Sortle Review

Developer: Color Monkey
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 5

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Overall Rating:

Sortle is a multiplayer-focused trivia game that manages to look quite professional in appearance, while still lacking a few finer touches to make it as high quality as it looks. While free to play initially, for those keen on playing more frequently an in-app purchase to unlock the full game will almost certainly be needed.

The key idea behind Sortle is that players must rearrange a series of answers into the correct order. Questions are pretty varied. For one question, one might be working out which actor is taller than others. For another, one might be determining when great philosophers were born. Often, there are a couple of obvious answers to throw into the mix but there are plenty of curve balls in there, with subtle differences needing to be considered.

This is unfortunate as Sortle has plenty of potential. Its interface is clear to use and it'd be the ideal game to dive into throughout the day, providing one has some reliable friends. Pairing up with random opponents is, predictably, quite slow going. The issue is compounded by the fact that there's no way of resigning from a game if it's not the player's turn. Instead, they have to wait for 72 hours of non-activity in order to win by default. It's an issue that doesn't mix well with the fact that the free version allows for only 3 games at a time, but it does a good job of encouraging one to pay up for the premium version.

Sortle might be a flawed game at the moment but its concept is sound. Its question base kept me keen to learn more as well as return for more, even despite the issues surrounding it. It might not quite be a must-buy title just yet, but its potential still makes it worth taking a glance at.