ENDGAME is a game from the creators of Ingress based on augmented reality and books by James Frey. Overview of the Russian AR-shooter on the geolocation Diverse Worlds

I collect all the documents and send a request to the FSB to visit the border zone in Chukotka. Two weeks later, confirmation is in hand, and now I'm on a plane from Yekaterinburg to Anadyr. Landing. There is a terrible frost on the street, passengers are asked to transfer to a helicopter that transports arrivals to a city located on the other side of the icy Anadyr estuary. Finally I'm in place - on the very edge of the world. I start capturing portals and cracking keys, then to transfer them to Kyiv, and then to agents in Alaska. The operation to link Anadyr and the USA is going well.

This is not a piece from a dystopia or a cyberpunk action movie. This is an absolutely real story, which Anton Khudozhnik, one of the most famous Russian players in Ingress. “The world is not what it seems to you,” say the developers. And this is true: even in the smallest Russian city, the car chase may not be a couple of street racers, but the disruption of the “green” operation to seize the Earth. Blondes with smartphones in a cafe, most likely, do not scroll through the Instagram feed, but hack into all the portals in the area.

It is enough to install Ingress on your smartphone, and your view of the world around you can change dramatically. What is Ingress?

Game Basics: Faction System and Story

Ingress is an augmented reality game. It was released in 2012 and is based on the capture of virtual analogues of city attractions - portals. Monuments, monuments, squares and other iconic objects of the city act as portals. Some of them were brought into the game by the developers, but the bulk of them were added and continue to be added by the players themselves. To capture portals, you need to be physically close to them.

There are two factions in the game: conditional "blue" and "green", which are fighting for control over the territory. Having captured two portals, players can make a connection between them (or "throw a link"). If you succeed in capturing and linking three portals, then the space between them is also considered captured and painted over in the color of the faction. Actually, this is the whole essence of the game: to capture and paint in your color as much territory as possible, without allowing the enemy to do the same.

It is possible to cheat and change your own GPS coordinates, but cheating is severely suppressed: the players themselves immediately “knock” and a lifetime ban from the developers will not take long

The game's most loyal fans can tell you the best about the game. Therefore, we contacted two leading figures in the gaming community, organizers of the largest informal Ingress events in Russia: Oksana Timofeeva and Viktor Kabernik.

Oksana: According to legend, two factions are fighting for influence on Earth: “Enlightened” (“enlightened”, marked in green) and “Resistance” (“resistance”, marked in blue). Their struggle is for control over exotic matter - some kind of higher power that makes people talented. But at the same time, people can become talented from it both in a good and in a bad sense: that is, both great composers and, for example, great dictators are equally “infected” with it. The Green faction believes that, despite the potential threats, exotic matter must still exist in order to endow people with talents. The Blue faction argues that the influence of such a force is too unpredictable, which means that it should not be.

Victor: The storyline of Ingress was strong at the start, but it gets more dotted as it goes on. At the beginning, the developers tried to make the story interactive, so that the actions of the players would directly affect it. But the further, the stronger the priorities changed. After the release of Ingress from beta, there was a massive influx of newcomers who did not understand what was happening here. They just ran and took over the portals. As a result, the storyline began to be traced more and more weakly, and the actions of the players ceased to influence it at all.

How regular players play

« One of our agents once farmed in an industrial area outside the city, where several thefts had previously occurred (which the agent did not know about). There he walked with a smartphone, hacking portals. Through the surveillance cameras, the guards saw that some guy was moving around the territory, then he stood in one place for a long time and looked at the floor - in general, they immediately called the police. The police interrogated him for more than half an hour. The guy tried to explain that this is an augmented reality game, and they eventually let him go, but it was clear that they did not buy his version

Oksana: Among the players there is a very large layer of people whom we call "regional goodies". They simply go from work to home and capture all the portals along the way at the same time.

Oksana: Despite this, an active war for territories is constantly going on both in Moscow and in the regions. For example, if it turns out that there is a portal near your house, then it is quite possible that it will be repainted ( move from one faction to another - approx. ed.) seven times a day.

Everyone is having fun as much as they can. Someone constantly puts farms ( massive clusters of portals at a short distance, which can be quickly bypassed - in 10 minutes - and get a lot of items from them at once to increase the level - ed..). It is interesting for someone to “keep” their area in their color. Someone is interested in doing field art - creating images on a map from blue and green fields. By the way, the first field art was made in Moscow.

