Angel Clicker

Every once in a while I find an incremental game that reminds me exactly why I love this genre so much, and Angel Clicker is one of those games. I started playing intending to see what it had to offer. Just short of six hours later, I'd completed the entire game, unlocked every achievement and reached 100%. That probably tells you quite a lot already. 😇 You play as Legion, an angel from Heaven taking part in the annual soul-catching contest against Lucifer from Hell. Unfortunately for Heaven, this is a contest they have a rather unfortunate habit of losing, and Legion has decided that this year things are going to be different. Legion wants that promotion. And apparently the ultimate reward for all this celestial competition is... A pizza party. Frankly, I'm not sure gaming needs a better motivation than that. 😂 From there, Angel Clicker settles into a wonderfully satisfying incremental loop. You gather resources, unlock and construct new buildings, employ adorable little cherubs as your minions and steadily increase your production until the numbers start becoming completely ridiculous. And I mean ridiculous in exactly the way I want from an incremental game. I don't play these games because I want my production to increase from 17 to 23. I want numbers flying upwards at a rate where eventually I barely know what they mean anymore. Angel Clicker understands this perfectly. Then, of course, there are prestiges. I love a good prestige system. There's something wonderfully satisfying about voluntarily throwing away a mountain of progress because you know you're about to come back considerably stronger. Angel Clicker gets that loop right: build, progress, prestige, become more powerful and start pushing further than you managed before. It's dangerously good at creating that familiar: "I'll just unlock this next thing..." followed shortly afterwards by: "Well, now I'm nearly at the next thing..." And suddenly several hours have disappeared. But the thing that surprised me most wasn't actually the incremental gameplay. It was the story. Incremental and idle games aren't exactly renowned for their storytelling. Usually I'm perfectly happy being told that numbers need to become bigger because... well... bigger numbers are nice. Angel Clicker actually gives you a reason to keep progressing beyond simply watching those numbers climb. As the competition continues, you gradually learn more about Legion and Lucifer, their history and the relationship between them. I won't spoil where any of it goes because discovering that was part of the enjoyment for me, but it became considerably sweeter and more interesting than I expected when I first started clicking away at souls. I genuinely cared about seeing the story through to the end. That's quite an achievement for a clicker. The game also reminded me quite strongly of Tower Wizard, another incremental game I absolutely loved. They're not the same game, but there's something about the way Angel Clicker handles its progression, presentation and relatively compact journey that scratched a very similar itch for me. Neither needs hundreds of hours to justify its existence. Angel Clicker gave me just under six thoroughly enjoyable hours, allowed me to experience everything it wanted to show me, gave me all of its achievements and then actually let me finish. I really appreciate that. Not every incremental game needs to become a permanent second job running quietly on another monitor for the next three years. There was also never a point during those six hours where I felt as though I was simply grinding because the game needed to artificially extend itself. There was always another building, resource, prestige, piece of progression or bit of story encouraging me forward. And when I finally reached 100%, I didn't feel relieved that it was over. I felt satisfied that I'd completed it. That's a very important distinction. 💜 Angel Clicker gets a very easy Tom Recommends from me. In fact, I'd go slightly further than that. If you've looked at incremental, idle or clicker games before and wondered what people see in them, Angel Clicker is one I'd happily recommend as an introduction to the genre. It's accessible, constantly rewarding, doesn't outstay its welcome, gives you plenty of gloriously absurd numbers to watch explode upwards, has satisfying prestige mechanics and somehow manages to squeeze a genuinely lovely little story into the middle of everything. Experienced incremental fans should find plenty to enjoy too. I certainly did. I went from beginning to 100% completion in one sitting, and after almost six hours of clicking, building, prestiging, gathering souls and helping Legion pursue the most important prize in the history of Heaven... I regret absolutely none of it. Although after all that effort, I sincerely hope somebody actually remembered to order the pizza. 🍕😇💜