Mobile Game Review: Aftermath XHD

Introduction:

Zombies have been on my mind. It may have something to do with me being friends with Dr. Bishop, an English professor who has published a scholarly work on zombies. Or maybe it's because of my zombie themed children's book I've written and that is in the process of being illustrated. Also, I have recently posted an article on my blog Something Geeky This Way Comes. Either way, zombies are everywhere and I can't seem to escape them! So one can see that when confronted with another Zombie Apocalypse game I had to jump on it. 

The Story:

Your standard story line for a Zombie Apocalypse game. You are, as far as you know, the last living person on Earth or at least in your area. Starting out with a pistol, you must navigate the undead infested cityscape. The story progresses from there. And there is a story. I would presume to ruin it for you.

Controls:

Standard d-pad on the left hand side of the screen. The right hand of the side of the screen controls the view but is not limited to a d-pad. This was a wise move. To throw a grenade you simple tap the location you want it to land. The problem is that sometimes by swiping the screen you can accidentally throw grenade. Still, this isn't a game changer, just a petty annoyance. On the top right is the weapon and ammo indicator. You can change weapons and reload ammo by tapping the related image. The upper left shows health, grenade counter and pause button. The bottom left is the sprint button. Considering the game is not optimized for controllers (yet...) it is a well designed interface. The reason for the yet is because it seems that the game is well supported and very well designed.

Game Play: 

I love it! The game is third person high-up prospective. The system for firing is simple. You have a flashlight. You aim the beam at your target and you fire. You move, you run, you shoot, you throw grenade. You swear as you get cornered. You pray when you see a horde coming at you. There are objectives you have to achieve. This is part of how the story moves on. You pick up weapons as you go. You can run out of ammo. By picking up a "gun" image you gain more ammo. Same goes for grenades.

The zombies are well done. There are slow and fast ones. There are VERY fast as well. There are also hard to kill ones and the type of zombies that throw projectiles. All in all, a good balance. Since there are no difficulty modes the game is rather difficult at times.

Guns are good as well. A pistol with infinite ammunition is the only one that does not run out. Then a submichine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle and a typical battle rifle. Combined with the grenades, it is a good balance of weapons.

Graphics:

Not the top of the line, but it is well done. Honestly, I think it does well enough and actually adds to the game play. The darkness combined with the flashlight beam makes it wonderful.

Maturity Rating:

This game is rated as PG-16 ( Parental Guidance for ages under  16). The level of graphic violence merits this rating. There is no mature language, just gun use and some gore. There is no sexual contant.

Final Assessment:

In the end I give this game 2 2/3 out of 3 Triforce. At $5.99 in the Google Play store, this game is quite amazing. You can also purchase the game from the Amazon Appstore for the same price. The iOS version is $2.99 and works for both iPhone and iPad. I do advise you play it on a tablet for best experience, but it could also be played nicely on a large phone's screens. I do suggest you be running a dual core processor at least. This will ensure the game play remains zippy. I don't give it a full 3 out of 3 because of the one annoyance of the grenade mishaps. Still, perhaps that is due to my sausage fingers. In either case, if running from and at zombies while shooting them, this is the game for you my friend.

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Mobile Game Review: BloodLand

The Ingress

Zombies! Either you love them or hate them. They've been around for a while, but the zombie genre has really been growing in the last decade. So it was a real please to find a monetized zombie game called BloodLand popping up in the Google Play Store. Now this made my day! Nothing like blowing off a little steam by blasting the un out of the undead. So this free little gem gets its justice and time in the Triforce lime light.

A Tale to Be Told?

The game is basic in its story. You're the last person alive so far as you know. The undead are moaning for your flesh and you must survive. Armed with your boom sticks you must fend off the walking dead or die trying. Nothing much beyond that.

Graphics

The game play is a high third-person prospective. Much like Dungeon Siege or Diablo series, you see things from high up and at an angle. This can limit your viability on walkers that lurk behind items. That being said, the graphics aren't half bad. They aren't extremely detailed, but I'm not complaining. Based off of the credits this appears to be a game that wasn't designed by a big company but rather a few guys in a home office. And honestly, the graphics isn't really the reason to play the game. Those are just a bonus.

