^{Get in on the Action: 5 Promising Blockchain Games Reviewed by Our Team}

Authors include Koko, Franck and Tracy from the NGMI Lab team.

Blockchain gaming is poised for a major breakthrough, with new games finally demonstrating progress after years of promises. The challenge now is to find standout projects that can truly capture people’s imaginations and deliver a truly fun and addictive gaming experience. After almost 18 months of monitoring the blockchain gaming scene, the NGMI Lab team is thrilled to share five promising blockchain games that offer the potential to realise this vision for the future. So, keep reading to discover which games have stood out from the pack.

Illuvium Zero

Summary

This is an Idle city builder where players build up their land by building, mining resources, NFTs and extracting “Fuel” which can be used as an in-game currency in other games in the Illuvium universe such as Illuvium Overworld.

What’s Good

The game is very polished. The gameplay mechanics are well-crafted and addictive, providing a steady sense of progression that keeps players coming back for more. Furthermore, the community surrounding the game is actively engaged and passionate. With a DAO structure in place, regular town halls, and a present core team, members have ample opportunities to participate in key decision-making processes and make their voices heard.

What’s not-so-good

The game will be free-to-play but currently only land-owners can participate in the beta release. The floor price of land is currently 0.4 eth. Illuvium is a huge project and it can be quite an overwhelming space to be in. The learning curve is steep and sometimes it feels like your voice can go ignored in the discord. However, staying persistent paid off as certain game rules were not made clear and the help I needed came from community responses (eventually) to my questions. This game would be ideal on mobile but that functionality is still a very long way off.

Final Opinion

Once all three Illuvium games have launched (Overworld, Arena and Zero) as well as the bonus Illuvitar collection game, Illuvium: Beyond,

they will all complement each other nicely. I am really looking forward to the satisfaction of mining Fuel or minting “blueprints” for Illuvials in Illuvium Zero and then using those assets in Illuvium Overworld and Illuvium Arena. The visuals are impressive and so make the game even more fun!

Legends of Venari​​

Summary

Legends of Venari is a creature collection game set in a world called Carreras. The creatures are called venari, and the core gameplay loop consists of placing baits in various locations, waiting to see which venari turn up, and then choosing one to try and tame. The venari have different variants and rarities, and can be leveled up for future use.

What’s good

The community has remained enthusiastic about the game throughout the bear market, forming guilds, recruiting scholars, creating extensive spreadsheets and tools, and generally keeping up the spirit of competition. For their part, the LoV team regularly holds special events with limited-edition venari to keep up engagement (Halloween event, 1-year anniversary event, Lunar new year event, etc). Some of these special events are partnerships with other web3 communities (BYOPills, Cyberkongz, etc), which is a fun way to onboard new users.

What’s not-so-good

The gameplay in its current form is not terribly exciting and often feels more like grinding. Their whitepaper revamp has been 9 months and counting, and things like the marketplace have been continuously delayed. That means some players have been playing/grinding for over a year without the ability to trade venari or base passes (earned through active gameplay), and quite a few are losing steam. Moreover, there has been very little info on tokenomics this whole time.

Final Opinion

More active gameplay (a 3D third-person game on a grid/map) is coming in Q1 according to their latest roadmap, and I expect a fresh wave of interest when this gets released. It remains to be seen how well their tokenomics are designed, and whether they’ll be able to maintain a sustainable ecosystem after they finally launch their marketplace. Given how many players have already accumulated thousands of venari and other in-game assets in anticipation of being able to trade them, the economy of the game could get off to a rocky start. Finally, although I can see LoV keeping an engaged community and player base, as far as blockchain creature collection games go I would guess Illuvium will likely have a much greater market share.

Impostors

Summary

Impostors is a social deduction game heavily inspired by the viral game Among Us, but with added pay-to-earn mechanics and more modern graphics. Each player is randomly assigned a role at the start of the game, which is either an innocent or an impostor. Innocent players must complete different tasks (mini-games) to win, while the impostors must murder every player without being caught. In this social game, players must discuss together to distinguish friends from foes.

