Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2

Review by eFreeware

Most mobile adventures hand you a finished character and ask you to steer it. Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2 suits anyone who wants to draw their own hero: you begin with a blank page and a pencil, and whatever you put on that page becomes the figure you spend the rest of the game with. It is a free release from Hitcents, and it sits in the Adventure category on Google Play.

That premise is the reason the game exists. A drawn hero is harder to feel indifferent about than a stock sprite, and the sequel builds its whole structure around that attachment, from the story to the puzzles to the way drawings move between players. If the idea of your own sketch walking through a storybook world sounds appealing, this is the app that offers it.

A storybook world built around your own sketch

It takes place in a storybook world of strange creatures and puzzles. You begin by creating an original stickman, and the game animates it so that your drawing becomes the character on screen rather than a static picture. The art style follows from that: colorful environments that exist to be drawn on and interacted with.

The story gives the drawing a job. You create a companion as well as a hero, disaster strikes that companion, and the rest of the game is a journey through time to rescue them. The developer frames it as a perilous quest, and the premise works because the ally is also something you made, not a character the game handed you.

The franchise behind this entry carries some weight: it has won five Webby Awards and, according to the developer, has been played more than 100 million times around the globe. Those numbers describe the series rather than this particular release, but they explain why the sequel arrives with an audience already familiar with the formula.

Drawing tools, puzzles and the sketchbook

A typical session moves between drawing and problem-solving. You explore colorful environments, and along the way you choose from a set of drawing pencils and tools to get past obstacles. Challenges and puzzles can be solved in more than one way, so the tools reward experimentation.

The tools themselves have been expanded for this entry. There is a larger color palette and a variety of pencil sizes, and specific pencils are tied to materials such as wires, eggs and ice. Hidden Color Buddies and collectible puzzle pieces give you reasons to look around each environment rather than push straight through it. The sequel's additions are mostly of this kind: more ways to draw, more things tucked away to find.

Your drawings are kept in a sketchbook, where you can save as many as you like and use them throughout the adventure. That turns the sketchbook into a working library rather than a gallery. If you draw something you like, it stays available for later parts of the story instead of disappearing once the scene that needed it is over.

Battles against goblins, frogs and dragons

The adventure is not only puzzles. You face inked-out goblins, tongue-lashing frogs and fire-breathing dragons, plus larger bosses, and the combat leaves room for your own approach. The enemy designs lean into the drawn aesthetic: creatures that look like they came out of the same ink as your hero.

What appeals to me about this setup is that the drawing and the fighting are not separate modes. The tools you use to get past an obstacle are the same ones you draw with, so a puzzle solution and a battle tactic can come from the same instinct. The idea of one continuous drawing-and-playing loop is easy to follow.

The mix also explains the game's reach. It is rated for Everyone, and the challenge comes from working out what to draw rather than from reflexes or timing, which is a different kind of difficulty than most mobile action games offer.

Sharing drawings with other players

The share feature is the most interesting addition here. You can send your creations to friends, who can then use your drawings in their own adventures. That is a more involved kind of sharing than posting a screenshot: your sketch becomes usable material in someone else's playthrough.

It also gives the sketchbook a social purpose. A drawing you make for one puzzle might be exactly what a friend needs later, and the receiving player gets a character or object they would not have drawn themselves. The developer treats this as a headline feature of the sequel, and it is the part of the package that most clearly distinguishes EPIC 2 from a solo drawing toy.

For players who prefer to work alone, none of this changes the core loop. The story, the puzzles and the drawing tools are all there regardless, and the sharing sits alongside them.

What it costs and what you get for free

The download is free, and the first two levels are free as well. The app also contains advertising and offers in-app purchases.

The install base is large: more than 10 million downloads, with a 3.7 average across 378,059 ratings. That is a healthy number rather than a spectacular one, and it suggests a game that many people try and a good portion keep. The release date is January 8, 2016, with an update logged for September 21, 2026.

For a free game with ads and purchases, the practical question is whether the drawing and puzzle loop holds your attention. The developer's own framing, an experience personalized by you, points at the answer: the more you enjoy making the drawings, the more the rest of the game has to work with.

A creative adventure for players who like to draw

Draw a Stickman: EPIC 2 is at its best for people who find drawing fun in itself. If sketching a hero, a companion and a set of tools sounds like a good use of an evening, the game turns that into a quest with a story attached, and the sharing feature gives the results somewhere to go afterward. Players who want a guided, hand-drawn adventure with light puzzle work will find the structure familiar and the personalization unusual.

The costs are the main thing to accept going in. It is free to download with the first two levels free, and it carries both ads and in-app purchases. Anyone sensitive to either should factor that into the decision rather than treat the free label as the whole picture.

The 3.7 average across a large number of ratings tells you this is a game with a broad audience and a range of reactions, not a universally adored one. What tips it for me is the central idea: a sequel that keeps the drawing at the center and adds more colors, more pencils, more collectibles and a way to pass your work to someone else. If you have ever wanted a game to take your own sketch seriously, this one is built for exactly that.