Controls

This game has the typical touch screen d-pad setup. Left for movement, right for aiming. The thing that makes the right d-pad different is it also controls firing. Rather than auto fire or a trigger button you have to drag the d-pad to an extreme direction to get your character to shoot. This makes for very quick finger fatigue. I hooked up my PS3 remote in hopes this would solve the problem but no joy. The game does not support controllers. Playing on the Transformer Prime wasn't so bad, but on a phone screen it was a bit cramped. Looking at reviews in the Google Play Store there were a lot of people who complained about the fire controls not being responsive. I think this has more to do with how it is set up more than anything. The d-pads are both static. Unlike other d-pads that are based on where you place your finger, either you place your finger on the required d-pad or not. If the developers were to ask how to solve this I would suggest making it so the movement d-pad is the left half of the screen and the aim/view d-pad is the right side with a fire button on that part of the screen. The d-pad setup in my mind is one of the biggest minuses to this game.

Game Play

Likes:

The zombies! There isn't just one type. You have shufflers, you have walkers, fast walkers, runners, jumpers and some sort that throws glowing ball things. The variety really does the game a lot of justice! 

The environments are varied as well. The buildings, barriers and cars can help and hinder both you and the undead alike. 

The weapons are varied as well. There is a 9mm, 7.62 (I can only assume they mean 7.62x39mm since it looks like an AK-47), a flame thrower, 12 gauge and .338. On top of this there is a melee attack you can use if you need to. I would suggest holding the melee for when you are swarmed and have no other choice though. All have their positives and negatives, but the balance of what each weapon can do is well though out. They all require reloading and that is done automatically. I actually like this feature because it adds a sense of realism to the game play.

The power up crates. It would be better to call them traps really, but these big crates unleash different types of destruction on zombies close to it. They are activated by moving your character into them. They are nice to have for when you are getting swarmed.

Dislikes: 

How I feel about the
character movement.

The character's movements seem sluggish. Almost like he is running in water. I think this may be due to the exaggerated movements of the character, but either way it throws me off even after playing it for a while.  

Stupid weapon box!

The weapons swapping system is the strangest I have ever seen. Rather than giving you the option to collect the weapons and swap between then when you want it works like this. If you walk over a weapons box you lose the previous weapon. But there is no way you can tell what is in the weapons box so if you would rather keep the 12 gauge but you get the flame thrower you are stuck with it until another box is dropped when you kill a zombie. It's annoying to the max. I wouldn't care if you only started with one weapon each level but at least let me switch to the weapon I feel I need. Even if they only allowed me to carry two weapons, it would be preferable to the current set up. Still, this does make game play more interesting, all be it frustrating.

Money? You earn it with kills and power up boxes. Why? You don't need money if your the last one alive and there is nothing I can use it for. There wasn't any store of option to spend it. I don't see the point of it. 

Game Modes

You have the option of playing Quests, Rush and Survive. You can play how you want when you want.

Maturity Rating:

This game is rated as PG-13 ( Parental Guidance for ages under 13). It contains gun use and violence. The level of gore is very minimal. There is no mature language or sexual content.

Egress

As previously mentioned, the Android version of the game is free through the Google Play Store. The iOS version of the game is free through iTunes. If dealing with the odd advertisement is something you just can't handle then you can spend $1.25 to remove the adds or spend $1.99 to remove the adds and unlock some other features. Both are in app purchases so you don't loose any of your progress by having to download a premium version. Either way you have the opportunity to try this game for free before you have to drop any of your hard earned cash on it.

Looking at the game as it exists at this moment I can't help but give it 1 2/3 our of 3 Triforce. The game is a great one, but there are some things that are lacking in it. When it is updated I may revisit it to see if these issues are resolved, but until then the rating stands. That being said, all you risk in playing the game is time so give it a shot. You may just enjoy putting the dead in their place. Until next time, this is Justice signing off.

Additional Screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic Mobile Gaming Terminology Defined

When it comes to mobile gaming there are some terms that have been created or at least made more common due to the evolution of the ecosystem. As such I feel it necessarily to explain some ideas that would otherwise be confusing to novices to the mobile gaming community. I may add other terms as time goes on, but for now I'll stick with the basics relating to gaming and mobile devices. Feel free to ask for other terms to be defined in the comments.

D-Pad

This stand for directional pad. With touch screen devices these are usually on the left and right sides of the screen. Typical setup of these d-pads is the left controls movement, the right controls view/aiming.

