R.E.V.I.E.W. (N.O.V.A. Review) [Singleplayer, Multiplayer]

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)

Official website: http://www.near-orbit-vanguard-alliance.com/

Trailer: