Gameloft has had a recent track record of enjoyable titles (9mm [$6.99] and BackStab [$6.99] come to mind). Silent Ops [$6.99], the latest part-stealth, part-third-person shooter looked to extend Gameloft’s streak of decent titles that provide a good iOS alternative to a variety of genres usually reserved for console and PC gamers. Unfortunately, Silent Ops, with its generic story, poor presentation, and lacking gameplay definitely takes the genre back quite a few steps and should be avoided in lieu of other, much more deserving titles.

At first glance, Silent Ops looks to take a lot of its inspiration from the popular Splinter Cell series --there’s a lot of sneaking into buildings, a lot of silenced weapons, and a lot of double-crossing.  Take a closer look, however, and you’ll quickly see that any comparison to an actual stealth title is only skin deep. While you may be doing quite a bit of sneaking, your cover is almost always blown every time you take a shot at the opposition, silenced weapon or not. In addition, the whole ‘sneaking’ mechanic is just poorly done, as not only is the cover system poorly implemented, but once you’re spotted, you’re basically in guns blazing mode for the rest of the level.

Not that getting spotted makes the game any harder. The AI in Silent Ops is atrocious. I lost count how many times I’ve seen several enemies just stare at me for seconds on end while I took my time reloading in front of them and then proceeding to empty my clip.  In fact, the only threat I ever encountered was running out of bullets. Not to worry, however, as when that happened I would simply just run up to a group of enemies and they would immediately put their guns away and face me in hand-to-hand combat, each taking their turn in an organized, civilized fashion.

The whole combat system is just bizarre and not done very well. Other gameplay elements include simplistic quick time events as well as a few sniping sections that worked as well as they could within the context of the rest of the game.  Overall Silent Ops' gameplay, like its aged graphics system, just seems to be lackluster.

In addition to the single-player mode, which takes place across seven different levels (coupled with three separate difficulty levels), Silent Ops also features a barebones multiplayer mode. Players can create or join servers with up to 12 total combatants. Stat tracking does exist, but is restricted to games played, total deaths, and total kills. Admittedly, multiplayer was a much more enjoyable experience than the single player mode, but that’s mostly due to the fact that you’re playing against other live players and has nothing to do with anything that the game actually offers.

As iOS has matured as a gaming platform, games in the style of the typical first or third person shooter have become readily available. In this day and age, there’s no reason to flock to a new one just because it fits in this mold, but that’s the impression I get with Silent Ops. There are far more better titles than this one, some even published by Gameloft itself. I’d suggest you stick with one of those other alternatives, and stay away from this game.

Here’s something I wish I had on-hand when Phosphor Games and its partners announced its FPS-slash-horror game, The Dark Meadow: an actual web site that you can go to and then see videos and images of the game in action. I’ll let that beef slide though, now that there is an actual web site and it happens to be so handy. After gazing at the newly released teaser trailer and the images, I feel like I know the game a little better and that’s always a plus, for good or bad.

In this case, it’s for the better. The Dark Meadow has a wonderfully moody look, which will do wonders for its horror underpinnings. I’m still not so sure on how the marriage of long-range combat and Infinity Blade-inspired [$5.99] melee action has been implemented, buy hey, I guess you can’t have it all early in a marketing cycle no matter how much you stomp your feet.

One thing we didn’t know last time we covered The Dark Meadow was how it would manage movement in the world. Turns outs, Phosphor will be using nodes to help guide the player, similar to how Chair implemented movement in Infinity Blade, I’d imagine. I can hear you groaning from here already. Stop it. It’s not that bad, especially since there will be some sort of open-ish exploration element.

Dark Meadow is scheduled for a release this month. Wait, what? Neat! We'll of course have more from the title as soon as we can get our greasy but relatively germ-free hands on the game. There is a thread in our forums where you can get in on some Dark Meadow discussion, and keep your eyes peeled towards the App Store for the game to drop sometime in the next several weeks.

It was back in February that we first learned about the guerilla porting project of Bungie’s classic Mac first-person shooter trilogy Marathon [Free] to the iPad. Lone wolf coder Daniel Blezek had taken it upon himself to take these games, which were by this time a part of the open source community, and adapt them for the touch screen. But, there were still questions about certain aspects of the open source licensing and whether or not things would jive with Apple’s App Store distribution methods. Silence about the Marathon iPad project in the months that followed hinted that it indeed might have hit a permanent roadblock.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, Bungie posted an interview on their blog with Daniel Blezek talking about the project. It turns out that they had caught wind of Daniel’s planned port and were stoked on it, and decided to officially get behind it. A refreshing turn of events considering some of the unfortunate turnouts of other fan projects like the Streets of Rage Remake or various awesome looking Sonic the Hedgehog games over the years.

