Angry Birds Epic is Out Now
After a cryptic teaser trailer a week ago, Rovio has just soft-launched Angry Birds Epic in Australia, New Zealand and Canada overnight. We went all in and predicted jousting, but I guess our radar was off.
Calling it an RPG adventure, and boasting weapon crafting, upgradeable characters and turn-based batting, it certainly has all the ingredients of its moniker.
All the classic RPG fantasy environments have been utilised as well, with Rovio describing the world of Piggy Island as containing tribal villages, frosty mountains, tropical beaches and mysterious caves to explore.
On paper it does all sound very "epic," and the animation, artwork and sound is always top notch when it comes to Angry Birds games. Being packaged into a free-to-play structure, it now just remains to be seen how balanced and aggressive the in-app-purchase model is. Obviously this soft launch will be used to test, balance and tweak this side of things, and the worldwide release may be a slightly altered beast to the current model.
This is the third time Rovio has expanded the Angry Birds universe beyond the usual slingshotting fare. First there was the excellent construction and puzzling of Bad Piggies, followed by the racer Angry Birds Go!, and now an RPG. It's good to see Rovio broadening its horizons yet again, and it's hard not to expect them to use the Angry Birds universe to do so, as it is such a well-known force in iOS. For more on this point, check out article, This Is Why Gamers Should Celebrate Angry Birds Epic.
We'll spend some time on Piggy Island and see what it has to offer, and be back as soon as we can with some impressions after our adventures. In the meantime, check out the gameplay trailer just released, and you can grab the game here for free.
Who knows? Maybe Rovio could still add jousting in a future update?
Writer:
Garry Balogh
References:
- Angry Birds Epic
- Bad Piggies
- Angry Birds Go!
