HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR is the ARKit version of the same title that was released for HoloLens, as well as non-AR versions for iOS and Android. There is also a Gear VR Virtual Reality version of the game as well. HoloGrid is a 1-vs-1 turn-based strategy board game with Collectible Card Game (CCG) elements. In this review, I’ll talk about the ARKit version of the game and see whether HoloGrid really benefits from this new Augmented Reality technology and whether the game is more fun to play in AR or not.
Gameplay
HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR plays on a 9×5 grid board. Each player starts with a big monster called Carnifex. This monster is of Champion type, like a Hero character in Hearthstone, a character that you need to protect at all cost. If the Champion dies you lose the match, simple as that. Your objective is the same, kill your opponent’s Champion before he kills yours. Players can obtain different champions from opening packs.
Every player plays in his own turn. You can move your monsters on the board, attack other monsters and cast spells. Each monster has its own unique stats like Damage, Move, Ability, Attack Range, and Health. Also, each monster (minion) has its own unique perks. Let’s take the minion Vanguard (Level 1, Rarity: Legendary). This minion has 1 damage, 2 moves, 1 ability, 1 attack range and 5 health. As it says on the card: “If monster stays on the same tile as the previous turn, receives +1 attack boost. Moving resets attack bonus to 0”. Also, each card has its own rarity. It’s like the game Hearthstone, high rarity cards are harder to obtain from chests (equivalent to opening card decks in Hearthstone). Monsters can also be leveled up to improve their stats so they can become more powerful.
There is a dedicated deck builder screen where you can build your deck, upgrade cards and see which cards you haven’t obtained yet. There are a total of 74 cards overall. The game features five different character classes: Champions, Tanks, Specialists, Ranged/Shooters, and Fighters.
I was only able to play in the standard non-competitive 1-vs-1 battle mode. HoloGrid Monster Battle League, which I assume is the competitive mode of the game, wasn’t available, the screen just showed a “Coming Soon” message.
Each game session was designed to play around 10-15 minutes, so players can enjoy playing multiple matches. You can play against random players online or add a friend and play against him one-on-one.
Graphics & Character Design
I’ve read on the game’s page on iTunes that the 3D digital creatures in this game were created by VFX legend Phil Tippett, an Oscar and Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer.
I really liked the character design in this game and after reading about who was designed them, I wasn’t surprised by how good they looked. The monsters in this game are designed to the smallest details. Keep in mind that the game allows you to spawn those creatures in life-size, so they have to look good in large scale. I just used my iPad to get really close to the monster and the amount of details is really impressive.
I think it’s really nice to have detailed characters in an Augmented Reality game because it just makes it more fun to move in closer and see the character detailed revealed up close. Furthermore, I felt that the game feels more like part of my world because the use of organic textures it made those characters feel like real living creatures. Both the design, physics and detailed animations help to make each character feel more like a part of the real world than a digital asset in the game.
The character animations are really nice but I wished the characters as more frames in the animation so it moves will look smoother, less choppy and more realistic.
Overall, I really liked the monster’s character design, the effects, and the animation, it just makes this board game really come alive and like a part of your real world than a projected computer game.
I was less impressed with the board’s design. I liked the reflective surface but the overall design just look a bit boring. There is an option to swap between three textures, one blue, one brown, and the other one is semi-transparent. It’s not a big deal of course, I mean, a chess has the most boring board, but I still enjoy playing the game regardless 🙂
I also wasn’t a fan of the UI design, it seemed too simple. and the card’s frame doesn’t look that much interesting. I was hoping that after seeing how much effort was put into designing those amazing characters more effort would put into making a more polished and interesting UI. That being said, in terms of usability, the UI works really well. A tap on the monster revealed the stats of all the monsters including move options, all that without feeling the screen with too much continual textual information on the screen which can lessen the immersion and AR experience overall.
Oh, one more thing about the sound effects. I found those to be a a bit too ‘electronic’ to my taste, the pitch was a bit too high.
Is it fun playing Hologrid in Augmented Reality?
This version of the game was developed from the ground up to take advantage of the advanced motion-tracking and depth sensing capabilities of ARKit. Once you start the game, it will ask you to locate a flat surface. The detection was very fast and I was able to spawn it straight away. That being said, once you spawn it, the positioning of the board the quite glitchy. When I move towards the board, it moves as well. I want to get close to the monster but it just likes the board getting away from me every step. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, so this something that should be improved as well.
I did have some issues regarding the size of the board. According to the developer, you can play it in both table-top or life-sized. When the board was rendered, it was rendered much larger than my table and there wasn’t an option to reduce the size, only to enlarge it. I tried moving the slider, but the only option was to slide it to the right, to enlarge it. It wasn’t such a big problem, but I would have like to be able to reduce the size of the board without any of those restrictions.
I’ve mentioned it in the graphics section but I think it’s important to say it again, the characters in this game are designed so well that it was a really marvelous experience watching them come alive in the living room. I also put the board next to the window and I just enjoyed watching those characters move around as I was watching the trees moving alongside the wind behind the board. It felt like those creatures have become an integral part of my physical world.
This is the type of immersion I was looking for in many games and couldn’t find. I think the choice of using organic creatures rather than let’s say robots or cartoon-style characters made all the difference in the world here. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against any art-direction, but in the case of HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR, for me it was a different experience.
Do you remember the first HoloLens demo with the whale swimming inside a big room? When I first saw it, this is exactly what I wanted to experience in AR. I’ve played many ARKit games, but never once I got the deep connection with the character in that way. I think the reason is that it’s an organic character, so it’s like seeing another animal like a cat or a dog passes by, but these are no dogs or cats, these are monsters. It’s was like seeing new pet monsters right in front of you. Earlier I went down to see how the game plays in life-size, and it was even more enjoyable than I’ve expected. The feeling of the presence of those characters in the real world becomes even more powerful considering the organic nature and very detailed design of those creatures.
So is HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR a fun game to play? As I mentioned, one mode wasn’t available but the core gameplay itself and the AR gameplay experience is very entertaining.
There is also something really cool playing a multiplayer game in AR, knowing that another player is controlling something virtual in your place. It was a really out of the ordinary experience and this is one of the main reasons I’ll continue playing this game way after this review ends.
Conclusion
I am a big Hearthstone fan and I was waiting for a good Collectible Card Game to play in Augmented Reality on my spare time and I think I finally found one. I’ve also read that there are going to be Arenas and I’m looking forward to the ranked match-making system. HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR is also cross-platform, which is great.
I think ARKit version of Hologrid Monster Battle is way more fun to play than the standard one. If you love turn-based strategy game like Hearthstone, Shadowverse or Gwent, I think you really going to love playing HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR and the AR version just makes it even better.
HoloGrid: Monster Battle AR is available as a free-to-play ARKit game on the App Store. Just keep in mind that this version of the game works exclusively on ARKit-powered devices running iOS 11. So what are you waiting for? Download it now.