Summoners War: Rush review - "Effortless and enjoyable progression, as long as the adrenaline rush lasts"

• Convenient auto functions are perfect for idling
• Plenty of Summoners War Monsters to collect
• Not sure how long it can hold your interest

Cramming my hundred-hour JRPG quests in between homework and endless exams as a student made me believe with my heart and soul that, once I was a cool and independent adult, I could have all the free time in the world. I would toss chores aside and play games anytime I felt like it, all while managing a career and family life and social obligations flawlessly like a calm, collected and totally put-together boss.

Suffice it to say that none of those lofty ideals ever came to pass when I graduated years and years ago, making idle RPGs like Summoners War: Rush more and more appealing as the relentless adulting errands came one after the next. But is it everything a lazy - er, busy - bee needs, or is it just another filler on your phone's limited real estate?

---

Table of contents:

• Summoners War: Rush visuals
• Summoners War: Rush gameplay
• Summoners War: Rush verdict

---

Summoners War: Rush Visuals

The main feature of the visuals here is, as you might expect, the roster of characters from the Summoners War franchise, given that you can collect these Monsters more easily than the average gacha fare. 

There will be many, many summons available to you as you progress through the missions, so much so that there's an option to toggle the continuous summoning feature so you can keep rolling until you run out of currencies.

In fact, "keep going until you run out" applies to every aspect of the RPG, from the auto-battles in the campaign to the raid dungeons and side-missions.

Keep fighting until your HP runs out, your potions run out (which you can set to auto-use as well), or your Magic Orbs run out (to summon equipment), and when they do, you pick up the pieces of your failure (or, in this case, your spoils), then use your loot to grow stronger and do it all over again. 

---

• Honor 400 Pro review - "A compact and comfortable gaming option"

---

All these are presented with vibrant visuals, flashy effects, and chaotic combat, adding to the frantic feeling of overwhelming power when you're blasting through foes from one stage to another.

It's a dopamine fix, if you will, as the rewards keep pouring in, too, from the one-too-many tabs on your screen. The portrait orientation adds to its pick-up-and-play nature, especially since you can just set everything to auto and leave it on while the system does the work for you.

Summoners War: Rush Gameplay

In that sense, I suppose it's more of a pick-up-and-leave affair, come to think of it, as you don't exactly "play" so much as you watch. All you have to do is use your loot to boost your levels, then watch the magic unfold while you flit off to the real world to catch up on neglected IRL duties. 

It even has that screen-dimming feature that's common on mobile these days - think of it as a bit of a screensaver that saves power for you to encourage you to leave your heroes battling endless hordes of foes without you.

There is, however, a tower defence mode if you're feeling like you want to go hands-on instead, but in a way, it's also incredibly idle in that you'll set up your formation, set the speed multiplier to your liking, then hit Start to set it all in motion.

---

• We have the latest Summoners War Rush codes

---

You can choose to control how your randomised skill cards are used every now and then, but even that can be set to Auto, so you literally won't have to lift a finger while you're keeping Sky Island safe.

What's the appeal?

That is, of course, the entire appeal of mobile idle games - the fact that I can just chuck my phone to the side and keep typing on my computer to, say, finish up a Summoners War: Rush review. The issue is that I didn't particularly feel motivated to keep levelling up and fighting through foes the whole week I was playing this, and maybe the reason is that I didn't know what I was fighting for.

Even idle RPGs, in my opinion, need to have some sort of overarching narrative - no matter how cheesy or cliche or unremarkable - to give it a bit of oomph. That could just be me and my obsession with stories, but even The King of Fighters AFK - which bears an uncanny resemblance to Summoners War: Rush in terms of gameplay and mechanics - had a silly but entertaining story to tell. 

I suppose if all you really want is to have something running in the background while you do your chores, then the quality-of-life features here and all the automated functions are top-notch.

They do their job incredibly well, and you really can leave your heroes to their own devices, then come back to see how well they fared and reap the rewards later on. 

---

• "Compelling roguelike combat that has taken over my entire life"

---

It also perfectly captures that rush (hence the title, perhaps) of grabbing loads and loads of goodies for little to no effort, offering instant gratification for when all you need is a feel-good fix. 

But while that's all well and good, I'm just not sure how long this initial jolt of excitement will last if I don't know why I'm supposed to be in it for the long haul in the first place, at least for me.

Overall, Summoners War: Rush is an ideal AFK adventure to dive into if you're looking for something to keep your phone busy while you yourself are busy. It has all the right features to let you do just that, from the menus to the functions to the level of progression. If that initial rush is enough to sustain you for a long, long time, then you can't go wrong with this one.