Game Reviews

The Beggar's Ride - More of a beggar's walk, but I'll allow it

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iOS
| The Beggar's Ride
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The Beggar's Ride - More of a beggar's walk, but I'll allow it
|
iOS
| The Beggar's Ride
My word, that's a pretty looking platform game

Isn't it just? This is The Beggars Ride, a narrative driven puzzling adventure that sees you controlling a homeless man who accidentally gets the power of a fallen god.

That sounds intriguing. Tell me more

I was planning on it. The game flows along at a sedate pace, revealing snippets of story through words wrapped around the fabric of the world. It's a wonderfully slick production, but it's not without its faults.

Let's start off with the good bits

Go on then. We've already mentioned how lovely it looks. But the controls are pretty good as well. There's a touch option, but I'd suggest using the floating stick instead. This isn't a chaotic, hardcore leaper, and it's genuinely forgiving when it comes to missed jumps.

So no hair-tearing, phone smashing...?

Not from the platforming sections no. The way the story pushes you forward is impressive too, and the new abilities you unlock for your mask mean there's always something fresh to have a play with.

But there's frustrations elsewhere?

There can be. The puzzles, which you need to solve using the godly powers bestowed on you by your new headwear can get a little fiddly from time to time. You access them by long-pressing on the beggar, and that changes the world around you.

What sort of thing can you do?

To start off with you can slide clouds around to make it rain. Fill a pool to raise a platform, that sort of thing. Then you get an earthquake ability that lets you twist the screen to move objects. Later on you'll get a power that lets you slide highlighted blocks around too.

Sounds good

For the most part it is, but sometimes the puzzles are a little esoteric. It won't take you too long to figure out what you're supposed to be doing, but it can be a bit annoying poking at things to see what works.

Anything else I should know?

Well, the platforming isn't super original. There are spikes, moving platforms, golden gems to collect, and keys to find to unlock doors. It's not a deal breaker, and it's quite nice to play something so solid and traditional on touch screen. Plus the story is really, really good.

I think I might buy this one

I think you should. It looks lovely, and while it doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights of the very best iOS platformers, there's charm and heart here in spades. And that narrative will push you on just to see what happens next.

The Beggar's Ride - More of a beggar's walk, but I'll allow it

A charming and well put together platformer, it's the story that'll make sure you see it through to the bitter end
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.