Victor: Basically, all the players do this: they farm and repaint as much territory as possible in their color. But if ordinary players do it from time to time and can only paint over their own yard, then organized players are planning such actions that can repaint the whole of Europe.

How "serious" players play

« I knew one player who was driving a huge pickup truck, and he had fun: he drove up to the portals of his faction, waited for the burglar, calculated him (this is not difficult to do, because the burglar should be nearby and he will have a smartphone in his hands), and then started to pursue. He just drove a few dozen meters behind, repainting all the portals of the person he was chasing. Once he drove a player on a motorcycle into a dead end, into a narrow lane, and the motorcyclist had to urgently brake and turn around so as not to hit the wall. They say the motorcyclist didn't play Ingress anymore” (the story of one of the players on Reddit).

Victor: In the Ingress community, anyone can find something to their liking: someone likes refereeing complex actions, someone likes traveling or running around the city, someone prefers to coordinate a team.

Oksana: A lot of people are needed for every major “repainting” campaign, including drivers. The leaders give them instructions: for example, to drive from Tverskaya to Voykovskaya at a predetermined time along an agreed route, capturing all the portals along the way. It happened that in one night they completely repainted Moscow.

There are approximately 600 active players who regularly participate in our events in Moscow. There are many players in the regions: from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Murmansk.

Victor: Ingress is not a game in the usual sense, but rather a space for the game: the rules here are set by the players themselves. And that's what we're doing - thinking about what to do.

The biggest operation I ever coordinated somehow took over a sixth of the world by painting it green. The story began with the fact that I came to Tenerife, met with one of the local players there, and we had the idea to try to capture a really large territory. A working group was found, 12 people, who - each in their own country - gathered other groups that were also involved in the operation.

It was enough to capture only 19 portals around the world (the maximum range of establishing a link between portals of the highest level is about 655 km. But they should not intersect with links of the opposite faction of the same level), and to guarantee success, we also provided a "plan B". As a result, 150 portals were prepared simultaneously, on each of which we had our own person - in Canada, Magadan, Hawaii. In total, 460 people took part in the event, and the vast majority of them did not know what they were doing at all ( such secrecy is needed so that the opposite faction cannot disrupt the operation by creating their connections within the huge field - approx. ed.)

The preparation of this operation took five months, and so far it is the largest operation in the world. For each such operation, a plot is written, complex riddles are created in it. One operation even launched an internal internet radio for participants.

About interfactional events

« We put, then, late last night, the 8th "farm" on the Borodino panorama. Suddenly, two "greens" appear. I really didn’t like one: the swearing is terrible. But they say he's a good man. Then I remembered that I had to give the girl a few items. "Green" ears pricked up, heard, let's spin around us. You can’t throw a capsule with little things in their presence - they will pick it up first. We got to the girl's car. The Greens are with us. They are not going to leave under any pretext: they are examining the car, pestering with questions. OK, I say, let's go, let's drive off, I'll drop the capsule for you. OK, he says. We look - the “greens” suddenly rushed somewhere at a terrible speed, wagging their asses. Well, we didn’t understand, we neighed ... Then we look - 50 meters away the car door is opened. Turns out they also had a car. We tear to Kutuzovsky, along it towards the region. The girl annealed: either she will pass through the gas station with a breeze, then a piece in the opposite direction ... These two do not lag behind. We rush through the night Kuntsevo (it's around midnight), across the Setun platform, trying to drop the "tail". Finally we stop at one gas station - we really needed to refuel. The "Greens" make a couple of circles around us, like not looking in our direction and generally by accident - and such pursuit in the real world is strictly prohibited by the rules of the game, for such a ban they will immediately slap. I take pictures of them, they cover their faces. Finally, they pretend that they are driving off, I jump on the scooter, rush in the opposite direction, estimating how much I need to drive off so that the girl reaches the abandoned capsule, and the “greens” do not. It worked. The Greens are taking pictures of us, yelling something about using a second account, that everyone has filmed and will write a report on us. I answer that I also filmed everything and, in turn, I’ll slap such a report for harassment on both of them that it won’t seem enough, we risked our lives, seeing that an unknown car was persistently chasing us. With that we parted» (the story of one of the players in Facebook).

