SHADOWGUN – Madfinger Games.

“The year is 2350, and corrupt intergalactic corporations are the rule of law, hiring bounty hunters and mercs to do their bidding. The best of the best are known as SHADOWGUNS.

SHADOWGUN puts you into the role of John Slade, the galaxy’s most infamous bounty hunter. Your mission: hunt down Dr. Edgar Simon, maniacal genius and leader of his own mutant army. Infiltrate Dr. Simon’s mountain fortress and fight his personal guard of cyborgs, battle droids, and genetically-enhanced humanoids. Using state-of-the-art weaponry, ships, and the assistance of S.A.R.A.—Slade’s personal android assistant—SHADOWGUN combines intense tactical combat with 3rd person action.”

The Good:

• Graphics are awesome
• Game controller support
• Graphics & Gameplay are very smooth
• Very Playable, secrets and other areas to explore
• Did i mention Graphics?

The Bad:

• Possible to walk “off world”
• Limited device compatibility for now
• Limited game length.  For now?

Market Stuff:
RATING: 4.2 Stars
UPDATED: October 26, 2011
CURRENT VERSION: 1.0.2
REQUIRES ANDROID: Stated 2.2 and up (But Is Tegra 2 Optimised)
CATEGORY: Arcade & Action
INSTALLS: 5,000 – 10,000
SIZE: 6.1Mb + Additional 300+Mb
PRICE: UK £3.49 / US $4.99
CONTENT RATING: Medium Maturity

The Review:

WOW, well, i think that’s a good word to describe the first thing that went through my head when i started playing this game, the graphics are superb for a game that’s designed for phones and tablets. This is the type of game gaming eye candy you hoped would come to your beloved tablet, but never really thought would happen. And i hope its a taste of things to come.

Upon installing, and first starting the game, you are prompted to download additional content, now for me this was 300+Mb, but maybe its different on other devices. Even so, it downloaded quickly, so was soon greeted by the main game screen. Here we have the usual sort of options and settings. In here its possible to change the controls, sensitivity, and invert directions, and also configure game controllers. I haven’t yet got a controller worthy of trying with this yet, but as the onscreen controls are so easy to use, it didn’t really concern me.

The Game itself is basically a 3rd person shooter where the main objective is to find cover, and pop out and shoot the baddies before they can fire back, rather than just running about unloading 100’s of rounds. Ammo is limited, so you need to be quite strategic with how much you use on each enemy. Once they are killed however, they do drop more ammo for you to collect. and as the game progresses, the ammo strategy will become more apparent.

At various points throughout the game, You are spoken to by S.A.R.A. Who appears to be some kind of computer assistant, She instructs you where to go and what to do, and sort of fills in the blanks to the storyline. There’s also various memory tests of code sequences for hacking computer controlled doors and operating other machinery during the game, so its not just a blast-a-thon. And though I’m not too far into the game, it appears there are varying outcomes to the game, so could be played again and achieving a different ending.

In the pictures above, you see the main controls, A directional pad appears when you touch the screen, and this point you touch becomes the centre. moving your thumb in any direction then moves you in that direction. i really like this idea, rather than having a fixed directional centre, as with those its easy to miss when your looking at the main part of the screen.

Touching on the blank area of the right side alters the view point. again, this works very well. Also in the right, There is the fire button, this changes at times when things need to be interacted with, as seen by the big “gear” in the second picture. Above this, is a reload button. Tapping the gun icon at the top allows changing of weapon.

Other areas of the game requite you to gun down various machines, and also some “bosses” like the “Cyberlobster” above. These seem to have various weaknesses that may only appear for a very brief time… in between firing missiles at you!

On the whole, its a very nice experience for a mobile game. The graphics are rendered very well, and attention to detail is very good. As far as the whole experience is concerned, I’ve seen reports on the web saying it was a little bland, and that the 6-7 hour gameplay wasn’t enough, but for about 50p an hour, its really pretty good value. Sure, if you compare it to PC games like MW or GoW, it will be lacking, but you have to remember what your playing it on, and how much it cost!. Besides, I’m sure more levels will be added soon, along with more options (i heard about multiplayer?). The only problem / bug i encountered, was i seemed to manage to wander out of the game, between some boxes, and ended up falling of an edge into a black hole! lol. But as this game has only been out a few days, I’m sure these bugs will get ironed out soon.

Market Link : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.madfingergames.shadowgun

Review by : Ross