Rovio has been stagnating with their Angry Birds brand for a long time, and even though they are good at animation, they have long failed to think of a new big game for the series. Maybe Angry Birds: massive, but perhaps pointing the right way, getting rid of 2D graphics and moving fully into the 3D world - literally.
Angry Birds: Isle of Pigs is a title created for virtual reality, in which you enter the nice world of birds and pigs. More specifically, not only for virtual reality, but also for mobile AR, where it is gradually launched by Rovio. The game goes beyond two spaces, allowing it to move forward.
Specifically, you get to the island of pigs, from where you go with your birds to free the stolen eggs. In the basic version you will find several environments that will take you from the beach to the top of the mountain in their world. It's a nice way, though there may be more levels. There are 13 levels in each of the four environments. On the other hand, the game gradually gets free updates and expands the offer. The first updates with new levels have already been added, namely a spooky new package with gameplay news.
If you played the previous Angry Birds, you know that the basis is to shoot the birds slingshot into buildings, in order to destroy all the pigs. While the birds you fire are different and have different characteristics on impact or flight. Likewise, the constructions are built of different materials on which certain birds are always effective. So far it was 2D, now with the transition to VR it passed into 3D, so the pigs will have the entire 3D strength. At the same time, however, you will have more freedom to shoot, you can lean slightly to the sides, shoot from a higher or lower position, and precisely aim a certain spot. In addition, the environment and levels have several areas from which you can shoot.
Because it's all 3D, shooting from other sides is important. You can mainly see the whole building, the location of the pigs and then shoot down the support blocks of the building to fall and kill the pigs. The buildings are both wooden and combined with stones and ice cubes. There is also dynamite that when you hit it will help you with the destruction. Similarly, the environment will be complemented by fans, platforms with balloons and several new products.
The big limitation you have to count is that you usually have only three birds and are arranged in a predefined order. There's no bird buying, no microtransactions like in Angry Birds 2, you just have to go through everything with what you have available. Of the birds you have more or less basic offer, namely red, yellow (fast), bomb bird or "triple" birds. So it is an offer from the first Angry Birds game, which even here the authors wanted to imitate, but in 3D.
However, there is not much content itself. The base campaign is about an hour-two. But it also depends on how clever you are, but it probably won't work anymore. Additional levels are more complicated but take a similar time. For a VR title, it is not too much, but not much. If you want to do everything to the maximum, you have fun for a week. Positive is the progressive enlargement, which is not over yet, so you will be able to return to the game later.
Visually the game is surprisingly nice, the authors have tried and transferred the whole essence of the graphics of the original 2D series to 3D. They look very good both buildings and environments where you can look around and admire the island of pigs. You can also see how you keep moving on. Animation and physics are nice and it works just as you would expect from Angry Birds of the world.
Strangely enough, Rovio doesn't offer this game as a standard 3D title. In VR and AR you can naturally move around, focus, but it would work with the normal keyboard and mouse or gamepad controls. Although, of course, VR controls are very intuitive and very accurate. You know how to aim, just like holding a real slingshot. The game will also show you where the pig will land. You can still move a little step-two sideways, look and eventually try to hit some standard hidden pillar that holds part of the structure.
Overall, Isle of Pigs is a surprisingly good and fresh Angry Birds brand in virtual reality. Gaming remains fun and adding a third dimension makes it nicely expand. However, it is only the first game in this direction and the authors try it lightly. Usually the levels are simple and there are still some birds and more complicated mechanisms. The additional levels, however, nicely increased the difficulty and extended the short original campaign. If you are looking for a fun puzzle game for VR, be sure to try Angry Birds, this is one of the best titles in this field.
