izigame.me

I really like this game, but I cannot recommend it at the current state it is in without some fundamental changes made to how the game functions and interacts with the players.
While Karmazoo is exactly what you get on the box, a character based platformer in which you play as a different animal which different abilities in a cooperative setting in order to reach the end while helping each other and collecting fruit. The overall goal being completing 4 levels and reaching the end to feed the karma tree and be rewarded in Karma (in game currency) based on how the group did. Rinse repeat.
Different characters are unlocked via the karma. Each character has objectives to master them and unlock their linked Sherpa. However, the pricing on characters range from what could be achieved in a normal round, to almost 40 hours worth of grinding and hoping you average over 1.5k karma to obtain 100k for a single unlock.
This is where the problems start, the grind is probably one of the worst I have seen especially after the nerfing of earning karma from characters that were designed around earning large amounts of karma. There is no incentive to play other characters beyond completing the challenges unless that character earns more karma for the group, in which case you will see more of that character.
Because of this, it makes the same characters show up in queue, which as the levels generate based upon character abilities, the maps tend to be the same variation queue rather than any maps that require specific abilities. Continuing this on with the fact that you are not able to queue with friends and randoms, in addition to the quantity of players also makes the level choices vary, the levels repeat relatively quickly.
There are no incentives for experimenting with different character combinations, and there is no way to change characters once you have entered a lobby. This means that if there are 3 fires, 2 spiders, and 2 wolves, you have to completely leave to change a character and pray that you might enter the same lobby.
There is also no in game chat, which while a benefit to remove both the language barrier for crossplay and toxic/foul language, it makes communicating game mechanics very hard. This is especially so when one character is needed to complete an objective to progress. There is a lack of emotes for concepts such as "here/come here" "yes/O" "no/X" "exit" "fruit/karma juice." There is no way to communicate these concepts to other players, especially if you are trying to get them to stand in a specific spot, telling them not to leave as there are still fruit to collect, or to leave if the rest of the group had separated for fruit to leave the exit (or if they are softlocked, and you need to leave in order to progress, which has happened twice to me personally.) This is paired with the ways to communicate are also hidden, meaning that new players might not even have what more experienced players are using in order to communicate basic concepts of "let's go" or "stop."
It's frustrating as the game is really fun and a great game to chill play with friends. However, some of these flaws make the longevity of the game seem to be artificially extended through partial character releases through community objectives, but not actually expanding player's interest through creating catered experiences to mix things up.
If you're really interested, pick it up on sale, but I'm not changing this review until some changes like a character switch, better incentives and ways to earn karma, and better ways for player communication be implemented.