Game Review: Merge Plane (Mobile – Free to Play)

With such an attention grabbing title as Merge Plane – Best Idle Game you know you’re in for something special here. I mean, nothing screams ‘our game is great’ like putting the word ‘best’ in the title…

The ‘merge’ fad of the free to play market has happily begun to drift away. Like always, one successful game sees a whole host of copy-cats that pushed the limit of players patience and imagination to breaking point. Merge Plane does both while still proving to have some of the addictive qualities associated with the gameplay style.

Drag matching planes together to merge them into a higher level version. Keep merging planes and creating higher level ones then drag and drop them onto the track to start earning money. Run out of money to buy new planes? Close it down, walk away and let the money roll in. It’s called an idle game for a reason.

For the first 30 minutes of Merge Plane, you’ll have fun creating newer and more powerful planes. The money rolls in, new ones don’t cost much and watching an ad to get bonuses doesn’t feel to cloying. Then it all begins to dry up, higher level planes take longer to create and the cost of new planes to merge starts to get astronomical. You’re quickly left with no choice but to close the game down and wait for the money to come in or watch ads to earn new planes.

This is a common issue with these ‘idle’ games. They genuinely seem to think they have enough going on that players will just keep coming back but don’t do enough to earn that. The gameplay is so repetitive that even the additive nature of merging planes gets really old, really quickly.

In an attempt to try and keep things interesting, Merge Plane throws in a few extra things to tempt players into playing more, watching ads and spending money. Be prepared…this game is hilariously greedy.

For starters, the in-game currency is not the only one. There is a second one, a premium one…gems. These are spent on the higher cost planes if you want to speed up the merging process. These are severely limited, even though small amounts can be earned by completing quests (again these dry up very quickly). Of course, you can buy them using real money ranging from 30 for $0.99 to 5700 for $99.99. I don’t need to tell you how absurd those costs are.

However, it’s not the worst thing about the game. In a truly astounding turn of events, Merge Plane has a membership option. A weekly subscription that gives a number of bonuses and removes ads for $4.99. You have the option of a 3 day trial but every week the game will charge you $4.99. Of course the actual price is buried amongst the terms and conditions with the ‘free trial’ button front and centre and easy to hit.

The desperation of Merge Plane is truly astounding. Not only is it littered with in-app purchases that go up to a hundred dollars. It also limits its gameplay within less then 30 minutes, lacks longevity, thinks idling is the way to play a game, hides bonuses behind ads and then tries to dress up a subscription option that is frankly insulting.

It’s done. If merge games hadn’t jumped the shark already, Merge Plane can proudly say it has killed the idea stone head. It’s the worst kind of game. One that acts like it’s about player fun, all about giving the best experience possible while quietly eyeing up the contents of your wallet.