Pokemon Go’s Max Raid Battles continue to rub players the wrong way, this time as a result of the game’s Psychic Spectacular event.
As part of the limited-time affair, Dynamax Beldum has started appearing in PoGo’s Power Spots. Victory over the Psychic/Steel-type grants the opportunity to catch and evolve the single-eyed ‘mon into fearsome pseudo-legendary Metagross, itself able to Dynamax.
The problem? Players have collectively bemoaned numerous technical issues they’ve encountered when trying to engage in Max Battles, most notably crashes and wonky, unreliable dodging.
“Once again they managed to rush out half-baked content”, came one heavily upvoted thread on Reddit, adding, “They clearly invested resources in the feature, so wouldn’t it make sense to ensure it actually works?”.
Participation in Max Raid Battles is in-person only – no option for remote play is available and it remains unclear whether Niantic intends to change this in the future. Likewise, only Pokemon able to Dynamax are eligible to engage with Max Out’s central gameplay.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“Had Beldum Raids crash multiple times on me today. It would quite happily take my Max Particles and give the middle finger in return”, came one reply in the same thread. Others were made to feel as though they were playtesting content instead of Niantic in light of the raft of issues many have faced. “The thing with Niantic is we are the playtest… They just put stuff out with spit and ducktape and hope it works.”
Losing Max Particles as a result of game crashes is a bitter pill to swallow, not least due to the cap placed on how much of the currency can be earned in a 24-hour period.
Niantic has frequently distributed compensation for issues faced by players in the past, though it remains to be seen if, on this occasion, they’ve been widespread enough to justify any such make-up