If you’re a fan of Bungie or the Halo series then it may not be surprising that Marathon has launched on July 7th, or otherwise known as Bungie Day. As had already been announced, the game launched for free and comes with the complete first game in the Marathon trilogy, which contains 9 chapters and 27 levels. I'd like to believe that the remaining two games Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity will appear on the App Store in similar fashion sometime down the line, though there aren't any concrete details on this just yet.

The catch to the game being free, if you can even call it a catch, is that the whole game is in a standard texture resolution. Should you feel so inclined, you can download a high resolution texture pack as a $3.99 in-app purchase. The improved visuals admittedly do look nice, but they don’t look that much better than what comes in the game initially. Of course, I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you felt like throwing the four bucks at the game just to support such a great project, and received the slight visual upgrade in return as an added bonus.

Another interesting in-app purchase is the ability to buy a Master Chief mode for 99¢. What this means is that options for unlocking all weapons, infinite ammo, invincibility, and instant shields are all available in the pause menu at any time, as well as the ability to select any stage and save anywhere during play. The game saves your state when you exit with the home button, but actual game progress is normally only saved at specific checkpoints in each level.

All of these cheats may sound like they’d suck the fun out of the game, and for some people that would be true. But Marathon is a hard game, and its retro gameplay hasn’t aged entirely well. Whereas a game like Doom is more of a straight up blast-a-thon, Marathon contains many (sometimes) confusing puzzles and even relies on some light platforming elements that can be pretty challenging. The option of buying some cheats for a buck is actually a welcome one if you’re just looking to experience the game again with minimal frustration.

The game itself plays pretty well on the iPad’s touch screen. A virtual stick on the left controls your movement and swiping anywhere on the screen controls your aim. Buttons in the lower right control firing and switching weapons, though you can toggle an option to fire by tapping anywhere on the screen too. Opening doors and toggling switches lies right below the virtual stick, as does access to an overhead map. There’s not the fully customizable controls seen in other FPS games, but what’s here works pretty well.

If you like old-school first-person shooters like Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, then you should feel right at home with Marathon. It’s nothing groundbreaking as far as iOS first-person shooters go, but it’s a solid port of a classic game. Marathon tells an interesting story via the computer terminals spread throughout the game, and has a great moody atmosphere. Whether you’re new to the series or an old-school Mac gamer looking for a nostalgia fix, Marathon is an easy recommendation for free and is definitely worth considering the IAP upgrades for the total experience. You can drop your own opinions of Marathon in our forums, and we'll keep an eye out for news on the release of the remainder of the trilogy.

Last week we learned from a tweet by Gameloft that their first title to use the Unreal Engine would be a game called March of Heroes. Unfortunately, the only information on the game was what was contained in those 140 characters or less. Based on the name alone, we felt it safe to assume that March of Heroes would be some sort of military first-person shooter, which isn’t much of a stretch considering that particular genre has flooded the market in recent years.

Today Gameloft has released a proper trailer for March of Heroes and – surprise! – it’s a military themed first-person shooter. Based on some of the visuals in the trailer, it looks like March of Heroes may take place during the Cold War era, similar to last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The use of the Unreal Engine is definitely a huge upgrade from your typical Gameloft game, as their regular in-house engine has really started to become dated. I’m looking forward to seeing some more from March of Heroes, and seeing how this week is E3, I’m sure we’ll be getting tons of new information about this and other Gameloft titles. No release date or price has been set for March of Heroes, but we’ll bring you any news as we get it, and you can check out our forums for discussion of the game.

UPDATE: Spiral Knights is still 'go,' but this specific release, apparently, was and has never been slated for iOS as was suggested. It is "is the story currently being told on the PC." However, an iOS-specific release is now in the works and we'll bring you those details soon.

Earlier this year, Playground State, a small five-man indie development studio headed up by two brothers, announced plans to release a set of serial FPS games under the umbrella of a franchise called “Knights.” A bit of buzz followed. The series had all the makings of a promising one, but after funding fell through, we’re left wondering if there is a slice of hope for the first game in the series, Knights: Spiral Islands.

Spiral Islands was the first of two known serials in Knights. The other was being called Humming Bell Station, though that was being put on the backburner until Spiral Islands was complete.

