Debriefing: Angry Birds Transformers
Angry Birds Transformers, a new game from Rovio, was released yesterday. We managed to play it and, let’s just say, were a little puzzled. After all, they wanted to scold, but it didn’t work out.
At first, to be honest, I wanted to scold the project. The game has enough flaws that can easily scare off a new user, make them erase and forget after five minutes. And, probably, this is the main “jamb” of the team at this stage. You can, of course, blame it on, say, a high entry threshold, but it’s not, it’s just a series of flaws, for which you can easily miss a great game.
One of the most significant problems when introducing the game is the lack of clarity of management.
Angry Birds Transformers is a mix of a cross-mission runner and … conditionally, a shooter. The transformer bird runs along the track. To successfully complete the latter, it is necessary to destroy Decepticon pigs located outside the track by tapping on them. One click is enough to indicate the target, then the character will shoot at it on his own, but this is not obvious, so for the first time, for example, I was constantly tapping, which really spoiled the impression of the project (imagine that your screen is constantly closed with your hand, and you don’t see the target).
The second point that greatly confused me was the strange mission map. It is not at all clear which objects to tap in it and why. After all, as we are used to: there is a linear list of missions, and here are villages (which, after liberation, bring soft currency), some flags with the faces of heroes, the opportunity to uncover the fog of war, ice-bound transformers, headless robots darting through the sand, some kind of terafforming… and everything is so small-small.
In other words, I went into the game, looked at the map, didn’t understand anything, got upset and left.
Third, monetization. In fact, the more places there are to pay, the better. But in Angry Birds Transformers there is at least one unpleasant moment: in the event of the hero’s death on the track, his life is not restored over time, for this you must always pay with soft currency, which also goes to the improvement of the characters. This is a little annoying, because, sorry, bad tone.
Also frankly strange is the need for a paid (for real money, not even for hard currency) unlocking of a separate Jenga game mode. Perhaps he opens himself in the game after a while, but as I understand it, you either have to pay or buy a figure of the Jenga series, where there will be an access code to the mode.
It’s also disappointing that with the release of new Apple smartphones, no one will draw the UI separately for old iPhone models (for example, for five), so, hello, small buttons and barely distinguishable numbers of resources. As always, we don’t think about the blind, yes.
But you forget about all these disadvantages after forty minutes of the game. The gameplay takes its toll: you run with Optimus Prime, dodge giant columns falling on you, hit the blocks on which the pigs are located, on boxes with explosives that thump all over the screen and … imperceptibly get involved.
And there’s also a wonderful production – a kind of polished adult swim with synthesizers, robots, lasers and a color palette from hacker films of the early 90s (in this regard, the game is on a par with Robot Unicorn Attack 2 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon).
And what do you think about the novelty, have you already played?
