Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Year: 2017
Rating: E
Time Played: ~150 hours
Before Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out, I had played none of the previous entries in the Animal Crossing franchise. Once I got into New Horizons, I was hooked on the gameplay mechanic and wanted more. Luckily, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was a free and easy way to continue playing an Animal Crossing game even if I didn’t have my Switch on me. As a free-to-play mobile game, I could log in and do the daily tasks that most Animal Crossing games have, just with the convenience of it being on my phone.
While I didn’t play this game at launch, picking it up around 2020, it was clear that some of the standard “predatory” free-to-play practices had been added a few years prior. It locked a lot of the rare or seasonal items behind loot boxes that required real money to purchase. Even some of the “free” items came with extensive time commitments to obtain them. Still, if you’re like me and have the fortitude to never spend any money on free-to-play games, Pocket Camp can be enjoyable for quite a while.
I eventually stopped playing Pocket Camp when I realized there wasn’t anything else to get. I had unlocked all the characters and leveled them up to get their unique rewards. I had crafted basically everything I could (including most of the extremely expensive “golden items”). Granted, it took me a few years of playing regularly almost every day to achieve this level of completion and I don’t regret those hours spent. However, there’s nothing new other than some slightly re-skinned holiday rewards that come out every year. It scratched my Animal Crossing itch, and that’s about it.
An easier version of Animal Crossing you can play on your phone, I give Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
