Good news, Pretty Little Liars fans! You don’t have to wait as long as you thought to return to Rosewood thanks to the new Pretty Little Liars Episode app.
The hiatus between seasons of Pretty Little Liars can be excruciating for fans and we still have months to go until season 7B premieres on April 18, 2017. Luckily, there’s a new way for you to get immersed in the world of the show, with the new Pretty Little Liars Episode app for iOS and Android. The app launches today, December 14, so you can get started right after reading our review!
About the ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Episode app
Pretty Little Liars just launched as the latest story on the Episode app. If you’re not familiar with the app, it features choice-driven stories where the user can pick various paths throughout, which impact the story’s progression. It’s kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure, but on your phone and in a world that you know, with characters that you already love.
Episode is the world’s largest platform for interactive mobile stories and has previously created stories for Mean Girls and Demi Lovato. When you download the Episode app to play through the Pretty Little Liars story, you’ll also be able to access these other stories. The app is currently available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and on Google Play for Android devices.
The Pretty Little Liars story on the Episode app allows you to play through a new storyline set during the first season of the show. The story puts you right in the middle of all the Rosewood drama with all of your favorite characters, including Aria, Emily, Hanna, Spencer, and of course, “A.” You play through the storyline by making your own choices that affect how the plot unfolds.
’Pretty Little Liars’ Episode app review
One of the best parts of playing through the Pretty Little Liars story is the nostalgia factor. It’s set in season 1 and takes you through all of your favorite scenes, with a twist, of course. You’ll meet Alison, wearing her signature yellow tank top, you’ll relive some of the Liars’ first secrets, and you’ll even attend one of Noel Kahn’s infamous parties. The whole thing will leave you desperate for a rewatch.
Instead of playing as one of the Liars, you play as yourself. You input your name and choose every aspect of your appearance. There are quite a few options for your hair, eye color, skin tone, and even facial features, which is fun to play with.
One issue with the app is that it only allows you to play as a girl! Most of Episode’s stories only have one gender option. In the Mean Girls story you’re also restricted to playing as a girl, and in some other stories you can only play as a boy. It’d be nice to have more gender choices available for each story.
There also isn’t an option to change your avatar’s body type and there were actually surprisingly few clothing style options to begin with, so the avatar selection could be improved. That being said, you do accumulate more clothing as you play through the story. Staying true to the Pretty Little Liars brand, fashion is very important in the app.
Right from the start, Episode’s Pretty Little Liars app makes you feel like you truly are a part of the story. The background music is similar to the score of the show and helps set the spooky Rosewood atmosphere perfectly. Even though the graphics are animated, the sights and locations all seem familiar and will transport you to the little town with big drama.
In the app, you meet the Liars the night Ali disappears, at the sleepover in Spencer’s barn. Right away, you feel like you are one of the Liars, as Ali tries to get you to spill your secrets and manipulate you. You have to make choices that will either please her, or defy her, which influence how the story progresses. It really does feel like you’re one of her puppets, just like the rest of the girls!
After Ali’s disappearance, you basically become the fifth Liar. You’re best friends with Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer and you start receiving texts from “A” along with the rest of them. At first, we wondered how the app could capture the magic of the Pretty Little Liars story since we already know all the twists and turns. However, they’ve got that covered.
Your character actually has their own secret that unfolds as you play through the story, adding to the mystery. Also, there are some huge twists in the plot that heavily deviate from the show! There were a couple points where I was flipping through, sure I knew what was coming, and was blindsided by what actually happened. The app keeps you guessing just as much as the show always has.
The graphics in Episode’s Pretty Little Liars app are good and add to the fun of the experience. There are some points where the animation is funny, like when the characters are running or dancing, but for the most part, you can get fully immersed in the animated Rosewood within the app.
One downside of the app is that you need to pay to make some of the choices that could change your storyline the most. You accumulate “gems” as you go through the story, but some of the choices require way more gems than you could’ve earned up to that point. The gems are quite expensive, too. You will only pay around $1 for 10 gems, but some choices will cost you almost 30 gems!
That being said, the Pretty Little Liars Episode app can still be a great experience even if you’re not willing to hand over a few dollars to have Alison style you for the party (although who wouldn’t want that?). If you’re looking for an entertaining, immersive way to stay in Rosewood with the Liars, get the Episode app and start playing, today!