Angel Sword is an Android RPG made in the vein of Skyrim or Fallout that attempts provide a sandbox for your device. Sounds great, but does the game succeed in replicating the feel of those epic titles? It’s a difficult task, given the vast chasm that exists between the power of something like an Xbox 360 or a PS3 and your tablet, and that reflects in Angel Sword’s presentation, but there is a semblance of the sandbox feel of those titles. You will just have to appropriately adjust your expectations considering the limitations of the platform.
The game starts much like a game of any of the titans of this genre. You make your character and get dropped into the middle of a world rife with things for you to kill in order to make yourself ever-stronger and more formidable. As per the title of the game, you play an angelic being, though you can chose to have the dark physical features of a devil. The customization options for your character, while not bountiful, are varied enough for an interesting-looking character.
After you complete character-creation, the game unleashes you upon its world. There are three sub-quests in the first town that you can pursue to start off your epic adventure. The first thing that one may notice during character creation, is that the player character possesses wings, and the first thing I thought was; are those things functional? The answer is a resound: almost! the flying in the game, especially in the beginning, is not very intuitive. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself flying through the air, right into a sheer cliff-face because of the rather clunky controls. Rather than placing control arrows on the screen, you have to find the sweet spot on your tablet to edge your character forward, backward, etc. It takes a lot of getting used to, and initially, you will be fumbling around the screen, trying to find the on-screen d-pad.
After getting used to the controls, you’ll have to learn to keep yourself out of fights that will quickly kill you, which are surprisingly abundant just outside of the first town. You’ll run into harpies, (don’t try it straight out of the gate, they’ll kill you) a lumbering giant, (yeah, definitely don’t) and over-sized garter snakes. Guess which creature is the best to start off on? Yep, the big old snakes. I killed countless of those pesky things in order to buff my experience points. Do it. The strategy worked spectacularly.
As is standard in most RPG fair, you take your character on quests, hack and slash your way through adversaries and get stronger, as well as get loot to buy some sweat angel to fight in. For anyone who is familiar with the genre – and is fond of it – you’ll find that growing your powers and gathering pets can be very addicting. Also, while initially pretty terrible, the flying in the game becomes easier as time goes on, and eventually, you will be able to master it, and it becomes actually pretty fun.
The game runs very well for being a full 3D title on the Android platform. While I played, there wasn’t a single crash or even lag.
Though it is a little unreasonable to expect a mobile platform to deliver a full-rendered 3D RPG with favorable results, Angel Sword does an impressive job, coming close to the feel, if not totally mastering the look. There is plenty of content in the game to preoccupy your empty moments waiting for your next class or to play on you work break. It just isn’t as epic as it would like to be.
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An interesting Sandbox RPG for a mobile platform.