In both, you would have been given the reigns of a space knight who had to best the evil was thrown at you. In an interesting twist, Knights wasn’t just going to be a standard shooter; the studio had plans to break up the games into bite-sized chunks, each of which would present a different style of play. A co-op, a narrative-led single-player, and a competitive component were all mentioned at the time of announcement.

(more...)

Released in July of last year, Villain’s Archetype [99¢] was easily the most robust online first-person shooter available on the App Store at the time. It featured smooth Team Deathmatch multiplayer for up to 10 players over WiFi, 3G, or EDGE connections. We really liked the game in our review, and in the months following release Archetype received several updates adding Capture the Flag and Free For All modes, new maps and game types, and loads of other enhancements. An iPad native version, Archetype HD [$2.99], was released as well.

While other FPS games have since offered similarly impressive online multiplayer functionality, Archetype has remained a popular choice among fraggers on the go. Now you can test drive the game for free with the recently released Archetype Cadet [Free/HD]. Archetype Cadet gives you access to 5-on-5 Team Deathmatch on 2 available maps, Invidia and Pride Rocket Arena. Check out our gameplay video of the release version of Archetype to get an idea of the gameplay:

The full version of Archetype has you creating a persistent profile that is tied to your device. Archetype Cadet simply assigns you a generic gamer tag that is unable to earn experience or rank up in any way, so there’s no hassle with trying to sync profiles between the two versions if you decide to upgrade to the full. If you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is about with Archetype but haven’t yet been able to pull the trigger on purchasing the game, then grab Archetype Cadet for a free glimpse of the gameplay.

Alright, so here's a weird one for you- Our forums are filled with all walks of life, including people who apparently read every last detail of end the user license agreements that 99.999% of the planet just scroll through as quickly as humanly possible before clicking "I Agree". Forum member Starjimstar just tipped us off to the following Duke Nukem Forever info-nugget that's got me scratching my chin.

If you check out the Duke Nukem Forever page on Steam, you can scroll all the way down to the view the manual link. Like most modern PC games, there's basically nothing in there aside from a list of system requirements, and a whole bunch of legal text. Reading this legalese to the bottom gets you to the "Apple App Store Additional License Terms."

Strange, right? The original Duke Nukem [99¢] is already on the App Store, but could Gearbox potentially be planning an iOS release of Forever as well? What reason could there possibly be to include App Store licensing terms in a document for a PC game? Here's where things really get crazy- Per the FAQ, Gearbox isn't specifically stating which engine they're using, but it wouldn't be much of a leap to suggest they're using the Unreal Engine. ...Which also is available for iOS.

Alternatively, they could be referring to the Mac App Store, which is newsworthy as well as the previously mentioned FAQ specifically states the lack of announcements for a Mac version. ...But then there's the line that specifically states:

The license to the Software is a non-transferable license to use the Software only on an iPhone or iPod touch that you own or control.

At this point in the development of Duke Nukem Forever, absolutely nothing would surprise me. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines!

Last month, indie developer Ryan Mitchell and his studio Banshee Soft released Mission Europa into the App Store. Combining a deep RPG experience with a first-person shooter, Mission Europa is really unlike anything currently available for a mobile platform like the iPhone. Now you can get a taste of this with the recently released lite version of Mission Europa.

The complete game is spread across 5 episodes and 170 missions, with 50 different levels to explore and at least 50 hours of gameplay. There are a ton of different armor types, equipment, combat skills, and weapons to customize your character with, not to mention an item and equipment creation system that expands that even further. Beyond the impressive single player offering is an online battle arena where you can take your created character into battle against players from all over the world, adding what amounts to endless replay value to the title.

Strictly speaking in terms of content and depth, Mission Europa is unmatched, and the fact that the entire game was built from scratch by one person over the course of 2 years is an insane accomplishment to say the least.

(more...)

Over the weekend, an interesting new game dropped into the App Store called Bastards [99¢] from developer Octavian Stirbel. Bastards is a Western-themed FPS that’s built on the Doom Classic [$6.99] iPhone source code which was released for public use under the GPL License. There have been a number of games released in the App Store (both authorized and unauthorized) that have used the Doom engine, but frankly not many of them have been very good. Bastards is one of the good ones though, and despite being a fairly short ride it’s worth checking out if you liked Doom on the iPhone and are looking for something new.

Bastards is pretty light on story, but all you really need to know is you play as the cowboy Boot Mckane who is on a mission to kill every last member of the Bastards Gang. The game only contains 3 single player levels, but each one is pretty expansive. Much like Doom, you’ll need to explore each of the maps to find colored keys that gain you access to locked areas and allow you to progress, adding a very small puzzle element to all of the outlaw blasting. Since this is based on Doom, the controls work very well on the touch screen, and there is no y-axis so no need to worry about aiming up or down. There are 3 different options for control layouts, and the ability to turn off the HUD elements if you want.

