Gameloft's Diablo-like action RPG Dungeon Hunter [$6.99] has arrived in the App Store tonight.
We had some hands on time with the game last month. Although we only had a brief amount of time with the game, it certainly seemed like a very solid take on the formula.
On-screen controls once again are utilized, with a virtual D-Pad controlling movement and a series of buttons that handle your attacks and magic. Three classes are included that each have slightly different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. Dungeon Hunter plays a lot like Pixel Mines' Underworlds, in 3D, and could potentially have quite a bit of replay value as you play through the game as a knight, then a rogue, and finally as a mage. Also, along the way you will collect different fairies that assist you on your adventures, each providing a different offensive and/or defensive bonuses.
The game description promises an enormous world with different types of quests and missions, tons of items, weapons and armor, and hours of gameplay. Early impressions are being collected in our forums, and we'll post more once we've had more time to put the game through its paces.
Update: Gameplay video updated with a much higher quality version.
Update 2: Dungeon Hunter is no longer available for download, we're waiting for a comment from Gameloft but judging by our forums it likely is a result of a crash bug when loading a certain level of the game.
Update 3: Gameloft offers the following comment on the situation: "Dungeon Hunter was momentarily removed from the AppStore, an update will be live very soon."
We promised to report back once we had more time with Blades of Fury [App Store], Gameloft's newly-released fighting game. We're happy to report, that against all odds, the virtual D-Pad and on-screen controls actually do allow you to pull off some pretty impressive combos filled with special attacks and suprisingly don't seem to hamper the gameplay at all.
The Blades of Fury thread on our forums is filled with people echoing the same uncanny impressions regarding the controls. I'm really not sure what kind of new virtual D-Pad technology Gameloft has pulled out of their R&D department, but between Blades of Fury and Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$6.99] I'm beginning to become a believer in virtual controls.
Gameloft's Official Trailer
The buttons on the bottom right of the screen control your attacks and defenses, you have two types of standard attacks as well as blocking and your special magical attack. Blades of Fury has a cool blocking mechanic in that you can't just keep the block button held down all the time as there is a limited number of times you can block before your armor breaks. The magic attack system is equally cool, and works off a blue meter below your health bar that seems to fill up whenever you take damage or hit your opponent.
This bar fills up in four usable chunks, and depending on how long you hold the magic attack button the more it will use. Tapping the button lets out a low powered special attack that varies for each character. This takes one chunk of the blue bar, holding the button longer eats up two chunks of the blue bar but does more damage, and by holding the button even longer you will use up the entire blue bar but unleash a devastating magical attack.
Each character has a fairly large variety of moves and combos, accessible through the pause screen attack list button and easily perfected in the included practice mode. I didn't have any problem going through the list of moves and memorizing a few combos, which again I found to be very surprising for a game with virtual controls.
There are five difficulty options, ranging from "easy" to "hardest", so players of all skill levels should be able to find some challenge in the game. Easy mode is easy enough that you can win by rolling your iPhone across your face and the hardest mode is just ridiculous. I figured I would give it a try just for the sake of having some frame of reference for the different difficulty settings, and found myself falling victim to these amazing combos unleashed by the AI opponent that had my character juggling through the air powerless to do anything more than get a few hits in before meeting an untimely demise.
If you happen to find yourself administering one of these insane opponent juggling combos, you can also save replays of complete fights. There doesn't seem to be a way to share these replays, but just having the option of recording them is nice. Included in Blades of Fury are many references to their online service Gameloft Live , but no one has been able to successfully log on. There are some statistics in the player profile area of the main menu that detail rankings which I assume have something to do with the currently inaccessible Gameloft Live integration.
The graphics in Blades of Fury are great, and the ten different levels in the game are equally awesome. Each fighter has their own arena ranging from evil looking catacombs to even flying on the back of a giant dragon. Similar to most fighting games, the story is lackluster and the voice work can be laughable at times.
If you're a fan of fighting games, Blades of Fury is worth some serious consideration. Gameloft has been on a roll lately both releasing and previewing games that have raised the bar of what to expect on the iPhone, and Blades of Fury fits in great with the rest of their current and upcoming lineup. If you know someone locally who also has the game, you can play over WiFi or bluetooth, a feature I've been unable to test.
But don't just take my word for it, the thread on our forums is filled with people echoing my sentiments. Ayjona, Nizy, Squarezero and several others have also posted detailed accounts of their experiences with the game.
Gameloft wasn't joking when they said that Blades of Fury [App Store] was coming soon when I met with them at PAX, as it just popped up on the App Store mere minutes ago.
