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Game Review: Shadowgun

     Hey, everyone. The new week of app store games rolls around late Thursday night or Friday, depending on where you live. Those of us who are waiting for quality shooter games scan the names in vain most of the time. This week we have a good one called Shadowgun.
     Let's talk money first. It's an expensive game for I-Pad. It is $7.99. Normally I pass on these high end games until the price crashes to earth after a few months. This time I got a wild hair as we say here in the states. I bought it. I had read every review I could find and I really haven't agreed with most of their reasons for criticism. One person said it was too easy. I am already stuck at a place where I am battling a Cyber Lobster. He is a bad dude and I have hit him with hundreds of rounds of ammo without killing him. This is from a guy that always selects the easiest level.
     Another guy said that he felt it was boring and repetitive and that the bad guys stood around waiting for you to kill them.  Not a problem for me. The bad guys were sufficiently aggressive for me.
     What all the reviewers agreed on was the graphics. It is a visually stunning game. You are battling across an enemy base in a galaxy far, far away. Sorry, talking to the wrong age group.
 You have been sent to capture or kill a mad scientist who has been dabbling with the gene pool and creating mutants, and obviously underfeeding cyberspiders.
      I'm told that this game is a knock off of gears of war. I have never played gears but it must be pretty cool because I really like this game. I like hiding behind hardened shields and popping up to blast soldiers. I don't find it demeaning, like more skilled gamers, that your guy crouches automatically when he runs up to a shield. I love all the serious gear that you walk around in these buildings. Like glowing vats of green liquid that appears acidic. Like red bubbling glass caldrons of frothing liquid that, if shot will blow you to kingdom come if you're within 20 feet. The first one I shot for fun and thusly lost my first 'life'. From then on I shot them on purpose to dispose of enemies who were skulking nearby. I haven't walked around so much odd gear since I worked for 25 years in Nuclear Plants. At least there weren't any cyber lobsters in the nukes.
     I like the voice acting in this game. The avatar (John) and his hot droid (Sarah) do a good job. Of course, the scurrying scarabs that attack you don't talk while they gnaw on your bod. The storm troopers do cuss you a bit, but hey, that's war. After 9MM I can handle the venom.
    All in all, I don't regret buying this game. When Trevor, my gaming consultant, returns he will doubtless save me from the malicious, slavering cyber lobster and I will never go back to his neighborhood again. I rate this game as 4 stars out of 5. Pretty darn good.
    One more thing. Some people mentioned having problems with the game dragging or crashing a bit. I played it on the I-Pad 2 and it did fine. Of course, I am slow about almost everything these days. No problem keeping up with my frame rate.
PS: I just went over to the app store and found an update for this game that addresses some things like the crashing. It is obvious that the developers are all over this stuff, which is good.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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