Epic Win released, reviewed

Those who follow gagagadget closely have probably noticed that I’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of an app that will hopefully get things done. And I’ve been waiting for over a month. At far-too-long last, Epic Win, the role-playing to-do list for Apple’s iDevices, has been released, and is available in the App Store right now! In case you’ve not heard, the Epic Win app aims to slay slobs and end the reign of laziness  by presenting user-made chore lists as a role-playing game, complete with “quests” (chores), experience points to gain, and loot to find. I picked Epic Win shortly after release, and have been spending some time getting to know the app. Here’s my review of Epic Win.

On first launch, users are presented with a list of fun, chore-slaying avatars. Options include the short and bearded Dwarf, the sporty and multitasking Warrior Priestess, and the “worked to the bone” Skelly. I, being neither bearded nor sporty, chose Skelly. It should be noted that two other avatars, a “beef & muscle” Warrior, and a Treeman Berzerker, are also available for play, but only after unlocking them for $0.99 each. The game comes up with its own witty names for each avatar chosen. And, thus, Calcium Facebone and I embarked on a journey of Epic proportions.

The meat of the app is in the page labeled “Quests,” which displays a calendar of events, as well as how much experience each is chore worth. The instructions to creating, organizing, completing, and deleting apps is presented as the very first set of quests. Per the app’s instructions, quests can be added by either tapping the pencil icon in the top left of the screen, or by clicking the plus sign next to the date.

When adding a chore to the list, several options are presented. Most importantly are date to be completed, description, and “Epicness,” or how much experience one will receive upon completion of the chore. Epicness ranges from 50 to 300 in multiples of 50, and is represented by the size of the rosette. Users also have the option to set frequency of quest occurrence, ranging from every day to once a year, including every weekday (e.g. “Every Wednesday”), similar to the  standard Calendar app. Also on this screen is the chore’s attribute, either Strength, Stamina, Intellect, Social, or Spirit, to which the Epicness points will be given upon completion. I scheduled a quest to floss daily, giving me 150 experience, and I set my flossing quest as a “feat of Social,” because, frankly, if I slack on the oral hygiene, I probably won’t be talking to too many people.

Once the chore is added, it appears on main Quest screen, and can be marked as completed as soon as it’s finished by holding the rosette (yellow badge with the experience inside). A completed chore is greyed out. After a certain number of quests are completed, and a certain amount of experience is gained, your character will eventually find a piece of loot. In addition, your character will advance a certain number of miles on the quest map. How far you’ve traveled and what loot you’ve unlocked so far can both be found on the Loot screen. Unfortunately, as of yet, it appears that loot has no bearing on gameplay, and cannot be used to change your avatar’s looks, and so remains just for show and bragging purposes.

Also included in the app are a Profile page, which displays how many levels your character has, both overall as well as in individual skills, and an Options page, which, so far, only contains an auto-tweet feature, the option to change your character’s avatar or name, and an about page. According to the official website, however, many updates are on the way, including sounds (possibly music?), as well as new avatars to keep your characters looking good.

One feature which I thought (feared, rather) might be included in the app but fortunately wasn’t was a high score listing. Showing the top players in the region, country, and world could be deadly; getting to the top of the leaderboards wouldn’t be difficult. Just give yourself 300 experience for remembering to breathe and blink and you’ve got yourself an unbeatable killer strategy. However, I’m glad the developers chose to skip this; keeping things between just you and the app gives you a lot less reason to cheat on your list, and makes honestly finishing chores a lot more rewarding.

So far, Epic Win is a very good start. I can see this app doing very well in the App Store simply based on concept; I don’t know of anything else like it, or of this high of quality. The humor is pretty witty, albeit subtle, and makes just navigating the app enjoyable. I appreciate the quick load time and the simplicity of the main screen, as well as the ease with which one can add and delete quests from the main page, which will keep users focused as they’re knocking out those chores. The long list of loot and miles of map should keep even the heaviest taskers interested in advancing for a while, and the lack of leaderboards helps to keep self-motivation in and cheating and competition out. However, I am hoping to see some interesting (and perhaps epic) music added in one of the future updates, as well as some minor bug fixes, though a few glitches can be excused when the app is less than one day old.

Epic Win is available in the App Store for $2.99.

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Tagged as: Apple, apps, iPhone, iPod