Missed the mark

This app has so much content development and is so close to being good that its hard to understand why the developers didnt go the tiny extra distance that would have transmuted this app from being frustrating and mediocre to being incredible. The voice narration -spot on. The pacing - quite good. The storyline - riveting enough to want to know whys comes next.

But the integration of all of these ingredients into an app that just works? Abysmal. As you walk along, the story clips do not auto play - you are required to open the app, dismiss a screen, find a button on a map, and press it. Whilst walking, mind you. There is zero music integration, which isnt a deal killer - but the story is seen by the iPhone as a media track and not a notification sound, meaning that every time you press a button to listen to a story, your music cuts out and the story plays... And the music never cuts back in. You cant even start the music again with the play controls on your earbuds - you have to open the music app up again manually and press play. This is utter rubbish, and makes this nearly useless to use during a walk; there is no option for automation whatsoever. What is odd is that these developers clearly understand how this can be better done - they make the more popular (and MUCH better coded) Zombies - run! App, which incorporates music and requires no user input to advance the story.

With just a few small tweaks, this would easily be an app that is highly popular and that would have entire busy reddit forums devoted to it - but as it is, its a really big, really elaborate damp squib.

chakalakasp about The Walk: Fitness Tracker Game