Charlie’s Angels: The Game Review

Item: Charlie’s Angels: The Game
Rating: 3.5
Author: Nick Lehner

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Good Morning, Angels

In true Die Hard fashion explosions are in the air this holiday, just not from the unceremonious hero John McLane. Instead, this go around takes the form of Elizabeth Banks most recent action adventure film Charlie’s Angels. Banks’ rendition of the 1970’s classic casts off a few of the stereotypes swapping them with a more progressive style, intense action sequences, and a strong message. Ultimately fans were left split at the box office, begging the question how much of this translates to the films mobile game counterpart created by Crazy Labs?

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Townsend Agency Reporting

Michael Bay himself would be impressed with what Crazy Labs has delivered in Charlie’s Angels. The endless runner strips away the films plot, instead replacing it with a high speed obstacle adventure, with no shortage of explosions, and gun toting, suit wearing bad guys. Like Temple Runner and Subway Surfer, Charlie’s Angels uses a similar swipe mechanic to avoid obstacles. However, Crazy Labs separates itself with a simple auto aim tap-to-fire mechanic. Utilize this to clear your path of enemies, flammable barrels, and ammunition crates. Controls are fluid and have no issue keeping up with players. Weapons have a brief cool down period, but auto-aim and firing are both flawless in game. Crazy Labs focuses on a simplistic, yet enjoyable format free of any pay wall barriers, and minimal need for a credit card on file. Choose your character and collect coins and diamonds to rank up both your agency and your Angel.

Run into bad guys? Townsend Agency, the Angels secret organization, has the answer with a wide assortment of major fire power. Townsend leaves five weapon classes at player’s disposal: pistols, revolvers, SMG’s, assault rifles, and elite rifles. With four options in each class, and all individual guns upgradeable, no mission is too hard for the Angels. All you need is some coins and diamonds and no mission is impossible. Finally, if that still isn’t enough, power ups can be unlocked and enhanced to give Elena and her fellow agents the edge. Get every coin with the magnet, shield away enemy bullets, double your coins with multiplayer, or fly above it all with the helicopter. Power ups not powerful enough? Use your in-game currency to strengthen them and keep running.

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Your Rank, if you Choose to Accept It

How easy is it to rank up though, and how important are all those power ups? Charlie’s Angels allows you to level up your individual Angels and your Agency Rank. Level up your Angel by completing three different objectives each go around. Objectives vary from shooting surveillance cameras, to collecting a certain amount of coins, to running a set distance. Once that is completed Crazy Labs takes the Deal or No Deal approach by awarding players a briefcase with a prize inside. Be it coins, diamonds or a bonus upgrade, the more you level up, the more prizes you are awarded. This makes it easier for you to purchase weapons, and power ups for in game.

What about upgrading your agency rank? Simply put, run! Each run earns players both points and coins. The further you run the more points you gain and the higher you can rank up your agency. What does that do? Early in the game this serves to unlock certain weapon classes and power ups, as well as characters, but what about after that? Mainly continuing to rank up your agency gifts you with diamonds, coins, and power up boosts.

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The Plot Thickens?

What about the downsides to Banks’ Charlie’s Angels mobile doppelganger? Crazy Labs delivers a straightforward runner leaving players stuck in a repetitive backdrop of either Germany or Turkey. Further Angels elects to substitute the majority of its microtransactions with ads. A concept not altogether destructive to the game. However, with so many ads piling up as play progresses, it greatly takes away from the experience. Can players get rid of those ads? Yes, but it will cost them $1.99.

What about all those power ups, weapon purchases and upgrades? No microtransactions are necessary to consistently rank each up. Instead, players can easily do so by collecting coins and diamonds as they play, but are they worth the attention? Absolutely, power up enhancements affect gameplay in a major way. Every upgrade allowing players to collect more in game currency and progress further. Weapons, however, are a far different story. Each upgrade does little to affect the applied gun, and each class of gun, be it a pistol or assault rifle, has little to no difference in effectiveness and firepower.

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Angels to the Rescue

So, how does Crazy Labs rendition of Charlie’s Angels stack up against its platform running peers? Similar to Banks’ Charlie’s Angels, its mobile counterpart is an entertaining, and action packed addition to the platform running genre. A simple to navigate interface combined with enough explosions, shoot outs, and helicopter rides to rival James Bond himself can’t help but hook players. So, in the words of unlikely Christmas hero John McLane, Welcome to the party, pal!

Is it Hardcore?

3.5

Yes.

Charlie’s Angels are back, and not just on the silver screen. Run, jump, and shoot your way through to victory, in a game chock full of explosions and helicopter rides. Cinematic and mobile variants collide showing that over the top action, and fast paced gameplay, make for a flawed yet enjoyable experience.

Tags: Android Action Games, Android Adventure Games

About the Author

Nick Lehner Pairing together an odd assortment of passions, Nick is a massive Cleveland Browns fan and history nerd who loves hiking, video games, and anything sci-fi related. Any chance he gets he's writing about everything going on in the entertainment and gaming world!