Reaper, a eye-catching RPG game for Windows Phone 8

Reaper is a wonderfully drawn up RPG game for our Windows Phone 8 devices that puts you in control of the Pale Swordsman set on dominating all that come before you. Reaper has gesture based controls, fantastic graphics, and has plenty of gear and skills upgrades to earn along the way. If you like fast paced, role playing games, Reaper is one to try.

Reaper's main menu has options to start the game, review gaming scores, access gaming options, upgrade the game, and view the about screen.  Gaming options cover sound/music levels as well as restoring purchases, resetting levels and establishing a gamer profile.

Reaper is a free game but only up to character level 10. After that, you'll need to pick up an in-app upgrade to continue. You have three options for the upgrade. The Adventure Edition is the full game and runs $2.99, the Destiny Edition is the full game plus an additional arena, a fortune teller and destiny item set. It'll run you $3.99. The Dark Legend Edition includes the full game, the Destiny Edition add-ons and a dark edition item set, an additional side quest, and a dark harvest mode. The Dark Legend Edition runs $4.99.

When you first jump into the game, you'll run through a tutorial mission that covers all your gesture moves. In a nutshell, the left side of the screen controls your characters left/right movement. The right side of the screen controls your characters' actions (sword slashing, jumping, defensive moves, etc.).  Throughout the tutorial you have learning stations (the glowing masks that are hovering about) that will go over the maneuvers.

At the conclusion of each level or mission, you'll find a glowing white orb that serves as a portal that will send you to the navigation map.  The portal won't suck you in so if you need to collect gold coins that are bouncing around from slain enemies, go ahead and collect it.  When your ready to make the jump, just position your swordsman in front of the portal and in a few seconds, he'll be sent to the game's navigation map.
Game play calls for you to wander the map, defending yourself from enemy ambushes, meeting new and unique characters, tackling missions and visiting shops to upgrade your gear.
As you travel, you'll stumble upon gold treasure and as you slay your enemies coins will be generated. The gold earned can be used for your trips to the local shops. You also earn experience points that will bump your character up in levels.  When you qualify to level up, an icon will flash in the upper right corner of the map view. Tap it and you'll see what skills you can choose to upgrade (health, strength, or speed).
Reaper's animations and graphics are extremely well drawn up. I like the gesture based movements and actions, but it does take some time to get used to them all. I kept finding myself tapping the screen to swing my sword but that gesture makes your character jump. You do have the benefit of directions arrows at the bottom of the left side of the screen that will help the left/right movement portion of the game. Once you get the hang of the gestures, you can then give wiping out your enemies your undivided attention. Reaper is an action packed RPG game for Windows Phone 8. Again, the initial game is free up until your character reaches level 10. After that you'll need to buy an in-app upgrade ($2.99 to $4.99).  Reaper can be downloaded here in the Windows Phone Store.