King of Thieves [Free] is a game that shows the problems with review scores, because it exists at two diametrically-opposed extremes. On one hand, it's a remarkably cool concept: it takes auto-running trial platformers and puts it into a Clash of Clans [Free] style raiding system. You can design a dungeon, crafting gems to become more powerful, while trying to keep other players from getting your gems by way of making a dungeon too powerful for them to successfully raid. All the while, you're raiding others and playing through the singleplayer campaign, getting more money, upgrading your stats and traps to be better at raiding and to make raids tougher. But it's a game with a particularly annoying energy system that raises questions about its fairness. It's a game that doesn't go down smooth, particularly if you're not a free-to-play fan.
King of Thieves has a lot going for it. But problem number one with the game is its lockpicks mechanic. Serving as the primary energy system for the game, it winds up being rather ridiculous Essentially, to play a level in either multiplayer or in the singleplayer campaign that unlocks better dungeons down the road, you have to use a lockpick in order to break the correct lock from among a series of lock in order to play a level. The problem is that the lock which unlocks the level is entirely random with no hints as to which lock is the one that you break into. And the locks quickly become ridiculous: you may have a total of 13 picks to unlock a 9-lock level before you get to level 30 in the singleplayer. It's a system that swiftly descends into self-parody. The multiplayer is a bit more subjective as to how the player has chosen to upgrade their defenses, but it still feels silly.
It's a very poor implementation of an energy system, too. I would rather get more opportunities to play in one burst with longer waits. But this is a challenging trial platformer! This is the kind of game built to be played again and again, making me stop playing is kind of against the point! While I understand free-to-play monetization has to run its course, this feels like a bad example of free-to-play, where the gameplay is something that could appeal to even the haters. They just run into an obtrusive system where they can maybe play one level per hour. It is possible to increase both the lockpick production and amount you have with just soft currency, however.
The raiding system is a really cool idea because of the customization that each player has, and the idea that you can genuinely steal things from other players by playing well. However, the lottery system to decide if you get their gem is kind of shady because, again, I don't trust the lockpicks to be all that fair, and I don't trust a random spinner where I get more attempts for more hard currency, at an ever-increasing amount. But it's kind of cool and genuine to not have to play with some sort of AI version of an opponent: you're taking on an actual opponent. Of course, it's also very annoying to try and get revenge on an opponent and find that they're currently online when you try to raid them, or find out that someone else is raiding them, which is silly when I should have priority because they literally just attacked me. Joe Schmo can wait. Or finding out someone has a shield when I try to avenge myself. Some warning would be nice. Also, giving up a shield in order to attack someone who can't be attacked is infuriating.