Blades of Fury is a fighting game obviously inspired by Soul Calibur featuring on-screen controls with a virtual D-Pad and set of buttons. In my brief time with the game at PAX I found that they worked well, but wasn't really sure how well the lack of precision inherent in most games with similar control schemes could cope with opponents of higher difficulty than the first few fights. Also included is a gesture-based system where you use the virtual D-Pad to move, then swipe on the screen to perform various attacks.
Blades of Fury has ten characters to choose from, each with different weapons, attacks, and combos. ten arenas are included in the game, along with four game modes: Story, Arcade, Survival, and Practice. Blades of Fury can also be played two player utilizing two devices and a local WiFi or bluetooth connection.
Back when rumblings of the iPhone hadn't even crossed the minds of Apple rumor hounds I rocked various cell phones and always knew Gameloft as "that company with lots of brick breaking games for all kinds of different phones". With the advent of the iPhone, the debut of the App Store, and Gameloft's first entries into said uncharted digital territory, I half expected this mental image of mine to persist. It is amazing to me that in the span of barely over a year Gameloft went from simple solitaire and match three games to providing us with one of the most immersive first person shooter experiences on the iPhone to date.
Modern Combat: Sandstorm [App Store] is by far one of the most impressive gaming experiences I've seen on the App Store, and easily is able to hold its own when compared to the technical accomplishments of other remarkable efforts in pushing the iPhone to its limits like Real Racing, Doom Resurrection, and others. Featuring multiple full motion video cut scenes all of standard Gameloft quality, complete in-game voice overs, impressive AI, top notch graphics, fluid frame rates, and controls that even surprised this skeptic of virtual analog sticks.
The game begins like a lot of console first person shooters where you're put through a "basic training" of sorts that gradually teaches you the different controls, weapons, and techniques of the game while making you feel like you're playing a game instead of a tutorial. The default control scheme works quite well, a virtual joystick is in the bottom corner that controls your movement, and swiping anywhere on the screen controls your view. In the bottom right corner is a button to fire, and whenever you can do context sensitive things like jump off a ledge or toss a grenade back at an enemy another button appears in the bottom center of the screen.
Framing the rest of the screen are buttons that allow you to crouch, zoom in to aim through the sights of your gun, throw grenades, change or reload weapons, and pause the game. Other control options include splitting the screen in half, touching the left side of the screen controls your movement and the right controls your view. Tapping on the right side of the screen also fires. You can also use dual analog sticks, then tap anywhere on the screen to fire. The sensitivity can be tweaked and the Y-axis can be inverted regardless of which option you choose.
If you follow Touch Arcade, you probably know by now that I'm generally not a fan of on-screen virtual controls. They usually feel clunky and often lack the precision required in a lot of games that come with them. It's completely refreshing, and honestly a little surprising how much Gameloft managed to nail the controls of Sandstorm. It's great to just be able to say the game is fun to play without the qualifier "…as best as can be expected with on-screen controls".
Sandstorm features the same generous auto-aiming system that appears in other Gameloft shooters. If this assistance grinds your gears, you will be happy to know that there's an advanced options screen where you can toggle it on and off along with the in-game blood, lefty mode, and screen flip.
The plot of Sandstorm won't be winning any awards for originality, as it's a fairly cookie cutter premise centralized around conflicts in the middle east, evil terrorists, and the trials and tribulations of your military squad as you fight your way through the various bands of enemy combatants standing between you and the various objectives. The story gets the job done, and your squad, complete with total voice-overs for all dialog really adds to the overall immersion of the game.
Official trailer:
One clever thing Gameloft did with voice-overs is the way the mission briefings work. Between each level, you're given an overview of the situation your squad is in, the objectives, and your rules of engagement that are all wonderfully narrated. As you're listening to the briefing of the upcoming mission, the next level is loading behind the scenes. When the narration is finished, you hit next and play the level. These sneaky loading screens make the game feel as if it almost has no load times at all.
The AI in Sandstorm is fairly challenging, with enemies often taking cover, advancing when you take cover, manning nearby stationary machine guns, and even tossing grenades. This really goes a long way in making Sandstorm actually feel like a game where you need to be intelligent about cover and which enemies you shoot first, as opposed to most first person shooters on the iPhone that feel a bit like a shooting gallery where you can basically just run and gun your way through most levels without much risk. If you decide to just run out in to the open, guns-a-blazin' in Sandstorm, you will quickly die.
