REVIEW: Dead Space iPhone App

While my Dead Space 2 disc sorts itself out and inbetween Homefront, Crysis 2 and trying to complete Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, I've managed to fit in time on my daily commute to do the odd bit of Dead Space on my iPhone - but is it any good?


Playing games on the iPhone differ in quality. If it's something as simple as Angry Birds or Tiny Wings, it usually fares better; but when there are slidy controls, a weird 'two-button' system that hardly ever works and it's trying to be like a PSP - that's usually where it fails. Which is what makes Dead Space so interesting. Having been catered for the huge iPhone and iPad market, the guys at EA have made a rather small but perfectly formed bit of fun that will keep Deadites like myself going.

Will it ruin either Dead Space 1 or 2? No. It's a stand-alone game that, as far as I can tell, has no real bearing to the main storyline. You play someone who looks like Isaac Clarke but isn't, instead you're trying to get about some business and then all hell breaks loose. There is a bit of a plot to it, but without ruining anything, it's nothing that will make you remember it for years to come. Instead, the game relies on the fact that it's fun to play and a bit different from other games on the same platform.

Firstly, what you'll notice is the graphics have done the best with what they've got and it's quite impressive. The world you're in feels large yet keeps that claustrophobic feeling that made the original so unique. They've turned a problem into a creative solution. There are different types of enemies, you have different guns and suits, all of which can be upgraded and you can jump around in Zero-G - it's very much the bare bones of Dead Space, which isn't a bad thing.

What impresses the most is the control system works quite well. The left hand side of the screen is to move and the right hand side to look around, much like two conventional joysticks - then you tap to aim and tap again to shoot. You still have your status effect and can reload when you like and change your weapon mid-battle. It's clearly been thought out and, even though it can be fiddly, it's actually fairly easy to play. But then, that's another problem ...

There wasn't that many times where I thought I would die. The last boss for example I did first time and without much difficulty, the reason being is that you're health automatically recharges so if you run around for long enough, you're health will be full - a tactic I used many a time. You just have to make sure you don't get stuck! If you're out of ammo you can use your status to slow them down and chop away - repeat until completion. Therefore, it's not going to frustrate you too much unless it's a bug, and I did come across a few. There were times that you can't progress until you've killed all the monsters around - a "lockdown" situation - but sometimes you have killed them all, and you still can't progress meaning you have to restart from an earlier checkpoint. Very frustrating. I also ran into a fair bit of lag which made the game unplayable at times, but when I returned to it, it was fine.

The game itself wasn't terrifying but had some great trippy moments. There were a few good jumps and slowly losing your mind is actually quite fun. I had to say that it was fairly short though, app. 4 hours, but then I didn't know what to expect. It kept me entertained on a lot of long commutes and sometimes made them longer by making me miss my stop! It's not exactly pick up and play, but it does autosave enough for it not to be much of an issue if you only want to play it for five minutes or so.

Overall, for an iPhone game it's one of the best out there and definitely the most forward-thinking in terms of the format being a respectable gaming platform, so I'll mark it in context of that, but it falls short on a few elements and really felt more like a stop-gap rather than an amazing game in it's own right. It did extremely well for what it was, but then at the end of the day, it's still a game I was playing on my phone. Worth the money, but nothing essential.

Rating: 7/10

Tron Evolution

Just before the world goes Tron crazy, we get a glimpse at Disney's game to coincide with the release. Taking place before the events of Tron Legacy, we delve into The Grid to see what all the fuss is about ...

I was apprehensive of this game for good reasons, the production company behind it had only really done Turok before this, which wasn't exactly inspiring confidence and Disney aren't known for their cutting edge computer games (Kingdom Hearts can suck my balls), so what to make of Tron Evolution?

Well let's set the scene, Flynn introduces us to the game by saying how the system he created has evolved, it's not just computer games now. Instead, it's expanded and there's not just basic programs bouncing around in there either - there's Iso's. These Iso's are entities that have formed on their own and serve no direct purpose and there's unrest in The Grid because of this. After an Iso has gone rogue and become a virus, Clu (who is Flynn's server manager and looks just like him) goes a bit mad and declares war on all Iso's - civil unrest ensues and the virus doesn't help either. So that's basically it.

