Game Review: Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour (Mobile – Free to Play)

Well isn’t this a massive disappointment? It shouldn’t be as it’s the free to play mobile market but damn, if they don’t find new ways to disappoint players each and every time!

The very first Dumb Ways to Die was an educational free to play game. A public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia. It was to promote rail safety & the video went viral after a huge social media following.

The game was released in May 2013 & gave players the chance to avoid the many hazards that kill the characters from the video. Keeping in line with the campaign players can also pledge not to do stupid stuff around trains. You can read our full review here.

The sequel, Dumb Ways to Die 2 looked to take it even higher, losing sight of the point of the original game and introducing in-app purchases. A genuinely disappointing thing, you can read our full review here.

Which brings us to this, the third entry in the series and one decides making as much money as possible from those stupid enough to pay is the way to go. I’m not going to mince words here…screw this game and its money-grabbing desperation. It’s sickening and you can almost picture the developers salivating over each and every penny they could make all while putting a poor amount of effort into gameplay.

So what’s different? Well this time it’s a World Tour! You get to take part in 7, yes that’s just 7 mini-games that take place in the likes of a Egyptian pyramid, a snowy safari and in space. Now, you may be wondering just why it’s so little content compared to previous entries. Less mini-games? What have they replaced it with? Well, they’ve introduced a building component where Dumbville, Dumb Peak, Dumbgypt and Dumbtune are in ruins. You must rebuild by spending coins which are earned by playing the mini-games and completing extra tasks in them.

Sound familiar? It’s one of the more standard free to play gameplay styles. One that is becoming so common that you can’t help but wonder if these things come pre-packed!

Of course should you want to speed up this process you can drop a load of real cash into the game and make playing the mini-games pointless. You know, the only aspect of the game that has any actual fun gameplay about it.

It’s a sad day when I have to praise a game for not going over the top with their prices but that’s exactly what Dumb Ways to Die 3 gets. Coins start at 49p for 5000 (the cost of repairing just one big house in Dumb Peak) to £18.99 for 320,000 which should be more then enough to skip past the majority if not all of the game. Fun.

Of course you can also sink your coins into the games loot boxes or ‘gifts’ as the game prefers to call them. Funny gifts when you have to pay for them. These, when bought and opened, will give out new playable characters and cosmetic changes but they don’t offer any differences in gameplay.

So what is fun about Dumb Ways to Die 3: World Tour? Well, a couple of the mini-games are decent. Pyramid Run gets quite tense the further you make it, Culinary Chaos is exactly as it sounds, chaotic and Flying Fiasco requires a little bit of skill to really make it far.

Fun enough but only it short spates and once you’ve seen them all, that’s it. I find it simply stunning that the third game in series would take such a massive step back when it comes to content. Clicking houses to spend coins on repairing them only to later collect the coins they dish out is not a game!

Hilariously, in an attempt to try and pretend as though it has any kind of link to the original game’s aim this one also has the pledge. The only reason they don’t want you to get hit by a train is it would mean you’re unable to give them money!