Westworld’s mobile game: Is it worth playing?

If you’re willing to juggle a lot of balls at once, the Westworld mobile game can be a lot of fun, but it’s not a particularly welcoming game.

Just like watching Westworld, playing the new mobile game is an exercise in managing multiple threads at once. It’s out today for both iOS and Android, and the game puts you in a training simulation for new employees of Delos. You’ll build hosts, send them out on interactions, and make improvements to your virtual park.

The thing is, the game encourages you to build a lot of things very quickly, so much so that it makes it tough to keep up with demand. While it doesn’t seem as though you need to constantly monitor the game in order to keep the park’s satisfaction levels high, it can quickly seem like that’s what you actually have to do, so score one for the game developers on that point. You can easily get caught up in accomplishing task after task, assigning your hosts to handle each guest individually.

But like Westworld itself, there are a lot of layers to each interaction. Each host has specific things they’re good at, like gambling or romance, and within those talents, they also have levels of skill. Guests have skill requirements — you can put a weaker host in, but that will likely result in a negative reaction. On top of that, each host has affinity colors that you can match for bonuses.

There are also ranks of hosts. Starting to get the picture? The worst part is, you aren’t able to easily obtain top-tier hosts; those who pre-registered got early access to Lawrence, and early quests let you build Teddy himself. However, they’re not even five-star hosts, and the early codes you obtain to build more seem to be focused on giving you one- to three-star hosts (and it’s mostly one-star hosts in this writer’s experience).

It’s possible to buy better codes using either premium currency or money, but one of the big bundles on sale, “Deathbringer Dolores,” is $49.99. That is not a typo. You get a five-star Deathbringer, materials, and more codes, but it doesn’t seem particularly worth it.

Of course, there’s also a plot, but unless you spend a lot of time in the game, you’re probably not going to be able to figure it out. (Hey, that’s just like the show, too!)

This doesn’t even get into other parts of the game, which include doing analysis interviews and diagnostics, because it’s just another set of things to manage. There are so many flashing or bouncing icons that it becomes tough to see what should go first or if there’s even any sort of urgency. Once you add in multiple locations, it gets even worse.

Next: 5 shows to watch if you love Westworld

Ultimately, it really depends on how much you like Westworld and how much you like constant resource management. Your hosts, after all, can fail, and if you don’t have codes to build a host, then sorry, you’ll have to make do with what you have. As someone who’s put a lot of time into another mobile game, there’s not much here to grab my attention for more than just a try.