Game Reviews

Epic Fall

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Epic Fall
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| Epic Fall

Calling your game Epic Fall is tempting fate a little. If it's remotely rubbish, you just know it's going to be dubbed "Epic Fail" by some smarty pants reviewer.

Epic Fall isn't rubbish, so that's the first hurdle overcome.

However, it isn't nearly epic enough either.

Indiana Jones and the Endless Drop

The game sees you playing an(other) Indiana Jones looky-likey. At the start of each play-through, this particular fedora-wearing adventurer finds himself free-falling through an endless booby-trapped tomb.

Even the least experienced of mobile gamers will recognise the need to dodge left and right to avoid moving platforms, spikes, and sticky-out bits. It's the way this is achieved that's a bit different.

In order to dodge, you must have your adventurer fire his pistol. The recoil from these shots will push you in the opposite direction.

Shoot to live

It's a tricky, initially counter-intuitive means of mid-air movement, but it serves to freshen up what is effectively yet another endless runner.

There's also the direction of fire to take into consideration - fire immediately left or right for the sharpest movement, or at an angle for something more subtle.

You can also use these shots to destroy the spiked wooden platforms that get in your way, though concentrating on this excessively will inevitably see you run out of bullets.

Yes, ammo is constrained, and the only way to reload is to pick up the bullets left floating in mid-air - in addition to coins that can improve the capacity and effectiveness of your gun.

Not enough light at the end of the tunnel

It's this element that really prevents Epic Fall from hitting the target. It just isn't generous or imaginative enough with its accoutrements.

You level up your gun and purchase new outfits, and that's it. What's more, improving your gun is quite expensive, and takes a lot of successive tries to acquire the necessary coinage.

Of course, you can shortcut the process with IAPs, but the lack of generosity here robs the game of instant, knock-about thrills, and badly affects its long-term appeal.

We reference it a lot, but see Jetpack Joyride as an example of how this sort of game should be done - an endless (and necessary) conveyor belt of rewards, incentives, and flashy knick-knacks.

Epic Fall is far from an epic fail, but a lack of pizzazz means its a modest success at best.

Epic Fall

Despite a fresh and nuanced movement system, this endless faller is somewhat spoiled by a miserly approach to dishing out rewards and incentives
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Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.