My Recommendation: It's freemium, and it's pushing the boundaries of how far you can go without paying, but overall it's a quality RPG that can still be enjoyed for free, perhaps not beaten easily.
Angry Birds Epic is an turn based RPG where you control a few of your favorite Angry Birds in their quest to save some helpless eggs from some ruthless pigs. Throughout your journey, you upgrade your equipment, craft new items, and kick some serious piggy ass.
Spanking some serious ham...
I really like that the game puts serious effort into making you change around your birds. Not only does each bird have different strengths, but they all have different hats that effectively change their skillset. So you're constantly searching for the right combination of birds and hats to dominate each level, and it's really rewarding when you find a set that works for you.
Pro Tip: Using Red's Samurai Helmet, Yellow's Rainbird, and White's Thorns is fantastic for turtling
The overworld map is also pretty nice. It's very nonlinear, and different plot events constantly unlock new paths to go back and explore. And the crafting system practically forces you to go back and replay levels, giving the game a nice lasting effect. However, that also points me in the direction of the game's biggest flaw.
The inexplicably placed chests on the countryside?
Don't get me wrong, this game does Freemium pretty well. You steadily gain the premium currency through consecutive daily logins, and there are video ads that are optional but give you in game perks, so that's a fantastic feature. However, the game gets really grindy as it reaches the climax of the story. The equipment requires more and more materials, yet each level doesn't ramp up how fast you acquire crafting supplies. So late in the game, unless you feel like shelling out real world money to buy currency to buy the in game items, you have to pretty much go through unspeakable amounts of grinding to craft the good items. And if you haven't upgraded your anvil, you may roll it poorly, effectively wasting your ingredients.
Now, the game itself is very fun, and you can still enjoy yourself for quite awhile without paying. Hell, I'm still playing it through the grinding and I'm not particularly irate yet. But it's getting to a point where the storyline is causing me too much mental anguish to continue. If only the levels later on gave you better crafting supplies, that might vary it enough to help me hobble through the grinding. As it is, the whole experience becomes a chore, and that's not what I want in a video game.
So I recommend this to RPG and Angry Birds fans, but if you're not a fan of grinding, then you may want to put it down after you find yourself getting too frustrated (unless you want to buy yourself to the top). And if you really want to beat the game for free, good luck! I don't think I'll reach that milestone.
Scorecard:
Category
|
Score
|
Time Value
|
8
|
Money Value
|
8
|
Originality
|
9
|
Ryplayability
|
8
|
Fulfillment
|
6
|
Final Score
|
7.8
|
Let me know what you think of Angry Birds Epic!
Until next time,
Ryan
Images courtesy of Apple
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