a Rare Mutant is in bragging rights - that ability to boast "I have a Rare Mutant and you don't!" on Facebook. Oh, and Rare Mutants may be sold for more Credits and they also tend to generate more Credits passively out of fights. To elaborate on the latter, Credits (in-game money) are passively generated over time based on the Mutants the player has.

Despite the simplicity of the design of the Mutants, fights are not entirely without strategy. Half the fight is before the actual fight, when the player selects the Mutants to participate. Since certain Genes are effective against certain other Genes, selecting the right Mutants can make the fight so much easier.

Gauging the opposition before a fight.

The actual fight.

In PvE fights, the opposing Mutants are usually known before the player selects his/her Mutants. For PvP fights, however, the player has to guess the composition of the opposing Mutants based on a pair of highly-inaccurate diagrams. This does give the defending player a chance to win. Actually, because of the misleading diagrams, the defending player has a huge chance.

Oh, and the defending player's Mutants will be controlled by a highly-efficient AI. This means 1) the player does not have to wait for his/her opponent to be online. And 2) the player is likely to lose the match if he/she picks the wrong Mutants or uses the wrong combat tactics.

I bred a Dire Despot.

New Mutants are obtained through breeding. Two Mutants are selected as parents and a new Mutant is created based on a Gene from each of the parent Mutant. The starting Common Mutants take a short time to breed. Latter Rare Mutants take longer. And that is where the real-time factor is in this Facebook game.

Breeding is not the only place where time is a factor. Also regenerating over time are Campaign Passes, which are needed for PvE fights. In addition, Mutants do not instantly heal (unless they level or Med Packs are used) - they require time to recover.

Another favorite feature of Facebook games is the requirement of friends. In Mutants: Genetic Gladiators, friends can help the player win in fights - one can be called in to directly deliver a single attack. It is possible to (painfully) play without this feature. However, the true necessity for friends is as targets to dump free gifts on daily in order to score a small amount of premium game currency. Thankfully, the gifts may be dumped onto non-playing friends too.

To keep the game interesting, there are regular-limited time Events - the PvP and PvE Events which may award Rare Mutants. Once the Events are over, those Mutants may still be available at a later date as limited time sales (costing premium currency or an obscene amount of Credits). Thus, there is less pressure to participate in the Events.

A PvE Event with successive fights.

Despite having started the game about two weeks back, I completed 40 of the 100 PvE Event fights. I could win more fights, but at the cost of 19 Campaign Passes per fight for fights 41-50, I would rather use those passes to train my Mutants. That is along with the fact that I am not confident of winning fight number 50 and the fact that it was almost time for the PvE Event to end.

The PvP Event.

And despite only starting the game recently, I am actually at the top 7% (not sure how long I'll last here) in the PvP Event. This is probably because I am around the level of newbie players, which the defending AI has little problem defeating. I wonder how difficult PvP would be in higher levels.

In summary, Mutants: Genetic Gladiators is simple enough to understand and play, yet not too simple as to have a complete lack of strategy. Thus far the game is enjoyable and the developers are releasing regular content and bribes (gifts on the App page). I hope in higher levels, the fights do not get too long. Also, I hope that PvP will not get too difficult.

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Another Enforcer!?

I bred another Enforcer! I have already many! Then again, what do I expect from breeding two Enforcers together.

Mutants: Genetic Gladiators, Contents