Dune: Imperium on the iPhone - Thoughts after 24 hours

Well, no, I've not actually been playing it for twenty-four hours, but it has been in the Apple Store for just about that long and I was able to get several games in last night and have some initial thoughts and comments for those who might be curious about it, as well as some discussion points and minor improvements on which I'd like everyone else's thoughts.

Pros:

  1. No bugs or crashes thus far; I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, not sure how this would run on older iPhones, but on this phone it runs perfectly. Doesn't kill the battery or heat up my phone as bad as some other apps (looking at you, Through the Ages...)
  2. Really great UI. There's a LOT of information that needs to be packed into a small space, but the designers have done a great job minimizing the board and leaning on iconography to display as much information as possible on the main screen.
  3. The ability to hold (long press) a small card and see a close-up version of it is very nice.
  4. The AI seems very legit. You have the option to play the traditional solo "House Hagal" version, but you can also play a 2, 3, or 4-player game against as many AI opponents, and it provides an experience much closer to regular multiplayer gameplay. The AI makes respectable moves (at least on medium difficulty) and will certainly pressure you into taking coveted spaces first, as you'd hope/expect from a tight worker placement game.
  5. $10.99 is very affordable for a game of this stature, especially considering the huge IP behind it.
  6. For online play, you can have real-time or asynchronous (turn based) which is great for busy people who might not be able to find a dedicated hour or two to play a full game in one shot.

Cons:

  1. Notifications seem to not be working at this time. The options are turned on in my phone settings, but I do not receive notifications for when it is my turn in an online game. I have confirmed with other people that their notifications are not working either.
  2. When inviting a friend to an online game, you can only invite them if they are currently online. Even if you are inviting them to an asynchronous / turn-based game. This is weird, and I hope this will be fixed soon. Through the Ages allows you to invite offline friends - it just sends them a "join game" request that they can accept (or deny) whenever they are next on their phone.
  3. Very minor nitpick: I'm still getting use to how the placement of your agents works - you have to basically drag the card from your hand to the space you want to use. I suppose this is fairly intuitive, but I would just prefer tapping the card, then tapping the space I want to travel to. Again, I'm sure I'll get used to this and it's really not that big of a deal anyway, but it would be nice to have an option to choose how you wanted to control it. Edited: Thanks to commenters for pointing out that you can double-tap your cards to "activate" it, then simply tap the action you want to take. Awesome!
  4. I wish there were a way to even more quickly speed through AI turns (or opponent turns in an online game). Sometimes I will hop into a game and it will show me the opponent turns - OK, great. Now it's my turn. Ah crap, I get a text message from someone and exit the app, then check another app, then forget about the game. Eventually I remember, oh yeah, it's my turn, so I open Dune and hop back into the game, and it shows me every opponent turn all over again. I wish you could just "skip to your turn" like Terra Mystica has. And there is a game log that you can easily recap everything that happened, so I don't always need to see the full animation of other players' turns. (If there is a way to skip or fast forward through this and I'm simply missing it, someone please let me know!)

All in all, the app is great, and my complaints are very minor. Very much looking forward to the addition of Rise of Ix (an almost necessary expansion, imo) but will happily enjoy the base game for the time being. Probably among the best board game app adaptations I've seen in a very long time. (I still think Through the Ages is the best, but that's a high bar.)

What are your thoughts? Likes? Dislikes?