WHEN Pokémon Go hit the scene in 2016, it quickly became an overnight hit, with millions taking to the streets to catch Pidgey and Rattata.
Niantic has since tried to capture that success again, using a range of popular IP, but none of them have been quite as successful as Pokémon GO.
Pokémon Go was Niantic’s first big success, but nothing has come close since
The company primed Peridot to break that trend, by utilising an original IP and giving users a reason to log in every day.
Much like Pokémon, pet Dots in Peridot need love and attention, but most importantly food, so they can grow up big and strong.
It’s much like the Tamagotchi you grew up with, except now using AR tech, you can see them in your bedroom.
When you first hatch a Dot in Peridot, you use your camera to watch them frolic around in their new home, which could very well be your home too.
That’s the first big issue that Peridot has – the camera is always on, and unlike in Pokémon Go, you can’t turn this off.
Your Dot interacts with the world, but it’s not quite seamless yet, and you’ll see the creature phase through furniture and float around the air, all at a low frame rate.
Pokémon Go has shown that players are more than willing to look past technical issues if the gameplay is good enough, but Peridot isn’t good enough to look past these things.
Like many other mobile games, you’re presented with a long list of daily tasks to complete, like logging in, feeding and playing with your Dot, and taking it out to places.
Peridot, like other Niantic games, has a social aspect too, and in this case it’s breeding, which is framed as a conservation project.
You have to take your Dot to what is essentially a PokéStop, then message people to make an offer to breed with them.
This whole process is embarrassing, as messaging another player to ask if you can breed with them always feels awkward.
It also feels a bit morally strange, as people are largely breeding their creatures to get specific desired traits, which feels like it toes the line of eugenics.
Breeding pets to get the exact traits you want, even if it’s just fake pets in a digital world, just feels fundamentally wrong.
While the general loop of raising Dots was fine enough, there were so many technical issues that it’s hard to recommend.
I chose my phone specifically for its long battery life, which can usually last three days on a single charge, but Peridot drained it rapidly.
When my Dot asked me to take it on a 1km walk, the app drained the battery by 20% in just 15 minutes, which is just not sustainable.
Even if you’re just playing from home while plugged in to charge, the game is very intensive on the phone, and can easily cause it to heat up and even overheat.
Peridot might be a hit for those who grew up with Tamagotchi, but the technical issues make it almost impossible to play.
Until there are fundamental changes to how the app performs, there’s simply no chance anyone will want to play it.
Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.