Freemium: 

This term is a combination of the words free and premium. Essentially what it means is that the game is free to play but if you want to unlock certain features, abilities, or levels you'll have to drop some money on the game. Sometimes these games don't limit features but rather how much time you can spend on the game without running out of "coins" (like with Scramble with Friends) or out of energy like with all the different Mobster or Farmville clones. The other way they milk money is by forcing time limitations such as when you have to build something and it takes X amount of time. In all cases, these are designed for the impatient or emotionally invested to buy whatever monopoly money like thing that only has value within the game. Many users are severely pissed by Fremium games because of their nature. They are the one armed bandits of the mobile gaming world. I personally don't mind them so long as the Fremium aspect is something you HAVE TO pay for to enjoy the game. Since I am a combination of cheap and patient I am willing to wait or take the time to enjoy the game so long as it is good.

Fremium games are on of the most profitable types of mobile games that exist. So love them or hate them but they are here to stay guys.

Jailbreak

This term is unique to Apple devices. It is what is sounds like. It is breaking the device free. What it's being broken free from is the limitations that Apple imposes on it. Once an Apple device is jailbroken it's warranty is voided but it also means the user can do a lot more with it. Example of this include installing games that Apple wouldn't let on the iTunes store and also going to market places other than iTunes. Apple does not allow other stores to sell iOS compatible software; however, as of July 2010 jailbreaking is legal within the United States.

Lite:

This is a free app or game. It may or may not be monetized or fremium but it is free. There are some Lite versions of games that will work for a limited time or have functions disabled. An example of this is the save function disabled. It's a good way to try an app or game without having to drop money on it.

Monetized:

This is referring to an app or game where there is advertising. Android was, as far as I know, the first to offer this little gem. Because of this players can get games that would otherwise cost for free. Unlike Fremium there is no purchase necessary at a later date. Advertisers get some space in a corner of a screen in the game or on the home screen. The better game developers use less invasive advertisers such as AdMob. There are some advertising companies what are more invasive by putting adds in your phone or tablet's notification system. These are easily gotten rid of by uninstalling the offending app that uses them.

Multitouch

Any mobile device worth its salt is going to be multitouch. The multitouch you want is 10 finger multitouch. This means what the name implies, that you can touch the screen with multiple fingers or input devices such as a stylus & finger and each point of contact will respond.

A common multitouch function is to pinch to zoom-in or zoom-out.

OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer. For example, the OEM for the Droid 3 is Motorola. The OEM for the EVO 4G LTE is HTC. The OEM for the Galexy S 3 is Samsung. The OEM for the iPhone and iPad is Apple. 

OS

Operating System. Android, iOS, Windows and Linux are all examples of an OS.

Premium/Pro

This means the application is one you pay for up front. No advertisements, no freemium gimmics. You pay for it. It is yours to play or use without obnoxious limitations etc.

Root (for Android OS)

This term is a simplification of the term Root Access or Root User (also know as Super User Permissions) and refers to the practice of gaining administrative control of a device. This is a level of control most OEM's do not trust or allow users to have. Like jailbreaking, rooting a device often voids it's warranties. There are some few OEM's that do not void the hardware warranty if a device is rooted.

PC Game Review: Moon Breakers

Moon Breakers is the new free to play game from IMBA Entertainment.  Moon Breakers is a space dog fighting game where two teams of players (large teams too, I've seen 40 players in one game) fly one of 4 classes of ships out of their carriers to battle for the limited resources of the moon between them.  There are three game types, seek and destroy (death match), carrier destruction, and capture the flag (CTF).  Of these game types, only CTF fails.  Moon Breakers is available on steam, and also in your browser, which may explain the lack of options in the game.

That was my first issue with the game:  not enough options.  You can set volume, and rebind keys, but if you want to change screen resolution, or go to full screen mode, tough noogies.  This was apparently made as a browser game first, and a pc game with steam play available second.  This is bad for a few reasons.  First anytime you give a gamer (and particularly a PC gamer) less control, the more they will resent you, the developer, for it.  Gamers want to be able to control their experience, or maximize it actually.  Less control means more chance for a sub par experience for a gamer, and they will be more likely to not play the game, and not spend money on it.  Too few options also gives the impression that the developers didn't care.  They didn't take the time to add in a few options that are common in almost all games, makes them seem apathetic, again possibly offending the gamer.  Don't offend the gamer, they are your source of income as a developer, and gamers are a fickle bunch, give them an inch, and they'll take a mile.

Game Play


The game play is still good though, and also oddly addictive.  From the first time I got catapulted out of my carrier I craved the experience of blasting other players out of their fighters.  There is something about dog fighting that, for me at least, is more exhilarating when you win than shooters, or strategy games.  Many of the encounters with other players takes the form of a game of chicken, where both of you are flying at top speed right at each other, guns blazing, both of you trying to get the timing of your rockets right, and if you end up the winner, the feeling of flying your screaming fighter through the cloud of smoke they leave behind is awesome.  It's even better if they are in a higher class fighter than your were.

