For the past year and a half or so, Lucas Wilde has been constructing what he hoped would be the ultimate first-person shooter for mobile devices, and after soft-launching on Android quite some time ago and again on iOS just last month, Bullet Force (Free) is now officially available. The first-person shooter on touchscreens has been a tough nut to crack. Many have tried and failed, and a few have been pretty darn good, but there hasn’t been one that truly captures the fun of shooters AND plays well on a touchscreen since, in my opinion, Ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro way back in 2009. Lord how I miss that game. Anyway, after the iOS soft launch of Bullet Force last month I took the plunge, and for the first time since those days back in 2009 and 2010, I got that same feeling of fun from playing a first-person shooter on my phone.

This isn’t to say that everyone will have an easy time playing a game like Bullet Force on the touchscreen. It’s something you really have to put some practice into, but when things start to click and you have the buttons situated on the screen just right then you’ll be surprised by just how well a shooter can play without physical buttons. Bullet Force features a fully customizable HUD, as well as a ton of options in terms of making multiplayer matches. There’s a single-player component too which allows you to face off against static enemies across all the game’s maps, which is fun in a mini-game sort of way and is also an excellent way to practice getting used to the game and your control setup before heading online. Make no mistake though, the bread and butter of Bullet Force is its online component.

The game is free to play, and it’ll take me some more time to see how balanced it all is in the long run, but all through my time with the soft-launch version and my brief time with this officially launched version this morning, there’s nothing that’s come into play that’s hindered my enjoyment. There’s lots of new weapons and custom camos to unlock, and just one hard IAP currency which you can also earn through opt-in video ads. Most crucially there are no energy timers or any of that nonsense. This is a very skill-based game, so all the money in the world and all the fanciest weapons won’t help you against someone who is just plain better than you. I’m sure I’ll have some more to say about Bullet Force in time, but for now if you’re into FPS games and would like a new one to try out on your iOS device, give the free download a shot and find some competition or talk strategies with other players by visiting our forums.