Angry Birds Free Review

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Game Description

Now everyone can experience Angry Birds!

Angry Birds is a deceptively simple puzzle game that is known for keeping players busy for hours at a time. It initially gained popularity as a phone-based game but has since stretched its boundaries and journeyed to other platforms as well.

Puzzles Based on Physics

Angry Birds has a fantastic physics engine that makes the game consistent and challenging. The pigs usually hole themselves up in bases made from combinations of wood, stone, ice, glass or snow, and some forts must be hit in a very specific way in order to clobber the pig hiding inside.

Sometimes you can make the buildings even stronger by attacking them in a way that makes the pieces fall tighter around the pig. It takes trial and error, strategy and logic to determine the best plan of attack against each puzzle. Be prepared to play levels multiple times before solving them!

Lock and Load

Who knew catapulting birds could be so much fun? Birds bent on revenge happily load themselves into a giant slingshot and wait for you to fire them at the enemies. You are in full control of the trajectory of each shot. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the game is simply experimenting with different ways of firing the shot.

There are also a variety of different birds to work with in each level with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, the birds you have to work with are as much of a challenge as the obstacles the pigs have come up with themselves.

240+ Levels of Pork Popping Mayhem

Angry Birds offers wonderful replay value due to the massive amount of levels in the game. In addition, all future updates are provided free of charge after the game is purchased.

Angry Birds Never Looked or Sounded Better!

The graphics and audio in the PC version of the game have been optimized for larger screens and bigger speakers. The resulting graphics are stunning and crisp, with zero pixelation or distortion.

The sound is also of the highest quality, meaning that all of the little noises the pigs and birds make will be clear as a bell.

Simple, Easy Controls

Angry Birds was initially created to work with a touchscreen interface, but Angry Birds for the PC uses the mouse instead with excellent results. In the game, your cursor appears as a floating hand. Simply pull back on the slingshot by clicking and dragging, and launch the bird by letting go.

Despite the simplicity, these controls are precise!

Golden Eggs to Collect

There are tons of golden eggs hidden in the game for you to find. Each golden egg opens up a special level for you to play. Collect them all!

Angry Birds offers addictive puzzle gameplay that players just can't get enough of. This game provides a perfect balance between thought-provoking puzzles and the gleeful destruction of everything on the screen. It's fun, fast and absorbing!

Angry Birds Free Review

Another Literal Crash Course in Bird Bombardment

The world is abundant with a lot of things, like salt water, aluminum and especially Angry Birds games. The franchise has been downloaded well over a billion times and consists of so many titles that it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle.

Luckily, Rovio has provided a pretty good jump-off point with Angry Birds Free. It’s not a mere game demo; it can be considered a new entry to the series.

More than that, it offers a bite-sized sampling of what makes Angry Birds such a hit. It has the series’ trademark cartoon visuals, its zany sense of humor, and its challenging physics-based gameplay. It may not be the most original title out there and it may not stand out in comparison to the other Angry Birds games, but for the zero-dollar price it’s going for, you really can’t ask for more.

The Same Game of Bombardment We All Know and Love

There isn’t much to say about the base gameplay of Angry Birds Free. It’s Angry Birds. The object of each level is to destroy the birds’ mortal enemies, the egg-snatching Bad Piggies. You use a slingshot to launch the birds at the porker’s crude fortresses and see how much damage you can cause with each individual attack.

The controls are simple and intuitive. Everything is operated via the touchscreen. If you want to put more power into your launch, you pull the bird back on the slingshot as far as you can. If you want to launch a bird high in the air, then you stretch the sling as low to the ground as you can handle. The laws of physics are your friends in Angry Birds, as the use of getting the right trajectory is the key to winning.

A Playful Variety of Ammunition

In addition to the base mechanics are the different kinds of birds you can shoot. Red the red bird is a basic projectile that can knock down just about anything with the right amount of momentum. Chuck the yellow bird can be given a one-time burst of speed if you tap the screen, and he’s very effective at splintering wood. The blue bird can split into three and is ideal for shattering glass. Bomb the black bird blows up like a bomb and is the best at clearing out metal for you, and so on.

It may sound like a lot to take in, but the Angry Birds series excels in easing new players into the experience. New birds are introduced one at a time and their introductory levels are designed in such a way that you can learn how their abilities work and how to properly utilize them in the future.

However, some birds are more difficult to control than others. The most infamous of them is Hal the green boomerang bird. The idea with him is that you can cause him to reverse direction, which would make him the best at taking out pigs that are well defended on only one side. Unfortunately, his flight patterns are just as hard to predict as a real boomerang. He requires very precise aiming and timing for both his launch and return; failure on either is just going to make him eat dirt. Thankfully, Hal is one of the lesser-seen birds. You won’t need to deal with him too often.

A Little Bit of the Old and a Little Bit of the New

In some ways, Angry Birds Free is akin to a free demo of the original game. However, it’s also a new one in other ways. While half of the levels are lifted straight from Angry Birds, the other half are brand new and can’t be found anywhere else in the series.

Even if you have played the first game to exhaustion or are otherwise very familiar with all of the ins and outs of the franchise, it should be good to know that there’s at least one untouched area that you can enjoy at no extra cost. The new levels may not stand out too much, but they’re well-designed and fun enough to solve on their own.

Hone Your Anger Efficiently

It’s not enough to just smash things up with the Angry Birds. In order to master the game, you need to learn how to do so as efficiently as possible. Not only do you have a limited number of birds on hand who are ready and willing to teach those greedy pigs a lesson, but you get a larger score when you cause massive damage with as few birds as possible. This adds another layer of strategy to the game. While you’re often given more than enough birds to complete each level, beating them using only one or two is much more challenging and immensely more satisfying.

It also helps to add more longevity to the game; it’s not tough to complete and it shouldn’t take too long, but getting a three-star rating for each puzzle can keep you occupied just a little longer.

Freedom Comes at a Price

Make no mistake; Angry Birds Free is completely free to download and play. There are no strings attached, there are no microtransactions, and no content is withheld from you.

Unfortunately, it’s awfully short when compared to the rest of the series. Most Angry Birds games get released with as many as 60 levels out of the box and can easily climb to over a hundred with updates. Angry Birds Free only has a measly 30 available. That isn’t long by any stretch of the imagination, especially since a lot of the earlier ones can be beaten in a matter of minutes each.

You Get a Decent Amount for What You Pay For

In the end, you can’t complain too much. While Angry Birds Free could certainly afford to be a little longer, there’s no arguing that you can easily kill a rainy afternoon with it for free. It’s just as fun and addictive as its paid counterparts and serves as a worthy introduction to what the series is all about for those who haven’t yet joined the madness.

Get it as a sampler to the Angry Birds. If you like what you see, feel free to give the others a whirl. You might be surprised.

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