Checkmate or Die Hack 1.011 + Redeem Codes

I really love the idea behind this game. It started off really fun, and I like how the levels were initially easy and then grew in difficulty, that makes total sense.
However, I am on level 30 now, and the zombies are eating my character before I even look at the whole board, much less take the time to make three moves on the board for a check mate.
More time to look at the board would be nice, especially on later levels. You could balance the difficulty by having the zombies speed up on a wrong move. Losing a level when I know the answer but don’t have time to move the pieces is very frustrating.

Some thoughts from playing the first 16 or so levels:

1. The animations seem to take too long. This applies to both the pieces moving and the guy running. The guy running has a “galumph galumph” energy.
2. The guy running slow is especially annoying when you complete a bunch of levels in a row and then you have to watch him slowly run up the level ladder.
3. The difficulty/pacing seem a little off. I think it’s obviously smart to start with simple mates. But I think it would be better if the chasing was more forgiving but the levels were longer. Right now it feels like you can’t think at all, which I don’t think lends itself well to later levels where thinking for 5 seconds would be fast-paced but still rewarding.
4. I think the game could use a mode where the timing is more forgiving but the zombies speed up or cover ground when you input a wrong solution. That would allow harder puzzles to feel actually achievable.

I love the concept of this game. It puts an interesting twist on chess puzzles by making them more engaging. I honestly was having a lot of fun playing this game during the early stages. It is once I get to around level 30 when I am solving mates in 3. There really is not enough time to analyze the position. There are just so many things that need calculated in such little time that is not very fun anymore. What I would is give players the opportunity to click an analyze button on screen when you start the level and then you can calculate the mate. Which also pause the zombies to make it fair.

The first few levels are pretty easy to get through. Just simple mate in ones, twos, and a couple threes. After the first couple of mate in 3 levels however, it becomes extremely difficult to analyze the board in the 5-10 seconds we have.

I think the game definitely needs an easy, normal, and hard mode in it’s time speed. I feel like that would make the game more accessible by both low rated and high rated players. Right now tho, i feel like the game works against low rated players and favors more high rated ones.

Assuming you want a fun way to learn how to scan the board quickly for mate options, the game falls down by not allowing you sufficient time to learn from failed attempts. Once you’re out of coins you’re stuck failing quickly over and over, but not gaining the knowledge you need to improve. Lots of comments talk about variants of this issue. Hopefully it’ll get fixed so it’ll be more enjoyable and worthwhile. So close.

The thing with apps like this, with each puzzle being the difficulty it is, players will find these too easy, and some too hard.

Starting the app, there should be an Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty.

I’ve solved so many mate in ones, and having the first 10 levels breeze by isn’t too fun for more advanced players.

While beginner players may not know how these patterns work. So there should just be a difficulty setting.

Other than that, the same music is on repeat in every level, and after just 5 minutes I don’t want to hear that same noise again.

I enjoy being able to change the style of pieces.
I feel if the devs work on this a bit, the game could be quite good in the future. Right now? There are better apps out there.

It feels like a kids game with the animation and simple mating patterns right off the bat. That isn’t a bad thing but having been advertised as a game meant for all its a little disappointing playing the game as an adult. I wish there were more learning value as someone that’s not just starting. Definitely good for someone starting chess though.

Pieces are not standard or easily distinguishable.

Timer is inconsistent. I died more in the 2 move section than in any other since even moving immediately would sometimes lead to getting caught.

The puzzles in the 3 and 4 move sections are incredibly repetitive. It’s okay to have harder ones.

But it gets pretty monotonous after a while.
Having the setting option to change the board style and pieces would be nice (different colors and pieces). Also, the fact that it all the problems have the same amount of time to solve doesn’t seem right. Easier problems should have less time and more difficult problems should have more time.

Aside from bugs, I love this app. I’m always looking for something that’s going to improve my chess game. I needed something that’s going to make me look and analyze the board faster.