Angry Birds Epic app review: Angry Birds in RPG form? Sign me up!

Introduction

I haven’t made a secret out of the fact that RPGs, or Role Playing Games, are my favorite genre in video games. There are so many RPG apps out there that this genre, made popular by Dungeons and Dragons, is massively over-populated in the App Store. Not that developer Rovio will care, as it owns the most valuable IP on the App Store, which of course is Angry Birds. Almost everybody who owns an Apple device will have heard of these birds which have spawned a multitude of games in the last few years. A few days ago, however, Angry Birds decided to jump genre, going from a simple arcade game to one of the deepest genres in gaming, the RPG genre. How does Angry Birds Epic stand up against the other heavy weights in the genre? The game is available for both iPad and iPhone.

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Gameplay

The first thing that any Angry Birds player will notice is that there now is a gameplay map. In Candy Crush style you will move from battle to battle, meaning one huge disappointment from step one for all RPG fans. There is no exploration whatsoever in the game. This instantly makes the game into an RPG light, as exploration is one of the pillars for the genre. The battles are all turn-based, where you let your bird take a turn and then the pigs will take a turn against your birds. You will start, like in every Angry Birds game simply with the red bird, but will slowly unlock more of them as you get further in the game.

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Graphics and Sound

The graphics of the game are similar to the graphics in other Angry Birds games, making it very static but also very recognizable. The sounds are very similar too, but the music has all been remixed to make it more RPG-heavy and better fitting to the gameplay style of Angry Birds Epic. The game itself offers a lot more deep RPG options as well, such as crafting items, different weapons, and character progression. This is a huge departure from the Angry Birds games, but a good one.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Great RPG gameplay with a lot of depth
• Lots of recognizable things from previous games
• Tons of unlockables

Cons

• No exploration gameplay

Conclusion

In terms of gameplay I have nothing bad to say about this app, but there is something missing that makes this game take a step away from other Role Playing Games. I don’t want to focus too much on the negative, as the game is really great to play, but the lack of exploration really made me feel I was playing an arcade game more than an RPG. The game looks and plays great, and the new music is a treat! This is easily one of the most popular and best RPG games for iPhone and iPad.