Well, if you haven't played N.O.V.A. (and yes, it is a pain to type that) yet, you better start downloading it and read my review because N.O.V.A. 2 is coming out this month! Just going on whats been released so far, it looks like it's going to be miles ahead of the original, which was already far ahead itself. No one knows when it's coming out, but it'll probably be around the middle of the month, since that's when the original came out. BE EXCITED PEOPLE!!!
Gameloft has just started their yearly Appvent Calendar, so I figured it was my duty to review their first free surprise: Driver!
Concept:
Driver is a port of a PC game I've never played, so I can't be an accurate judge of the quality of the port. Driver is very similar to Gameloft's Gangstar series of Grand Theft Auto rip-offs (which I highly recommend). Gangstar and Grand Theft Auto are sandbox games, which means you can follow the story, or just goof around cause property damage. There's four whole cities to explore, but only two are unlocked from the start. The two I played around in were very large though and almost identical, so there doesn't seem to be much reason to unlock the others. There are story missions to complete or you can just drive around and cause havoc. It is sounds very fun, but it feels like playing a Grand Theft Auto game with most of the enjoyable parts drained out.
Sound:
Like Gangstar and Grand Theft Auto, there are radio stations to listen to in the car. But the traditional funny commercials are gone. The only other sounds are the sounds of your car and the police saying useless things like which direction you are going.
Story:
I liked the idea of being a mysterious "driver" who carries out missions for pay, but it doesn't do a whole lot to draw you in. There's really not any characters to speak of; your character is only ever seen as a silhouette. The missions themselves mostly consist of "drive here, then drive there" levels. I lost interest very quickly
Graphics:
Not the best on the platform, but they're still good. I heard Gameloft improved them from the original, but I wouldn't know...
Gameplay:
To be honest, I can't find the fun in this game. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the Grand Theft Auto and Gangstar series, but this is one of the most bland sandbox games I've ever played. There's really nothing to do except drive around. I like the kind of sandbox games that let you steal a helicopter, fly up as high as you can possibly go, jump out, and land in somebody's pool. You can't even get out of the car in this. You can get the police involved in high speed car chases, but even that's been dumbed down.
Controls:
Whoever thought that driving a car with a d-pad was a good idea deserves to be punched in the face then forced to play E.T. for the Atari. There are other options, but the only good one I found was the accelerometer.
Replay:
It's a sandbox game so of course the replay value is high. You can spend hours driving around causing mayhem and still have stuff to do. The lack of additional cars outside of storymode definitely lessens it though.
Final Verdict:
concept - 4
sound - 3
story - 3
graphics - 3
gameplay -3
controls - 2
replay - 4 Final Verdict: π/5 (Meh...)
If you haven't heard about this game yet, you are either new to iDevice gaming or you live under an iRock. N.O.V.A. is one of Gameloft's most successful titles. What's Gameloft? Well, they make a living by making iDevice games that are blatant copies of other non-iDevice games. Let's dive right in, shall we?
Concept:
N.O.V.A. is a ripoff of the HUGELY successful Halo series on XBox that I've never played. But just judging from screenshots and stuff I've seen, I think it's safe to conclude that N.O.V.A. is almost the exact same game. So if you've played Halo, you'll immediately understand this. If you haven't, N.O.V.A. is a FPS (first person shooter) game where you play as a space marine to fight aliens using big futuristic guns. It's a fairly standard genre on game consoles, but still relatively new on the iDevices.
Sound:
Let's just get this out of the way: every game made by Gameloft has terrible voice acting. Strangely, the best voice actors in N.O.V.A. play the computer AI characters and aliens, and the bad voice actors play the human marines. It's sad when alien grunting noises are more believable than the protagonist's dialog. The music easily makes up for this though, as it is suitably epic, but it could have used more fast paced music during the more intense firefights.
Story:
The story is probably the weakest part of N.O.V.A., but it is nice to know that Gameloft at least made an effort. It's the future, and Earth is no longer habitable. Large artificial planets called "near orbitals" are created for the human race to live on. N.O.V.A., or Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, is created to protect the species. You are Kal Wardin, a retired space marine (or N.O.V.A. marine if you want to get technical) who is forced back into service to investigate a spaceship that is hurtling towards the orbitals and not responding to any communications. Unsurprisingly, the ship has been taken over by aliens, and from there the plot begins proper. Your quest to stop the aliens takes you from the spaceship down to the orbital called New Ceres, then to the alien homeworld. There are a few plot twists along the way, so I won't spoil anything else (even though the twists don't make much sense).