What’s good

The core gameplay is a fun and proven formula that was very popular during the pandemic. A lot of improvements are being added, like new tasks and roles to diversify the gameplay. As for tokenomics, the $BLOOD token was a fair launch and only obtainable by owning the impostor NFT.

What’s not-so-good

The game has too many similarities with Among Us which takes away some of its identity. Too many aspects feel unnecessarily copied from Among Us, like locked doors. Next, the game was advertised as a triple-A game, but the graphics are far from these expectations. Lastly, the game balance needs to be worked on as the impostors were heavily advantaged when I played.

Final Opinion

Impostors has its place in web3 and has the required platform to onboard web2 users into web3. I feel like the beta gameplay does not meet the hype of what was advertised, but despite this, it remains a fun experience and properly captures what really makes social deduction games fun.

Phantom Galaxies

Summary

Phantom Galaxies combines an open-world online space sim with fast-paced mech shooter, similar to EVE Online. Players explore the universe and complete missions or engage in PvP battles in order to earn tokens. They can own generative avatars, upgradable mechs, and their own planets. They can also join guilds, manage their planets, and help govern the galaxy.

What’s good

Graphics and gameplay are both quite good, and major guilds like YGG and Avocado DAO have already bought planets. Presumably they’ll be major drivers in the onboarding of new players later on. The token distribution seems well thought out, with token emissions being tied to gameplay and planets, and more activity/production on a planet equating to more tokens. This is promising for the health and growth of the in-game economy.

What’s not-so-good

Between new episode releases and events, there is very little for the community to do, especially since PvP gameplay modes haven’t been released yet. And although people and guilds have already bought planets, there is very little info provided to planet owners to help them mobilize, organize, and incentivize players. These days feel like a period of waiting in limbo.

Final Opinion

For now Phantom Galaxies is one of the best playable blockchain-based games available to the public, and the barrier to entry is low (just requires a $4 NFT on Polygon). The team has game development experience, plenty of funding, and the backing of parent company Animoca Brands. Despite some delays, they have delivered on promised milestones and their first-mover advantage should continue to serve them well. The current player base isn’t huge (about 1.6k people completed all four alpha episodes and participated in the special event afterward), but it’s been a long bear market and once PvP becomes available and planets can be explored and built on, I think the player base ought to grow quite a bit.

Gods Unchained

Summary

Gods Unchained is the digital, on-chain version of Magic The Gathering. It is a collectible card game which players then use to battle opponents in the arena. Tournaments are held regularly and there is an extensive community website called gudecks.com to help players find optimal decks

What’s good

Gods Unchained boasts an enthusiastic and engaged community on Discord, and is a game that’s sure to appeal to fans of strategic card games like Magic: The Gathering and Gwent (The Witcher). One standout feature is the consistent distribution of card packs as players progress, which provides a powerful incentive to keep playing. Despite this, the temptation to purchase special packs of cards can be strong, as the allure of acquiring new and shiny cards is difficult to resist. One of the most captivating aspects of the game is the speed at which players can immerse themselves in the strategic deck-building process. Once in the battle arena, players must remain alert and think on their feet to stay ahead of their opponent!

What’s not-so-good

The most frustrating thing about the game is that it hogs all my processing power. It’s a bulky piece of software and not ideal for basic laptops. Each game can also be quite time-consuming so it’s vital to have a solid bit of free time and a stable internet connection throughout. Ideally, I would want to play a game like this on my phone but delivery on this feature is still TBA.

Final Opinion

An “oldie” (in the blockchain sense of the word) but a goody. The team are regularly releasing new and exciting decks and upgrades to keep you entertained. The ranked weekend competitions have a solid player base and haven’t lost momentum during this bear market. A good sign for the future. Those are our top 5 picks to get you started in the world of blockchain gaming. The most important thing is to have fun and stay curious! That is the core premise of games and projects that can achieve this will have a continuous stream of happy players who keep wanting more!