What follows on from there I still don't know. You run into some people in the way and you have to get places but I'm never sure why and I'm afraid I lost interest not long after the start. This isn't just because of the story, it's for a number of reasons.

The first thing you'll notice is the graphics, it's very slick and the neon lights look great and you'll be immediately impressed. However, on closer inspection you realise it all looks rather the same and begins to hurt your eyes after a while. The close up's and anything that needs real texturing look terrible and the Tron universe is simple and quite barren which doesn't make for much of a sight.

The gameplay is also ridiculously behind-the-times. It plays like Prince of Persia where you hold a button to run up walls and basically do anything fancy, which means you're pressing that button for pretty much the whole game. You run up walls, jump about and do other parkour stuff that seems completely out of place and you'll spend about 80% of your time playing it, just moving from one platform to another. However, it's not as advanced as Uncharted or say, Enslaved, so you can fall off at any point, often don't know where you're supposed to be going or what you're supposed to be doing and will time and time again jump off wrong and end up dead. I must have died well over 200 - 300 times and some of the checkpoints are so stupidly placed that you'll find yourself having to kill a bunch of enemies just to make sure you get that one jump right again, and if you don't get the next one right? Back to kill those enemies again. I cannot tell you how frustrating it all is. The platform aspect of the game is tedious, backward, repetitive and a chore - it's no fun whatsoever.

So when you're not jumping about like a retard, what are you doing? Mostly fighting. Once again, this has been poorly conceived as you often don't know how hard an enemy is hitting and with their sodding flying discs you never know when you should be blocking or hitting. You don't feel any real metaphysical contact when you do hit (that should make sense to the gamers) so you just feel like you're swooshing about and hoping for the best. You have four different types of disc but there's no real grace to it, I often kept with the heavy disc and did an 'area attack' which saw me off pretty much everyone. You have to keep your energy levels up by running, much like a bag of crisps along a checkout counter, against an energy wall thing which gives you health. This often means that in crucial times, you'll often miss it or spend 20 seconds trying to get the run right meaning by then you're already dead and have to start it again. Also by using your 'special' discs, you use up power, so to up your power you hop over desks or little stumps in the ground - no joke. The whole thing is just bloody stupid.

So what about the cool stuff like the bikes? Well, like any good gamer knows, sometimes games have to sacrifice skill for spectacle. Take Call Of Duty's little bike or four wheel excursions, they are fast, furious, and take minimal skill to continue and would rather you enjoy it than have to do it again and again and again. Tron isn't like that. Instead, if you hit anything, or even touch the sides you lose a lot of health, which means instead of flooring it, you have to patiently and slowly make your way round bends and then suddenly know when to speed up at points to get over jumps. When other bikers engage you (there's only 3 I think in the entire game and they don't last longer than ten seconds each) then instead of trying to get them to crash into your light, you just have to outrace them. No 90 degree turns either. Disgraceful.

The tank sequences are also laughable and feel like a PS One game gone awry, it's simple shoot and move mechanics that are so lame it hurts. When you have to battle enemy ones without being in the comfort of your own tank, it takes a while to figure out how to kill them and if their turret so much as brushes you, you're dead. The 'game' sequence where you go up against other programs in gladiator type events is so short that if you blink you'll miss it and is stupidly easy. It feels like an afterthought. Apart from that, that's really it.

What annoys me the most is that because of the lights and the fact your character doesn't say anything it reminds me of Dead Space, which makes me even angrier for some reason, probably because the way it looks is it's only saving grace and it doesn't even stand up to a game released years ago. Overall, there have been worse games out there but this is shockingly bad. Apparently multiplayer mode is an important part, but I can't see it being much fun as the story campaign was infuriating. Don't touch this game, just leave it well alone and hope that one day someone can do Tron justice and, if you're planning to get this on PS Move then good luck because I wouldn't dare.

It's definitely taken a Tron for the worst, but looks pretty at times and, I guess it does have light cycles. It's either clearly been rushed for release or the producers are idiots.

Shame.

Rating: 3/10