Gameloft games are rarely very innovative, and Sandstorm is no different. If it came with the Call of Duty brand name plastered on it, you would be hard time knowing it was developed by Gameloft instead of Infinity Ward, makers of the Call of Duty series. Everything is extremely similar from the objective system to the arrow pointing you where to go next to the regenerative health system where all you need to do is seek cover for a few seconds to regain your strength to avoid dying. I don't really think this is a bad thing, because the Call of Duty series consists of excellent games, and Gameloft has really done the series justice in this highly inspired spin-off.
Included in the initial launch version of Sandstorm are 10 levels, and I've been averaging anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes per level as I make my way through the game on normal difficulty. Each level comes with a variety of checkpoints so if you die you never lose too much progress. What is quite confusing to me is that the game apparently only saves your progress as you complete levels. If you're 10 minutes into a mission and have passed multiple checkpoints, quitting the game to take a phone call or answer a text message forces you to start back at the beginning. This seems like a big oversight to me, and I hope that this would be fixed in an update.
Speaking of updates, Gameloft has promised a free future update to add online multiplayer to Sandstorm. We don't have any more details than that currently, but the game does give me some serious Counter-Strike 1.6 vibes. I have no doubt it would makes the dreams of countless gamers come true if the upcoming multiplayer update included squad-based objectives instead of simple deathmatch. After all, they've already practically got the texture and model set required for a fairly accurate reproduction of the Counter-Strike map de_dust in game already!
Hands on gameplay video (on easy, and with multiple takes):
Modern Combat: Sandstorm is an excellent game that raises the bar of what is to be expected of future first person shooters on the iPhone, as well as being added to the short list of games with fantastic on-screen controls. The three included difficulty levels should provide a fun experience for first person shooter veterans and newcomers alike, and while I'm not entirely sure how much replay value the game has, there is massive potential in the future multiplayer update.
If you're at all interested in shooters, or are just looking for a great game to flex the muscles of your iPhone, look no further than Modern Combat: Sandstorm.
Gameloft's much anticipated first person shooter Modern Combat [$6.99] has arrived in the App Store.
Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Gameloft’s new action-thriller will plunge you into the heart of modern war. Assigned to Mission Sandstorm, your duty is to locate and annihilate a new terrorist cell setting up shop and recruiting foreign insurgents in a remote desert hot spot. This jarring first person shooter will equip you with the most sophisticated and powerful modern day weapons.
The developer description includes:
10 missions featuring varied and highly polished Middle Eastern environments (city, hospital, sewers, port, lab, training camp etc…)
Intuitive iPhone controls offer unprecedented game fluidity. Choose among 3 different control systems: Default Controls, Screen Tap and Virtual Sticks
Use a wide range of authentic, advanced weapons (2 assault rifles, sniper rifle, RPG, shotgun, submachine gun, light machine gun, heavy machine gun mounted on a moving 4X4, explosive grenades, flashbang grenades, radiation detector) enriched with a leveling system that allows the player to progressively unlock weapons and use munitions from fallen foes
Aim and shoot with extra precision in Sniper and Ironsight mode
Highly polished 3D graphics provide full immersion into the military experience and high intensity combat
Cinematic snippets, military voice-overs and true-to-life situations increase game realism
First impressions and gameplay video coming shortly. Early raw impressions are being collected in our forums.
Gameloft's highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto -esque free-roaming sandbox game Gangstar: West Coast Hustle [App Store] hit the streets today with a bang. The thread in our forums exploded, and after spending a hefty amount of time with the game since its release, I'm happy to report that I'm in agreement with the feeling of our forum members in that overall the game is extremely solid despite a few weak areas.
Originally a J2ME game, Gameloft has given Gangstar a complete face lift. The SNES-looking graphics of the original have been completely replaced with a full 3D city complete with cars, pedestrians, and plenty of opportunities for crime. The game opens with a fast paced full motion video cut scene of a bank robbery with getaway chase, and after starting a new game the story of Juanito and P. Thug continues as you stash your SUV used in the robbery and look for some help from a nearby friendly gangster, L.C. He naturally has a job for you, it turns out his boy Lil' T got in to some trouble down at the beach and needs your help.
The rest of the game continues like this, very similar to Grand Theft Auto games. You take missions, complete them, and eventually meet new contacts who will also give you missions. The story is basic at best and downright silly at times. They really lay the whole Mexican gangster stereotype on pretty thick with everything from character names that border on ridiculous to the dialog where "S" is freely interchanged with "Z". The good thing is though, most missions are very quick and really lend themselves to a great portable gaming experience where you might only play for a few minutes at a time.