So basically, Bastards is a solid FPS in the classic style of Doom, but what really won me over about it is the Old West theme. Weapons include classic six-shooter revolvers which can be dual-wielded, or sticks of dynamite instead of the typical rocket launcher. Health pickups are represented by bottles of liquor, and armor pickups are little sheriff badges that add to your “authority level”. The landscapes are open plains littered with cacti, horses, and chickens (which can be shot or blown up). Enemies are an assortment of gun slinging outlaws, and the various sound effects add to the spaghetti Western feel of the game. In a world chock full of space-themed shooters, there’s just something fun about blasting away bad guys in the Old West.

(more...)

Yesterday the popular Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series made its debut on the App Store with Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard [$6.99] courtesy of Gameloft. We’ve given the game some thorough play time since then, and have come away pretty satisfied with how the series has translated to the iOS platform. The single player component offers some enjoyable tactical gameplay, but the part of the game we were most excited about - the online cooperative play - turned out pretty disappointing. Even still, Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is a competent FPS that’s in line with Gameloft’s previous offerings, and should satisfy fans of the series’ recent console titles looking for a fix on the go.

The single player campaign in Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard spans 11 missions as your 3-man team works to take out a terrorist organization. The premise and storyline bits are fairly cliché, but the missions themselves are quite fun. Each mission is pretty lengthy and features several different ways to go about completing your goals, which requires much more forethought on how to approach them than your typical FPS game. You have two AI teammates in the game, a recon specialist and a demolitions expert, that you can direct them to take cover at specific areas or clear rooms for you. Taking cover behind walls or using a snake camera to peek under doors to see what’s awaiting you on the other side is imperative, as just barging your way through the game trying to run-n-gun will usually result in a speedy death, especially on harder difficulties.

The online portion of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is pretty good as well. It features online deathmatch or team deathmatch with up to 10 players spread across 5 specially designed multiplayer maps. There’s also an online cooperative mode that lets you team up with 2 other players and have a go at the single player campaign missions. This mode sounded extremely promising when it was announced, as there isn’t really anything akin to that on the iPhone yet. While it’s a technically sound mode, the lack of any sort of chat feature sucks the fun out of the experience. Playing cooperatively means being on the same page as your teammates, and without the ability to communicate with each other this mode loses almost all meaning.

Both the single player and multiplayer portions of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard let you earn experience for killing enemies which can then be used to unlock additional weapons and equipment. This is a nice touch and gives you more motivation besides just merely completing levels, though the extent of items and customization is lacking compared to something like Modern Combat 2 [$6.99/Lite/HD]. The graphics look quite good for the most part, though not mind blowing. It utilizes the same engine used in countless other Gameloft titles, giving it a somewhat generic look. Controls also work well though they can feel cramped on the tiny screen and there is very few options to suit them to your liking.

Overall, Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard gets the job done. It’s not nearly as deep or strategic as the console titles it’s modeled after, but it feels similar enough that it should win over fans of the series or those looking for a more tactical FPS experience. The competitive online modes are very good, though not quite as strong as those found in N.O.V.A. 2 [$6.99/HD] or Modern Combat 2. The cooperative play may serve you well while playing locally with some friends so you can discuss tactics with each other, but playing this online is largely forgettable. Surprisingly, the campaign is actually the star of the show in Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard, and is much more engaging than the campaigns in either of the previously mentioned titles.

The best way to sum up Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is that it’s very competent in every area, but far from the killer app that many might have hoped it would be. Players seem to be enjoying the title in our forums, and if you’re looking for an entertaining new FPS experience then Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is a pretty solid choice.

Back in January Gameloft revealed that they were working on a new entry in the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series titled Shadow Vanguard. We’ve previously posted the official trailer, a hands-on gameplay video, and an interesting interactive trailer that Gameloft created that takes you through part of the first level. After all of that anticipation, at long last Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard [$6.99] has finally gone live in the App Store.

The game features 11 single player missions where you lead a special elite group of soldiers in taking out a terrorist organization. Unlike your typical first-person shooter, Rainbow Six games rely on tactical gameplay choices rather than an all out run-n-gun approach. Taking your time to investigate each situation closely and determine the best plan of attack will get much better results than just bursting in and blasting anything that moves.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard is the multiplayer options. It features a traditional deathmatch mode with up to 10 players in a game, but there is also the option to team up with up to 2 buddies and have a go at the campaign cooperatively.