The game feels good with a mouse and keyboard, most controls are responsive, and do what they should.  I would like to see the rolling improved, but it is not a major issue.  What could make it better is if they could have given the game controller compatibility.  You can get more control with a controller, with the joysticks, than with a mouse and keyboard.  The game play would have felt that much better, and IMBA may have been able to attract more gamers to their game that way.

Going back to the game modes that I mentioned before, there is a reason why CTF falls on its face in this game.  It reverts back to the carrier destruction game mode.  There are so many turrets on the carriers that it is necessary to coordinate bombing runs on the carriers to take them out so your fast fighters can even get through the hail of bullets.  As the bombers are taking out the turrets, the carriers are taking damage, and the team that cripples the enemy's carrier first, gets access to their flag first, and then gets the advantage in the game.  Most of the time the CTF mode is vetoed by the players for a more fun game mode.

Business Model


Here is where the major issue with Moon Breakers is.  Yes it is free to play, but it leans...well, pretty much is, pay to win.  There are two resources that a player can get in Moon Breakers, Cred, which comes from playing, and HE-3, which players can buy.  Players can unlock new ships with HE-3, or cred, but they can only upgrade the ships with cred.  This is where the boosts come.  Players can buy boosts with HE-3 to get cred faster, and not just a little faster, fifteen times faster.  Generally, I can get 3000 cred if a win a game that I have played all the way through, that's 45,000 cred if I had the 15x boost.  Some of the ships are in the multi-million cred price range, meaning that if I don't buy creds, it's going to be a long time before I can unlock new ships, never mind upgrading them.  Those who pay get a distinct advantage over those who don't, and that destroys the purpose of the free to play model.  It is supposed to create an environment where players can try the game, and then when they like it, buy things to improve their experience, not give them an artificial edge over the other players.  And HE-3 is expensive, enough so that if I wanted to impulse buy some of it, the price would keep me from doing that.  Your price cannot be too high for impulse buys.

Bottom Line


Try Moon Breakers. It's visuals are also family friendly.  There is nothing scary or inappropriate, parents will need to be careful of the other people in the game, they can type whatever they want.  I like the game play, I'll usually play a few games a day, and do fairly well.  I can get past the options issue, but I don't like it.  What I cannot get past is the business model.  I will not be spending money on this game until they change the business model.  I just won't support a pay to win game in this way.  Because of these issues I give Moon Breakers 1 and 2/3 Triforces.

-Wisdom

Mobile Game Review: Shadowgun

Introduction:

This is what I like to call a third person "duck and cover" shooter. It is a great game, but it is designed for duck and cover action. Don't get me wrong. I like the game, its just felt a little repetitious at times. Minions run out and you find cover. Firefight ensues. The redemption for this game was controller integration options. But I'm releasing the squall before the first game. Let's get into it then.

Controls:

Customize your controller.

The touch screen work well enough but it was not a joy like with Mass Effect Infiltrator. Sure the game worked, but there were times when my character was podding along and I was thinking, "I wonder if I should watch grass grow or maybe catch a senior citizens wheelchair baseball game." Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but still. I felt like I had deja vu several times during the fighting and the pace the game lagged in places because of the touch screen controls. There was the classic left hand moves, right hand changes perspective. Fire button is static so moving view while firing was a little rough. No auto aim. I actually like that. There's a dive button so you can dodge rockets. I felt the touch controls could have been done better. As mentioned above though, the game is redeemed by the option of using a Bluetooth or USB controller. Since I was reviewing the game with the Transformer Prime with keyboard dock, I was able to use an after market PS3 controller. With the controller I was able to customize what each button did in settings. After I set that up the game moved a heck of a lot faster.

Game Play:

Narrow approach with limited
movement. Just they way I like them!

Spider bots, my (least) favorite baddy.

I still wish there was an option other than the plodding pace that the on screen character moved at. Why there isn't a sprint option boggles my mind. The minions I fought were a bit repetitive as well. My least favorite are the spider bot bombs. While easy to kill, they are fast and tend to swarm. The game makes up for the predictability of said minions with quantity though. Also the environments were diverse and enjoyable. Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed today so I'm sounding grouchy, but I have to say the game was fun. Boss3es tend to be tough and require a little bit of lateral think on occasion. See the additional screenshots at the end to get a peek at a couple of the bosses.

Close combat's best friend!
The shot gun!