Along the way you'll run in to various side missions such as street races, and a variety of different cars can be stolen that each have their associated mini games. For instance, stealing either a burger delivery car, ambulance or a taxi gives you a sub-set of challenges that all have to do with driving around as fast as possible delivering food, saving patients, or picking up customers.
While outside of a car, your movement is controlled with a joystick on the left and a button on the right that handles attacking. Tapping the screen locks on to a target, so you never need to aim. When you're near a car, another button pops up that allows you to steal it. There are three options for steering. By default, cars are controlled by tilting the iPhone. Other options include a steering wheel that works similar to Gameloft's Asphalt 4: Elite Racing and a virtual joystick-like slider that is my personal favorite. Accelerating and braking can either be done using an on-screen brake and gas pedal or yet another virtual joystick-like slider. The direction the camera is facing can be changed at any time by swiping in any direction on the screen.
Overall the controls work well, but similar to most games with virtual controls, they don't feel very precise. Thankfully, driving around is fairly forgiving as there is no collision detection in the game between your car and most small objects like street signs, trees, and stop lights. This strange collision detection does create some issues though as there are some odd irregularities in that you can just be cruising down the sidewalk sailing right through trees when you run in to a planter that brings your car to a dead stop.
These inconsistencies can be rather annoying when running in to an immovable potted shrubbery ultimately leads to your apprehension in a fast-paced police chase, but other than that tooling aound the city is enjoyable. There are even ramps scattered around to get huge air off of like most Grand Theft Auto games.
A mini map guides you to different objectives as well as serving as a button to pause the game. On the pause screen, you can see and start available missions as well as purchase weapons and ammo. Some weaponry, however, is only available from a local gun shop. These gun shops are also shown on your map along with areas that you can get your car repaired if it's too banged up.
One of my major disappointments with the game is how poorly the police response scales up with your wanted level. One of the first things I did after completing a few missions outside of the tutorial was see how much trouble I could stir up by just murdering everyone walking down the street. I was able to stand around, basically farming the constantly spawning police officers for money, ammo, and when my health got low I was able to just pause the game and buy a health pack.
In comparison, most Grand Theft Auto-like games have police forces that significantly ramp up with each wanted level. In Grand Theft Auto, there was almost no way to survive in a five star wanted level against the onslaught of tanks and other insane police forces that come after you without some serious planning and an inventory full of weaponry. In Gangstar, the police simply drive up, stop their car in front of you, get out, and allow you to shoot them to death while maybe firing a few return shots.
The graphics in Gangstar are great, and performance across the board seems to be decent on all devices although obviously better on the iPhone 3GS. Some forum members have been experiencing crashes or inconsistent performance, but by and large most people seem to find the game completely playable, even on the first generation iPod Touch. The draw distance of the game does seem obviously low at times, and it would be nice to be able to increase it on the 3GS, but other than that the game runs great. Unsurprisingly, load times can be fairly significant even on the 3GS and it would be nice to be able to disable the intro movie instead of skipping through it with every launch of the game. (But the same thing can be said for most Gameloft games.)
The in-game music stations are fantastic, and even feature fake advertisements and DJ's like the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto. The different stations add a lot of atmosphere to the game, and I find myself preferring 42.0 FM, "Legalize-It" that features instrumental gangster rap style music. There is also a rock station, an electronic station, and even a few others. You can even select a playlist in the options to add another radio station that selects from your own music.
For the amount of content you're getting in Gangstar the current price of $6.99 is pretty crazy and even though the game has its flaws, I've still found myself really enjoying it. Included are a total of 50 missions across 6 chapters, all the side jobs, an entire city to explore, achievements to earn, and a mobile experience surprisingly similar to a slightly watered down Grand Theft Auto 3. If you enjoy these types of free-roaming crime sandbox games, you really need to get Gangstar.
Gameloft just released their much anticipated Gangstar [link] game to the App Store today at the promised $6.99 price.
Gangstar, which is an enhanced port of their 2006 mobile handset title, is set in an expansive world (Los Angeles) that strives to bring the modern, 3D home console Grand Theft Auto experience to iPhone gamers. We took a detailed look at a preview copy of the title back in July.
The game is a free-roam sandbox affair, with LA being the sandbox. And the game world is actually modeled after LA with some accuracy. Hollywood, Santa Monica, South Central, and other well-known areas of the city are represented with many distinguishing characteristics in place. Portions of the game are also played through sequences that are flashbacks to Pedro's time in the Mexican pen.
This new trailer was also released today:
We were impressed by the game during our preview and will spend more time with the final version. Early impressions of the game are being collected in our forum.