Gameloft has proven they can create competent FPS experiences with games like N.O.V.A. 2 [$6.99/HD] and Modern Combat 2 [$6.99/Lite/HD], both of which feature great single-player campaigns and robust online multiplayer options. In the case of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard, we’ll be holding off our full review for a bit so that the servers can populate with other players first and we can get a good feel for all the online functionality in the game.

Until then, there is a forum thread filling up with early impressions of Rainbow Six Shadow Vanguard if you’re interested in hearing what your fellow gamers have to say about the game. We’ll put it through its paces as well and report back with a review soon.

French iPhone blog iPhon.fr recently managed to snag a hands-on of Gameloft's upcoming Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard. Yesterday we posted the game's trailer, along with the announcement of the release date which just so happens to be next Thursday.

I would have loved to see some of the co-op in action, as the game comes packed with three player online co-op as well as ten player online multiplayer. Regardless, it's cool to see the game in action and only serves to further point out how difficult it's going to be to choose which two friends of mine I want to blast through the game in co-op mode with first.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard is a first person shooter set in the Tom Clancy universe. The Rainbow Six series of games historically have been fairly awesome and packed with tight urban squad-based combat, so I'm really hopeful for this one.

While I personally am more than a little tired of modern trends in first person shooters, there seems to be a pool of millions of people who can't get enough of 'em. If you're looking for another modern military themed first person shooter, you're going to be in for a treat on March 17th when Gameloft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard hits the App Store.

There have been a ton of games based on the Tom Clancy universe released in the past 13 years since the launch of the initial Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six games are typically squad based, and take place in tight urban environments. Shadow Vanguard seems to fit right in line with that per the above trailer, and boasts a few cool features. You'll be able to play the 11 included missions online in a co-op mode with 3 players, and there's even 10 player multiplayer.

Judging by the trailer, this isn't one of the upcoming Unreal Engine games we've heard about, but it's hard to not get excited about online co-op in a first person shooter running on a phone. That feels like the future.

Hopefully everybody has been grabbing the free game we posted earlier today SpikeDislike [Free], but there's another freebie deal on a great game that slipped by us until just now. Puppet War FPS [Free] is an arena style first-person shooter that is currently free for today as well. It originally launched in June of last year, and we really liked it when we reviewed it. You play as a hapless janitor who gets locked inside the studio of a popular children's puppet show. The puppets have decided to turn homicidal on humanity, and it's up to you to blast the stuffing out of endless waves of them using all sorts of interesting weapons.

Puppet War FPS originally launched with just one arena to battle in, the studio, but last August it received a huge update with additional locations and other improvements. There was now a night time version of the studio, and a brand new street scene level with it's own accompanying night version, bringing the total number of locations to 4. Also a Survival mode was added which was a very welcome addition if you just felt like hopping into a quick game for some puppet fragging without committing to the level based nature of the Campaign. A number of other gameplay tweaks and control improvements went on to make the updated version of Puppet War FPS an overall tighter experience.

Now you can grab this excellent shooter for free if you hurry. It's supposed to be free for today, February 23rd only, so depending on when you catch this post the price may already have increased. Puppet War FPS was definitely recommended at its various price points ranging from a dollar to three, and I would suggest downloading as soon as possible while it's currently free. It features some really attractive visuals and solid first-person shooting action. Plus, you get to blast the heads off of puppets, which should be reason enough to check it out. There's loads of further impressions in the thread in our forums, and don't miss out on this latest freebie for Puppet War FPS.

As part of a recent promotion, Gameloft left it up to the people to decide what game it would offer up for less than a dollar in celebration of Valentine’s Day. Those people have since spoken, indicating that it wanted the FPS, Halo-clone NOVA 2 [.99 / HD] to be sold at .99 cents. It is now available for that price on the App Store, but be weary of the one-click purchase, as the iPad version of the game is still sitting at a juicier $6.99.

NOVA 2, is a competent follow-up to the original NOVA, which did a lot to set the bar for iOS first-person perspective shooters. Like in the series its based upon, Halo, NOVA 2 has you shooting aliens, running through corridors, and even killing fake-real people in a robust competitive online offering. This follow-up in particular features a bit more compelling variety in its campaign, too -- if you’re into piloting mechs, shooting super powered guns, and driving motor bikes that is.

A dollar is a great price for this game. Good job, Gameloft fans. I’m a fan of you.