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Rovio has just released the the first real trailer for their upcoming RPG spin-off Angry Birds The Stick of Truth Epic. The video marks the first time we’re getting to see actual gameplay for the title, announced in a teaser video last Monday.
In the trailer, we see the familiar feathered fowl we’ve been slingshotting all these years, now outfitted in traditional medieval/fantasy garb. While at first we weren’t sure if Epic would feature more Battleheart-like real-time gameplay, it’s now clear from the trailer (as well as the new landing page) that turn-based is the name of the game, with Angry Birds bustin’ off magic attacks by dragging them onto enemies patiently awaiting their turn. Only 2 character classes were revealed on the site, showing a knight and mage each with their own unique stats.
Like everyone else, we’re a bit leery over Rovio’s likely freemium business model. With the new RPG formula, it’s fairly easy to see how a developer could get carried away with in-app purchases, especially when the Epic’s gameplay will involve lots of crafting and armor upgrades. Also worth considering is — in a videogame genre usually home to a complex story line — how well Rovio can drive a narrative without characters that can actually talk. But perhaps Rovio has other plans for keeping gamers engaged.
Looks great so far, but still no word on when we can expect this stateside. Angry Birds Epic is soft-launching today in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
Looks great, wish this was just a straight purchase and not a Freemium buy. I would buy the actual game.
What they don’t show is that each battle last for a day because each attack is a stamina point… Sick of these freemium games.
boring. pass
I never understood how people like this genre. Silly icons just stand in front of each other and exchange spells and hits. Boring.
Just like I can’t understand how people like Call of Duty, but every one has their own opinions of what’s fun and what’s not.
I hope the IAPs aren’t as bad as Angry Birds Go Karts. The charges were so ridiculous I had to uninstall it. It’s ashame it was a good game.
Awesome, cant wait to play. Wish people would stop complaining about IAPs, its how developers and Google make money off of FREE apps. You can choose not to use IAPs. Granted they make the game better and more playable in the long run. Even fully paid apps have IAPs these days, its a moot point.
In most IAP-based games, especially newer Rovio games, there’s no way to avoid the IAPs. As someone who has purchased a lot of Android games but despises the idea of paying for in-game consumables, IAPs are the death of mobile gaming. The new games are all designed entirely around getting people to pay for one-time-use items, and most gamers don’t like that. The problem is that it’s more profitable for developers to cater to the IAP buyers..even though they’re only 1.5% of players, many have no qualms about spending hundreds of dollars a month on crap: http://beta.slashdot.org/story/198807