A little late to the all out price slashing fiesta we saw last week, EA has since dropped the prices on a few of their games this afternoon.
Need For Speed Undercover, $6.99 -> $4.99 – A mission-based racing game that had an insanely long development cycle that produced a game that was well worth waiting for. While Need For Speed Undercover runs great on previous-generation devices, it's on the short list of games you really should have if you want to stretch the graphical legs of your iPhone 3GS. At the higher framerate, the sensation of speed is even better. We enjoyed the game in our review, and along with Real Racing [App Store], Need For Speed is still one of the best full 3D racing games on the App Store.
Wolfenstein RPG, $4.99 -> $2.99 – Originally produced by Id Software, ported to the iPhone by Firemint, and published to the App Store by EA, Wolfenstein RPG is a high-resolution adaptation of a J2ME game. The game puts a silly spin on the Wolfenstein universe and provides slow-paced turn-based combat originally designed for the user input constraints of a typical cell phone. Firemint did a wonderful job on the port, and as I mentioned in our review, as long as you're not expecting a fast paced shooter, it's a good time.
The Sims 3, $9.99 -> $6.99 – The latest mobile iteration of the Sims dynasty of video games, The Sims 3 is a fun, albeit watered down version of the original. Build mode is lacking in the iPhone version, so you are really limited in how much you can customize your house. Regardless, as we said in our review, if your favorite things about Sims games was cultivating relationships with other Sims, the iPhone game is great. If you liked tweaking your house and building Sim torture chambers, the iPhone game doesn't have much to offer.
A few months ago, Capcom released Resident Evil: Degeneration [App Store] for the iPhone. Originally for the Nokia N-Gage, Resident Evil: Degeneration is based on the computer animated movie of the same name.
The game features an impressive 3d engine and a combination of virtual d-pad and on-screen buttons to control the action. Movement is controlled through the virtual d-pad and a quick flick down on the pad causes you to turn around 180 degrees. An action button appears when something can be done (pick up an item, open a door, climb a ladder) and a targeting button transitions you into shooting mode. In shooting mode, you have a laser sight to target the zombies and you can use the d-pad to aim up/down/left/right.
The game includes a pretty heavy storyline and in-game cut scenes which direct you to your goals. The cut scenes actually work out quite well to tie the action together. In my early experience, the controls seem to work well enough when you take into account the slow deliberate movement of the zombies. Being unable to shoot and move at the same time, however, made for some awkward early fights.
Impressions on our forums were positive, and Resident Evil: Degeneration provides a decent Resident Evil experience once players got used to the controls. With the arrival of Resident Evil: Degeneration Lite [App Store] now available for players to try for free, there's not much reason to not give it a shot.
Capcom released the iPhone version of Resident Evil: Degeneration [App Store] for $6.99.
The app brings the long running Resident Evil video game franchise to the iPhone and iPod Touch. This installation of the game is based on a recently released computer animated movie and drops you into a 3rd person perspective horror shooter. The game lists the following features:
Explore Harvardville Airport, rescue survivors, unlock puzzles and battle an army of undead.
Use your in-game PDA to collect intel, manage inventory and access maps.
“Laser targeting” allows the players to make aimed accurate shots.
Backgrounds, character models and objects are all rendered in full 3D.
Tilt device to reload, shake iPhone/iPod Touch to shake off Zombies
While we had heard of the release was coming few details had been released prior to its appearance in the App Store tonight.
The game features an impressive 3d engine and a combination of virtual d-pad and on-screen buttons to control the action. Movement is controlled through the virtual d-pad and a quick flick down on the pad causes you to turn around 180 degrees. An action button appears when something can be done (pick up an item, open a door, climb a ladder) and a targeting button transitions you into shooting mode. In shooting mode, you have a laser sight to target the zombies and you can use the d-pad to aim up/down/left/right.
The game includes a pretty heavy storyline and in-game cut scenes which direct you to your goals. The cut scenes actually work out quite well to tie the action together. In my early experience, the controls seem to work well enough when you take into account the slow deliberate movement of the zombies. Being unable to shoot and move at the same time, however, made for some awkward early fights.
Early impressions are being recorded in a forum thread. Many of the early opinions have been quite positive: Seishu and skamando. Some later (but still early) forum goers are still adjusting to the controls.
You can judge for yourself in this gameplay video embedded below. AppBank also provides a video in Japanese here which shows a different portion of the game.
What we can't easily answer at this early stage is how much gameplay is being offered, but that will be revealed over time. For now, it appears to be a surprisingly well implemented version of this popular franchise.