Although the "blues" and "greens" are irreconcilable enemies, and showdowns between them sometimes reach a massacre, truly enthusiastic players consider such behavior unsportsmanlike. The leaders of both factions are in constant contact with each other and even try to hold joint events designed for hundreds of participants.

Victor: The rules are discussed, each faction nominates several representatives, and then the competition begins according to these rules. The mechanics of such an event is arbitrary. For example, both factions must bring a pedestrian to a certain point.

Oksana: This pedestrian is a real person walking along a route created for him from links. The task of the teams is to lead a person through their links, not allowing the other team to “steal” him. The team that led the pedestrian to its finish line wins. If the allotted time - for example, four hours - is over, and the person has not reached anywhere, a draw is declared.

Victor: Such an event requires the efforts of several hundred people.

Why do people play Ingress?

This was the most important question we asked Viktor and Oksana. There are enough worries and problems in our world - why do they add new ones to themselves?

Oksana: Starting to play Ingress, I began to communicate with people from other cities and countries. Each faction has familiar agents in almost every city. They will not necessarily respond to your arrival, but having reached, for example, Ufa, you can find someone with Ingress and ask them to help sort out the city.

Victor: Ingress is a story about global mobility where a lot of travel is required. There is, for example, the city of Alexandria, but there are no local players there at all. According to the plot task, a shard got there ( a 13-piece artifact that each faction needed to deliver to their city. The artifact could only be moved along links between portals - ed.). It is not clear how this fragment was brought there, but it is necessary to get it out. As a faction, we quickly raised money for a trip to Alexandria by a landing force of several people. They arrived, took over the portals, moved the shard, and quickly left.

« We dive into the already familiar darkness of the park. Branches crunch underfoot, someone is eating someone in the bushes. We quietly continue to move towards the portal. The police are coming. Questions follow about who we are and what we do here. We explain that this is a game associated with the study and visiting of ancient monuments. In the process of conversations, we capture the portal and throw a link. Just in time, because the agents of the Resistance are already very close and are attacking our portals in the park. All this time, the police officer is studying our passports, visas, tickets, betraying the data on the radio for verification. We are being searched. Finally the shard moves to our target, Turkey. I am experiencing a real buzz from the successful completion of a key phase of the operation. So, we did not fly here in vain” (report on the operation in Alexandria from a player in LiveJournal).

Ingress is a pen test for Google in the world of augmented reality games, the first pancake, which turned out to be lumpy in many respects: it is not in the tops, it is not talked about at every corner, and there are no beautiful graphics in it, but there is a terrible interface, and to communicate with other agents have to go through the wildly inconvenient Google+. But if you somehow manage to get used to all this, it will be difficult to get you out of Ingress - in fact, you will have a second, parallel life, in which there are sudden night chases, difficult tasks, cunning intrigues and new friends (as well as new enemies ). Is it worth it or not? Decide for yourself.

Is one application that allows you to collect Pokemon and use augmented reality not enough for you? Luckily, there are more games similar to Pokemon GO that might interest you. Some are similar in gameplay, while others are also aimed at collecting.

Ingress is the progenitor of Pokemon Go

The TOP of games similar to Pokemon Go, without a doubt, should lead Ingress - the first cult brainchild of the Niantic studio. The game is over two years old, and loyal fans are still not tired of fighting for control of the territories.

This is the first game to use the augmented reality mode as the main element of the gameplay. Players, as in Pokemon GO, moved around the real map, walking around the city. But instead of Poké stops and halls, they had portals that could be captured. There are two teams in the game that are fighting for territories: Green (Enlightened) and Blue (Resistance).

Moving around the map, you need to capture the portals, connect them in pairs, and then in threes, forming triangles. In this way? the team gains control over the so-called "flies" - units of mysterious energy that appear on the surface near portals and in crowded places.

If you are more interested not in augmented reality, but in the elements of collecting and developing fighters, then you can try Mino Monsters 2: Evolution. Here you have to explore the islands, fight with the spirits of nature and collect them. It's funny that it looks exactly like a Poké Ball capture from Pokemon GO.

Gorgeous bright graphics, the ability to develop and evolve your wards, a system of species like in Pokemon Go - the games have a lot in common, it's not for nothing that they are recommended by each other.

