Pokemon Go Updated: Too Little Too Late From Niantic

Pokémon Go is about to get “their biggest update since launch” drastically changing gyms and introducing raid battles. However, despite the hype and the new flashy updates these changes are still far from what Niantic promised us on the original release of Pokémon Go.

That’s not to say that there aren’t welcome changes to the game that have been made, such as limiting gyms to a maximum of 6 slots on unique Pokémon making it less daunting for other teams to try and take them. The new ‘Raid Battles’ also appear like a lot of fun for friends to try and tackle and get exclusive rewards. 20 trainers trying to take on a Pokémon mega boss is an exciting addition for committed players.

his update cannot escape the limitations of a troubled system at the core of its gameplay

But then there’s what’s not included in this update that was promised at the release of this game, such as trading Pokémon to battling other friends’ Pokémon in head to head battles. These should have been implemented from the very start of the game and could have created a stronger Pokémon Go community as players collected, traded and battled with friends together. Yet this update doesn’t address any of those key features, and the new introductions are the tip of the iceberg of what was promised.

Flickr, brar_j

This update also relies on some flawed features of the game such as the overall combat itself. There has been no change to the combat itself which suggests that the Raid Battles will be based on the same combat that we already use in the gyms. This is a shame; the combat consists of tapping your screen as fast as possible and swiping to move from other Pokémon’s attacks. This is repetitive and limited gameplay that takes very little skill to master. It would be more fun to go back to a turn based combat system from the original Pokémon games, but I doubt that this will be implemented, meaning this update cannot escape the limitations of a troubled system at the core of its gameplay.

if you were hovering over the reinstall button hoping the game has finally made the changes you wanted, well expect to be disappointed again

This, along with a few more anxieties around the update such as the motivation mode where it seems I will have to spam my Pokémon with berries to stop it from losing CP temporarily in gyms and the lack lustre rewards resulting from the fact that no one has cared to include any new badges; leaves me unenthusiastic about this update. So, if you were hovering over the reinstall button hoping the game has finally made the changes you wanted, well expect to be disappointed again.