While I do my best to try to understand the appeal of games of just about every type, I’ll admit that there are still some that challenge me. Weirdly enough, when in their more pure forms, even simplistic games that are casual, some sort of clicker, or any number of other low-impact styles can have their place and be engaging. Trying to figure out how to get your empire going to the point that it will sustain itself and go wild can be rewarding… at least to some degree. 

In the case of Idle Immortal, things are a bit more complicated though, as the developer has essentially taken a lot of team-building RPG-style mechanics and paired them with automatic combat. While I suppose any idea may potentially have an audience though, this one ends up feeling strangely specific and I can’t help but feel its appeal would be far more narrow than usual. The thing is, beyond the things that are automated there’s quite a lot that you’ll want to do, whether that’s hiring new members of your team, working to craft them better gear, or managing your group composition at a high level, and doing those things are all important to your ultimate success. Just I guess rather than working through a tired and bare bones turn-based combat slog it just streamlines that aspect is the idea?

In order to try to add some value to the package, I’ll admit that the game’s art style is pretty attractive and its interfaces are mostly clean, if perhaps a little busy and hard to follow at first. In-game instruction is present, but could have used a little more clarity in spots, just to be sure people are really grasping the crucial things they’ll need to do. Team and character management do end up making sense, but I’ll admit that the interfaces for that are a little clunky. In the end, it’s absolutely a unique combination of elements, and it’s mostly well-presented, but I do question how much of an audience there is to win over with it.