Pokemon GO is a franchise for many ages, including very young audiences. If a child wants to throw Pokeballs, fight, search for and catch Pokemon, but it’s scary to let him out on the street alone, you can temporarily take a young gamer with the Camp Pokemon application.

Android games similar to Pokemon GO can have very different gameplay. In this case, we are dealing with an application that develops reaction speed, attentiveness and other important skills. The Pokémon Camp is an island with different locations, each of which presents its own mini-game.

Geocaching and others

Geocaching is a great app for those who like to search for treasures and walk alone. Players around the world leave caches in some hard-to-reach or remarkable places, and then look for what others have hidden. Unfortunately, this game has not received such a widespread distribution in the CIS countries, and therefore you, most likely, will have to become the first in your region.

I would also like to mention an application for those who like to run in the morning - Zombies, Run! According to legend, the player saves the city from the invasion of zombies, and therefore it is not recommended to hesitate or stand still.

Similar to Pokemon GO is the game SpecTrek Light, where you need to find and catch ghosts by capturing them with a camera. The application is incomparably simpler than games from Niantic, but still has an army of fans.

Game trailer

Since it was Ingress that became the progenitor of the Pokemon GO game, and also provided the base of poke stops (portals), we advise you to read this review. We have an article dedicated to where the relationship between these two applications is considered in detail.

While the world is going crazy with Pokemon catching, we've compiled a small selection of Pokemon GO-like games that also use augmented reality, geolocation, and GPS tracking.

So far, experts cannot fully explain the phenomenon of such popularity of Pokemon GO. The main version is not even in Pokemon, but in the presence of a "chip" with augmented reality. Walking around the city, catching an animal, collecting a collection of rare Pokémon, arranging battles with others, buying Pokemon GO Plus to complete the experience - all this attracts players. But there were already games with a similar augmented reality scenario before Pokemon GO. We have selected the most interesting alternative games similar to Pokemon GO.

Ingress

Ingress is a game from Niantic and is very similar to their brainchild - Pokemon GO. The same rpg with augmented reality that uses the player's geolocation and tracks movements on the map with scattered tasks.

There are two enlightened or resistance factions in the game who are in search of mysterious material energy. Despite the intricately written scenario, the game will also make you walk around the city a lot and look for artifacts, keys and other things. You can team up with other players to complete tasks faster. There are versions for iOS and Android.

Geocaching

Probably one of the largest adventure games in which you have to find hidden caches, of which there are quite a lot and they are hidden everywhere. Geocaching also uses the geolocation of the player on a real map and the measurement of the distance traveled. To start the game you need to register on the official website Geocaching where you can find out more details about it. As for me, it is perfect for lovers of lonely rpg and secret interaction with other players.

Zombies Run!

The legend of the game - the city is captured by the dead, and you must save the rest. To do this, you need to collect all the artifacts and build your base. Whether it works or not depends on the speed of the run. The faster you run, the more bonuses you collect for passing. But as soon as you stop, you will hear breathing, voices and the stomp of approaching zombies in your headphones. Therefore, you need to keep moving.

The game is designed for fans of active running and contains augmented reality in the form of sound effects and GPS tracking of the player's movement speed. In general, as for me, if you like to run - the application Zombies, Run! will spur you to do it more intensively - there is no other chip in it. Available in App Store and Google Play.

SpecTrek Light

Another game, alternative Pokemon GO - SpecTrek Light. In it, you will have to catch ghosts, which can be tracked using GPS geolocation. Using the camera, you need to capture the ghost and catch it. The game contains rewards for passing, records, titles and nice bonuses.

In the process of hunting for ghosts, you will walk a short distance compared to catching Pokemon, but this does not make the game less interesting.

BallStrike (iOS)

An old game on iOS, but quite fun nonetheless. In BallStrike you have to pop the balls that will appear on the monitor screen. The front camera is used to see where the ball is. As you progress, the number of balls will increase, and you have to dodge and kill them more intensively. I think the video here will tell everything for itself.

The Walk Fitness Tracker Game

The game (from the makers of Zombies, Run!) is a typical pedometer app. In it, you will become a superhero who must take the package to a special destination. You will wander the streets, and the voice and music in the headphones will make the background and some seriousness of everything that happens. It takes up to 3 months to complete the game, after which you will develop the habit of walking. You can easily find it in the Play Market.

