This is a shooter game and there is a lot to say about it. Let's get started.
Firstly, there are six different maps or battlegrounds. They are marvelously rendered and the graphics of the I-Pad 3 really shows the game off. I enjoyed walking through a desert town and pausing to look up at the night sky. Van Gogh could have painted his Starry Night here, except for the bullets whining overhead. In another locale, I was sneaking down a big concrete porch with benches against the wall. I would fain have sat down and chatted with an old friend, but alas, war is a strict mistress.
This game is designed to be massively multi-player but guys like me can play off-line and have a good time. Either way, you are involved in one of two, four-man squads. The Beasts are the green team and The Scorpions are the red team. Each member has a colored icon over their head, which follows them around and which makes your targets self-evident. If you are off-line, the opposing team, and your team members, are AI types, computer folks, you know?
First and foremost, know this. Find a place where you can set up, a roost, a stand, a nest, from which you can fight with your back to a wall. Later, when you get better, you can run and gun with the big dogs. 90% of your 'deaths' will happen as you are shot in the back. All is fair in love and war, they say, and this sure ain't love.
The bad dudes who are running through the dark caverns, the deserted streets and the starry nights are living on the edge. In real life, caution, staying under cover and a watchful advance would seem to be called for.
I hope I quickly earn a Kevlar Vest because it is so easy to be shot out here. Once I go back on WI-Fi, I'll see what I can get from the up-grades for free. There are a few in-apps, but I don't intend to sink any more money into the game.
There is a subtle and profound difference between this game and most shooters, like Nova 3 and Modern Combat 3. In this game you are not always getting stuck as you wander fruitlessly from room to room or try to figure out how to jump over a sofa.
No, this is a little more like Warm Gun. It is as simple as stalking the enemy and being stalked. Mano-e-mano or perhaps mano-e-computero. Ha, ha.
One odd thing about this game is that you can never swing your gun-barrel up and down, but only left or right. That is not a problem, however.
The game keeps score of the battles with a respawn after your deaths until one team accumulates 30 points.
You have a tote board, upper left of your screen that will give you a running bar graph of game progress.
The AI warriors are extremely tough, sneaky, devious, back shooting #**@#. Still, you are not stuck in some tedious affair, but in a firefight. So, it is cool. No, it is a straight-forward fight and pretty darn good. The controls, by the way, do just fine.
You have a couple of grenades and can get upgrades to the rifle and pistol you start with. It is intense enough to make it difficult to find time to throw your grenades.
Then there is the 'goat thing'. In the sub-strata of this game there is a mode which could only have been conjured up in the dark recesses of the human mind. In this mini-game, the two teams battle it out, bleed and die, to seize a goat. Yes, I said a goat. Your team must pick up the goat and hold onto it for 90 seconds to win. You must not allow the enemy to take it back. Odd. I know that in many cultures, a man's wealth and status is measured by his flocks and I respect that. It is their living, their 'rice bowl' if you will. That said, I have some thoughts on the goat thing.
1) I don't like goats, I like horses.
2) I am not carrying a goat on my back.
2a) When I see the goat on someone else's back, I find it mildly disturbing.
3) For my part, I feel like saying to the other team, "You know what? Just take the darn goat, okay? Wear it in good health."
4) If you lose this game, does it qualify as a fulfillment of the old saying that "That guy just gets my goat".
The bottom line for this game is, I don't regret spending $5 on this title. I rate it 4 stars out of 5 and worth a buy. But the goat is not riding on my back, ever.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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