The weapons were good. You get 4 by the end of the game. A classic assault rifle, shotgun, grenade launcher and rocket launcher. The assault rife is your primary weapon. The other guns hold not nearly enough ammo. When  you change difficulty settings the ammo levels go up or down on the secondary weapons in addition to bad guy difficulty going up.

As you can see, I've shot this guy's
cover to hell.

The one thing I loved about the game is that not all cover is created equally. Depending on the type of cover, position of the enemy as compared to your position the cover can be more or less effective. This applies for both sides.

Hacking a door lock.

Another aspect of the game that I enjoy is the hacking feature. This is how you get weapons ahead of time and get past some locked doors. Other little bits I enjoy are the exploding canisters placed around the environment. I love things that go BOOM! Also fun are the mines that are placed on some of the levels. Some people may be annoyed by these, but I like playing chicken with them. If you step withing the sensor ring and then dive backwards once the mine is launched into the air. Lots of fun!

A mine with moving sensory ring.
It moves outward from the mine like
sonar. You can walk past them
without setting them off.

But playing mine chicken is
just too much fun!

When played with the controller, the game is a lot less duck and cover and a lot more fluid in motion like the standard third person shooter. Again, this is a redeeming factor. Still, I am comparing to other games that feel more fluid with the touch screen interface and I also am not as big a fan of duck and cover shooters. Call me fat fingered if you want (My mom says I'm big boned. Lol.) but I expect these higher end mobile games to be better programmed since most players don't have or know about the controller option.

Story Line:

Where the game lacks in those little annoying bits I've been gripping about it makes up big time in story. The basis of the story is that in this future there are mercenaries who work for governments and major corporations. The mercs are called Shadowguns. Enter our hero, the character you play. He is hired to "retrieve" a missing scientist. At the end of the first game you are presented with a choice of what to do. I won't spoil the game by telling you what the choice is, but this minor decision changes the end of the game. The story is what made me really want to stick through the minor slow bits.

Bonuses:

Each level you play there is a hidden Shadowgun Skull. If you find and grab it you unlock bonus levels. These bonus levels are in addition to the included expansion called "The Leftovers." Both the bonus levels and the expansion are tons of fun. Game play is similar to the original game, but the expansion was a little bit more interesting. What is more, the expansion has the same feature of finding the Shadowgun skulls so you can essentially triple or quadrupedal game play just by finding the skulls while playing. 

Graphics:

The screenshots you are seeing are based of the standard definition version of Shadowgun. I bought it a few months back and then they released the THD (Tegra High Definition) version. Since I'm a cheap S.O.B. didn't want to drop more bones on a game review. Maybe one day I will, but until then you'll just have to deal with it. Lol. All kidding aside though, for a standard definition game the visuals are great. I had no issues playing this on a tablet. The TF201 is the highest definition screen Android tablet 

on the market as of the writing of this article. That the Transformer Infinity will change that when it is released and I am sure other OEMs are working to take the title from ASUS, but until then I have to say I love this tablet. Heck, I'm sure I'll love it even after. But I digress. As you can see from the screenshots, this is a beautiful game! No glitches, smooth processing and more.

Maturity Rating:

This game is rated PG-16 (Parental Guidance for ages under 16). Its rating is due to graphic violence and mature language.There is minimal gore and no sexual content.

Final Assessment:

To be fair, this game preforms much like the Gears of War franchise games. If you like that sort of shooter, this is the game for you. I personally don't regret purchasing the game. The standard price for the game is $4.99, so it is worth the price simply for the entertainment aspect. The game is available through Google Play Store and the Amazon Appstore. The iOS version is available through iTunes at the same price. Each store periodically have done sales on the game so it is worth it to check and see if it is on sale. As of the writing of this review the game is available in both standard and Tegra processor optimized HD version and standard version for $1.99, but that isn't guaranteed for forever.

All in all I have to give this game 2 1/3 out of 3 Triforce. It is a fun game. It really gave some enjoyment. Maybe I'm just a hard person to please, but I feel like if the game needs an external controller in order for it to be awesome however, I think there is a bit lacking. Like I said, story is solid. It is fun, but I think the touch screen controls and the pace of the game are both a little lacking. Not lacking enough to not get the game, but still. Well, until next time TriForce fans, this is Justice signing off!

Additional Screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giant Crab Bot anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Ouch! Mine chicken FAIL!

 

 

Walk into that beam &
you'll smell like bacon.

 

 

Run like your butt's on fire brother
because that drill boss is tough!