Conclusion

In fact, there are a lot of games of this genre, but in Pokemon GO, the creators were able to combine geolocation with catching Pokemon from childhood, which gave such an explosive effect. I think that in the wake of the popularity of augmented reality games, we can soon expect a large number of interesting applications. And I would not be surprised if they are not just clones or similar to Pokemon GO, but much better.

In contact with

You can’t just take and pass by the game, the developer of which was Google, and the number of downloads exceeded 5,000,000. A whole world was invented for the gameplay.

The uniqueness of Ingress is that, unlike other applications, it does not need a quick reaction and dexterity of your fingers, but you need good orientation in the area, physical fitness, knowledge of city attractions and a desire to walk around various places in your hometown.

Multiplayer online game with elements of augmented reality. To take part in the gameplay, you need a smartphone or tablet with the game installed, an Internet connection and GPS.

The game features two factions, which are indicated by green and blue colors of objects on the map. The main task is to capture free and enemy portals. In the process of performing certain actions, the level will increase, which will increase your advantage and opportunities. The greatest efficiency is provided by well-coordinated team actions discussed in the chat.

The Ingress legend is like this. During the experiment on the Collider, scientists obtained Exotic Matter (exotic matter), which spread throughout the world. And she was attracted to various libraries, monuments and other architectural structures, where she began to multiply and recover. After that, portals leading to another world were formed there. From the portals climbed some creation Shapers (Shapers). Nobody knows who they are and what they look like, but it is known that they came to change our world.

It is up to ordinary people to deal with this problem. But not without exception to everyone, but only to those who have a special scanner. But since people failed to come to a consensus, two factions were formed - Resistance (Resistance) and Enlightened (Enlightened).

Resistance is by no means happy with the appearance of Schweipers on our land. For them, these are ordinary invaders who take over human consciousness. They will not bring anything new, but they will take over human bodies.

But the Enlightened Ones believe that Shapers bring joy, happiness and goodness. It turned out that the Schweipers from ancient times helped in the development of mankind and controlled creative people. And since they have already infiltrated here, let them control people directly.

To defend their point of view, each of the factions is trying to seize control of a large number of Mind Units (Thinking Units). To do this, you will have to capture portals and connect with links. Portals are corners, and connections are sides, capturing them, a field is formed, which contributes to the treasury of the Mind Units faction. Which faction has more Mind Units is right.

Probably the most useful game on Android. Constant walks through the streets of your city, visiting historical monuments and sometimes completely unfamiliar places, leaves an indelible impression. In addition, this is a new acquaintance with real people, and not online, as it is in other games. You meet with one, two or ten players and develop a strategy and plan to take over the world.

But it was not without a fly in the ointment - this is energy consumption. GPS, screen and internet kill any battery, and the specifics of the game do not allow it to be recharged.

There are a couple more unique cons. Strangers look very suspiciously at the players who, buried in their phones, walk in circles near monuments, museums and historical buildings. And in the USA there were even cases of clashes between representatives of different factions, we have not had such cases so far, fortunately.

The earth is under threat and world conflicts are growing every day, so you need to sort them out and choose one of the sides. The future of the entire planet is at stake, so you need to act quickly and fairly measuredly. This is a short story about what you will meet in this best-selling adventure game for android. The game is so famous that it doesn't even need to be introduced. In a fairly short period of existence, it has already gained more than 10 million downloads and more than 337 thousand ratings from users from all over the world.

From the first missions, we managed to find out that scientists have discovered some kind of hidden energy that can increase the intellectual potential of each person and make his brain work to the maximum. But there is one caveat that absolutely everyone wants to get it, including the first world villains. Therefore, the sooner you find it, the greater your influence will be. Download the application to your phone or tablet from the Igroid website and find out all the secrets of this story with us.

1. Internet is required for this, so we recommend that you have a normal 3G with you.
2. There are only two factions: initiates (green) and resistance (blue).
3. There are certain portals that are created by reading real objects with a smartphone camera.

In conclusion, we note that the entire gameplay is built on a phenomenal idea. The developers claim that all the objects around you, namely streets, monuments, houses and other buildings can turn into game textures. Thus, you create your own personal world and play as if in reality. Click to download Ingress for Android and unravel the secret of amazing energy that can change the course of human history as soon as possible.