A few months ago we wrote about Fincon’s Angel Stone, an upcoming Action-RPG whose claim to fame is its cross-platform online multiplayer between iOS, Android, and PC. Recently, I’ve had a chance to go hands-on with the game, and I’ve been enjoying it so far. The game isn’t the most revolutionary hack and slash, as it has the usual fare of monsters, loot collecting, and weapon upgrading. However, this kind of games try to refine rather than reinvent the genre, and Angel Stone does a good job at refining the hack and slash recipe. If you’ve seen any images from the game, you know that it looks pretty good, especially the cut-scenes (which are probably the best on iOS). I also thought that its control system, which is tap and swipe based, worked very well on the touchscreen.
Angel Stone looks nice, with crisp character models and visual effects. I like the art style; it’s gothic but retains a comic-book aesthetic too, which balances out nicely. You get to choose from three characters that are pretty archetypal: warrior, ranged, and mage. Angel Stone does try to loosen the archetypal restraints a bit by letting the Mage wield a melee weapon and allowing the ranged, pistol-bearing hero to kick enemies away. Where the game stands out so far is its control system; Angel Stone doesn’t use a virtual stick but, rather, a clever swipe system that lets you assign one skill per swipe direction. That way, you tap to move and swipe to use a skill in a very intuitive and quick to grasp system. When I have the option, I go for virtual controls because I find I can control most games better that way than with tap-to-move controls. With Angel Stone, though, I can play the game on my iPad using only one hand, which was surprising. I imagine playing on the iPhone one-handed will be even better. The game is F2P, as are almost all hack and slash games at the moment, but personally, I think that F2P works fine with games like these because I usually play in short spurts. As long as the monetization system doesn’t include paywalls, I’m fine. The game is still in early beta, which you can join by visiting our forums, so its release is not imminent, but I don’t believe it’s too far out either. If you enjoy hack and slash games, you should keep an eye out for Angel Stone.
