Epic Fall Review

Epic Fall is a cheeky title for a game. "Go on," it dares, "make an ‘Epic Fail’ joke!" It almost comes across as that one kid in school that seemed to be spoiling for a fight all the time, even though nobody was particularly interested in starting up with them.

But Epic Fall isn’t an epic fail by any means. Sure, it’s a pretty typical endless running game (well, endless falling game), and it has some flaws with its monetization system, but the inclusion of shooting mechanics and recoil makes it much tougher than most runners.

The story is simple enough. A professor/archaeologist named Jack Hart (a specimen from Dr. Indiana Jones’ breed) is caught looting some ruins. Some natives capture him and he takes a long, long fall down a big pit. Said pit is filled with traps like sharp rocks, spears, and spikes. If Jack hits an object, the game ends.

The object of Epic Fall is to plunge as far as possible. What makes it interesting is that the player doesn’t descend in a straight line. See, Jack is equipped with a pistol, which he can fire off to clear away objects. The gun’s recoil also changes his trajectory, so using the gun may get rid of an immediate danger like a spike platform but it may also cause Jack to sail into another hazard.

In other words, the gun isn’t just the top means of keeping Jack safe; he also needs it to steer. Ammunition is hard to come by and dangerous to grab, so players need to think about every move they make - even when they don’t have the luxury of time.

Obviously, a run in Epic Fall tends to be very short. This isn’t so bad as there’s no waiting for the challenge to wind up again when starting a new game. Everything is crackers from the word "go." That said, upgrading Jack is pretty darn impossible without resorting to in-app purchases. Every run yields very few coins, and upgrades are expensive.

Epic Fall has its issues, but it should still appeal to super-hardcore endless runner fans looking for a meaty challenge. This fall is certainly a tumble of epic proportions. No argument there.