Angry Birds Epic might be a good game, it might just be. I would have gladly paid 10$ for that same product without the free to play junk, the unbalanced enemies and the random popups to try and bait you into clicking on ads. ABE might be a good game in a parallel universe, but in this one, it’s a neat idea flawed with greedy intentions.
In a world at war with premium currencies, you fight your way on a huge map, fighting a bunch of different enemy types with five characters that each can choose from five different classes with weapons and off-hand items to equip. These classes have various abilities from forcing enemies to attack you, to raising the attack of your party, damage over time, electric shields, healing, the list goes on. Each character also has a special move you activate when a ‘rage’ meter is filled up. Most battles are straightforward and you can win them with any team you want, but some of them require more planning and the game fails here in a design way because you can’t switch classes on the fly, you can’t see what the enemies are going to be, and you need to watch about four loading screens between fighting a guy, losing, switching classes and trying again, it’s annoying.
The enemies start easy, but they grow in power and tricks as the game goes on. Mages with powerful spells, enemies immune to damage above a certain number, below a certain number, counter-attacks, at some point you feel that the enemies are too powerful, and it might just be the case. There was a boss I couldn’t beat no matter how hard I tried, so I caved in and spent some premium currency to revive all my birds after I was defeated, and I still barely won, even by spending some premium coins. It’s a bit difficult to grind since you level-up so slowly and you’re never too sure what the levels do, so besides trying different class combinations, there is nothing ‘free’ you can do. You could always watch a video to get 10% more life and attack…
You can craft things and you get materials by winning battles and spinning a wheel with the number of rewards you get based on the number of stars you have from the fight. Stars are gained by winning quickly and without taking damage, but besides giving you more loot, they don’t do anything. I wish there were some things you could unlock by collecting stars, as to give me more incentive to go back and get those after I’m stronger. You can also upgrade your crafting stations - to get better gear when you build things - but that costs premium currency, a truckload of premium currency. You can get some by defeating daily bonus pigs, but it seems a bit difficult to believe that you could unlock everything without spending money in this game. You can also roll for items - and set items - with premium currency, so the meagre amounts you get by playing are already spread pretty thin.
And just when you’re tapping around, moving from menus to menus or just moving on the world map, the game will pop an ad in full screen, trying to get you to click on it. Despicable. Is there any way to make these stop? Can I buy a thing to make the ads stop? Also is there a purchase that balances the game for fun gameplay or could I spend hundreds of dollars on currency that will ultimately get me nowhere?
The core ideas of the game are pretty cool, I’ll give it that (I love turn based RPGs with classes and weird enemies) but nah, it’s too frustrating and evil in some good old free to play style. The fact that the core game is appealing makes it even worse, somewhat.
