Android App Quick Review gives you short impressions of an app, because you are in a hurry and don't have time for long drawn-out reviews!

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

AAQR: Shadowgun (shooter)

NOTE: On sale this week for $0.49, YMMV

Shadowgun is one of those "one-man army merc blows up all sorts of nasties" game. It's a third-person shooter with "dual stick" where you can turn, look up/down, as well as go forward/back and strafe left/right. There's also "roll / dodge" button and the reload.

The story is typical: you're a wise-cracking merc where all problems can be solved with a lot of firepower. You're told to go find a doctor who supposedly stole some research and this big corp want it taken care of quietly. So you were just landing when your lander got clipped by a few missiles and you landed safely but you are not getting off until you take care of the problem. So you go into the facility, and found it's inhabited by some oddball "soldiers". Yep, cliche plot, as always. Later you'll see more monstrosities, making the whole thing feel like it stole liberally from the plot of Far Cry, except it's set in space on some alien planet. :)

The game itself is a "cover shooter". The idea is you shoot enemies preferably from behind cover of some sort, be it crates, blocks, and whatnot. If you "duck" as you approach it, it's cover. Cover comes in indestructible vs. destructible. Enemies occasionally sends out nasties that will just kamikaze you though, even if you're behind cover. Then there's the boss battles. Each boss has a weakspot you need to hit to kill it quickly. It's up to you to find it (hint: it's probably glowing).

The game is basically run between cover, kill enemies, dodge a few kamikaze bombs, find keys and doors, go through doors, unlock more areas, back track, and repeat ad infinitum. :)  Still, for 49 cents (while it's on sale) it's fun.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/shadowgun/com.madfingergames.shadowgun

Update: met up with the 2nd boss, and it's **** frustrating as heck that I deleted the game.

You slowly progress through the tunnels, disable a couple barrier beams, and find yourself in the headlights of a giant mining crusher. What do you do? You run, of course. So how do you destroy this thing? You don't shoot it, and you can't bypass it. You have to run back, RE-enable the barrier beams one at a time, quickly enough so you don't get run over, and do this about FOUR times to fry this thing.

Except the game NEVER required rapid running before. I can always relatively leisurely go up to cover, shoot a couple bad guys, and slowly walk up to the next section. Thus, suddenly requiring you to run really fast, spin 180 to shoot a target, then spin 180 to keep running, is just RIDICULOUS! It's BAD GAME DESIGN!

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