Graphics:
Unlike most iDevice game companies, Gameloft has a huge budget to work with, so the graphics are suitably stunning. On several occasions I found myself stopping to look over the side of the cliff I was on to admire the surrounding landscape. The models for the characters, enemies, and weapons are very detailed as well, though you won't get to see much of the fine detail on the aliens without them biting your head off.
Gameplay:
N.O.V.A. is a blast to play. The game frequently flings hordes of aliens at you to defeat, and most of the environments give you multiple options for attack. There's a part where you have destroy an aliens teleporter on top of a tower, and you can either shoot it from the ground while being attacked by ground troops, or attack the teleporter from the top of the tower and risk being overwhelmed by the enemies pouring out. You gain access to new weapons as the game goes on, and each one is good for certain situations. There are a couple of huge boss battles in N.O.V.A., and each one requires a different strategy to defeat. There's even a part where you sit in the gun turret of a futuristic 4x4 and clear the road for the driver.
Controls:
The game controls like a dream. There are several options to choose from, plus you can move the buttons wherever you want. I've heard that the newer devices let you physically spin to turn your character, but at the moment I only have a first gen iTouch, so I haven't gotten to try this.
Replay Value:
There's a multiplayer deathmatch mode in N.O.V.A. to extend its lifespan after you complete the story mode, but I don't recommend it since you will almost always get put in a game with someone using cheats. If you have a friend to play with over local WiFi though, it's worth playing a few matches.
Final Verdict:
concept -5
sound -4
story -4
graphics - 5
gameplay - 5
controls - 5
replay - 3 Final Score - 4.4 / 5 (Excellent)
Well, since this is my first review, I figured I should start with something relatively simple. UniWar is a fun little strategy game that I have spent many hours playing, and think it deserves to be the first on this site.
Concept:
UniWar is an TBS (turn based strategy) game where you take control of an army of humans, robots, or aliens and attempt to gain control of the current battlefield. It's fairly simple: the levels are made of hexagon tiles, each with their own attribute like water or grass. There are special "base" tiles (insert All Your Base joke here) that players compete to control. Players can use the bases they control to spawn more units to join the fight. You gain money each turn based on the number of bases you control. You win when you control all of the bases on the field.
Sound:
There's not a lot of music in UniWar, which is a shame considering what an epic struggle this is supposed to be, but the music that is there is fitting and enjoyable. The in-game sound effects redeem this, however, as they are all perfect. Each gun shot and rocket launched makes the sound you think it would.
Story:
Like the music, there's not a whole lot of story in UniWar. The only place it really exists is in the campaign mode, which I didn't enjoy a whole lot. It's basically the same as the quickplay mode, but with specific goals to complete to win, instead of just "control the entire board". It sounds like a good idea, but it gets kinda silly at times. *rant alert* For example, one level wanted me to reprogram five robot enemies (yes, you can do that) and then control all the bases. I reprogrammed the robots easily, but I lost the mission because I didn't win by controlling all the bases. But I won because I killed all the enemies, and no more could be created. If it had given me another turn I would have controlled all the bases! No other enemies could have stopped me! *rant over*
Graphics:
I really like the art style of UniWar. All of the units are really cool and unique looking (especially the alien enemies) and the animations for when they attack are very fluent. The title screen is really nice looking as well. Robot hands put the menu options into place in-front of a planet engulfed by war. Nice!
Gameplay:
There's a lot of strategy involved in Uniwar.You frequently find yourself spending mintues wondering whether you should buy a bunch of smaller units, or save your money for a larger unit later. Or whether you should risk your tanks in a full frontal assault, or if you should send a small group of soldiers through the mountains. Because of this, the actual gameplay of UniWar is very slow and strategic. This is not a game for hardcore action fans. The only problem I have is the balance of the factions. The robot team seems to be much more powerful than the others, mostly because most of the units can attack airborne enemies as well as ground troops, something most units on other teams can't do. The human helicopters are hugely overpowered too. I beat most of the levels just by building 100000000000000000 helicopters and sweeping across the board, leaving alien corpses in my wake.
Controls:
Perfect. Then again, there's not a lot of controls needed for something like this. It's the kinda game you can play with one finger.
Replay Value:
Thankfully, UniWar comes with a multiplayer feature that lets you play against people online, or with the person sitting next to you (by passing the iDevice back and forth, like a very slow game of Hot Potato), so there's plenty to do after you complete the single player campaign.
Final Verdict:
concept - 4
sound - 3
story - 3
graphics - 5
gameplay - 5
controls - 5
replay value - 5 Final Score - 4.3 / 5 (Excellent)
