Crab War is an Android game that puts players in control of a radioactive crab army that has evolved to take back the realm from the evil reptiles that once forced them underground. Crab War is an arcade style game that puts you in control of a never-ending army of Crabs which players can evolve and mould into their own perfect army. With over 80 different crab designs as well as 30 unique queens that each learn new abilities as time goes on, as well as 6 different and 15 different attributes to both of them. Wave after wave of your Crab army will be put to the test against larger mutated reptiles which will test players reactions as well their forward-planning as players earn more and more gold to choose careful upgrades and evolve their Crabs.
As with other games on Android, it’s best to download Crab War from the Play Store, which is a free download. Once downloaded, players can get stuck into the game right away.
There’s a little bit of a backstory here with Crab War, and one that will make comic book fans smile a little, especially fans of Spider-Man.
The long and short of it is that the Crabs were forced underground and from there exposed to radiation to become the warriors that we see and control in the game.
Things start off relatively simply, with players needing to tap on the display to keep on spawning in new crabs. This is essentially how the gameplay actually plays out, but of course there’s much more to Crab War than just this. The game does feature a sort of tutorial available for players, but it’s sort of more “learning on the job” than anything else, which is nice to see.
The general premise around the Crab army that players build up is to use gold collected from battles to level up all of your crabs. As your Crab army levels up and starts to deal more and more damage, players will not only be able to dispatch with the evil reptiles a lot quicker, but also begin to evolve their crabs.
Once players use their Crab army to dispatch with each reptile, the enemy will explode and leave some gold behind. Gold is ultimately what keeps the game going, but despite the fact this is a free game, there’s no pressure to pay with real money for any of this gold.
Each of the different Crabs have a different evolutionary tree, and as players get further down this evolutionary tree, the Crabs get more and more powerful, this is in addition to being able to control their amount of damage and speed by choosing which way to evolve them, too.
Queens can be evolved like this as well, but for the most part there seems to be more room to grow by levelling up your Crabs and evolving them as you end up spawning more of these in battle. One thing that’s good fun in Crab War is that players get to deal out huge amounts of damage to Bosses and it’s great to see the DPS (Damage Per Second) at the bottom of the display hit over 1.7 Million or so.
There are achievements here as well, which come through Google Play Games, and there’s an element of Endless Runner here as well, which makes the game feel as if it won’t ever end, which helps up the pressure and such as well. I got to about 500 Meters or so during my time with the game, but if you stick at it, you can get a hell of a lot further.
Players can add abilities and such to their bottom bar as time goes on, and there’s a lot thrown at players, such as all of the gold, the huge amount of good-looking Crabs and a lot more. It looks great, runs well and there’s just so much to do that it’s hard to see players exhausting what the game has to offer.
I had a lot of fun playing Crab War, seeing huge numbers of DPS as well as large gold payouts come from the reptile enemies is really gratifying. It’s a strangely addictive game as well, I found it difficult to pry myself away from it to write this review, which is of course, a pretty good sign for any game. I did however, wish that there was something more to the combat, as I did feel as though I was tapping forever just to keep spawning in more and more Crabs to take on the reptiles. Of course, things do get more exciting as time goes on, but it seems to take quite some time to get to that point, which is a bit of a shame. For instance, players need to get to Level 650 in order to evolve to the next Ecdysis level, and that’s a long, long way out from the start of the game. Regardless of how long it takes, Crab War looks good, runs well and has a lot of scope for players to improve their game, there’s no denying that.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Despite having lots of effects, high-resolution artwork and sound effects going on, Crab War maintained a high frame rate and ran well practically all the time.
- Theme (4/5) – With good-looking Crabs and reptiles, everything looks good here, and the special effects are a nice touch to make things look even better.
- Features (4/5) – Gameplay here might feel a little repetitive after a while, but it does get more exciting over time, and the feeling of needing to keep on going is a strong one that players will find addictive, without doubt.
- Overall (4/5) – With lots for players to see and do, customize and conquer, Crab War is one of the more action-packed and fully-featured games on Android, which looks the part and works well. The only thing that Crab War could improve on is giving more players to do at the beginning of the game as it does take some time before the more advanced abilities and such appear for players to use.
Pros
- Simple and easy to get into, despite having a lot of scope for players to experiment and create their ultimate Crab army.
- Looks good and is clearly developed to a high level of polish and runs great on the majority of hardware out there, too.
- Lots of different Crabs to evolve and experiment with, all the while training up more powerful Queen crabs with their own unique abilities.
- Gives players all sorts of fun figures such as massive damage and huge gold payouts to be excited about.
Cons
- Seems to take quite a long time for players to get to the more adventurous and more exciting parts of the game.
- Save for some abilities and other features, Crab War’s initial gameplay could be considered a little repetitive for some players at first.
All-in-all, Crab War clearly has a lot on offer for players of all ages and skill levels, but it does – unfortunately – take some time to get to the more meaty part of the game. This is worth sticking with however, as the game quickly starts to offer people a lot to be happy about, and it’s the sort of thing that can become addictive as well as rewarding for players, too. A free download that’s light on the ads as well as in-app purchases, Crab War offers a lot of value and is an addictive, high-octane classic.