GAME REVIEW - Star Marine: Infinite Ammo
captive. So, the story’s solid. Convenient, but solid. There is nothing new but this setup does its job in creating a ‘believable’ situation that you have to run n’ gun you’re way out of. All it comes down too really is that if you want a deep story from a video game, then iOS games probably aren’t the best place to look, and least of all side-scrollers, these are all about the gameplay and graphical design. Arc’s handcuffs explode and you’re immediately faced with some running and some gunning. It’s here we learn the controls, which are probably the best side-scrolling touch controls out there. I think they work especially well because instead of having a tiny virtual button to mash, you have a virtual analogue stick to twizzle around in order to shoot stuff. This control setup (my favourite of all the iOS control schemes) is by far my favourite thing about the game. The graphics are great too, a real throwback to retro Mega
Geek Syndicate
you can definitely spot some of the developers’ influences from other video games. The main robot enemies look like something out of Halo, Arc himself looks like he’s wearing N7 armor and I even thought I saw a Venonat at one point in the grassy level (where else?!). The weapons look awesome too and once fully kitted-out, they do tons of damage. Despite traveling to all these different locations and meeting various evil-looking bad guys, Glitchsoft do a great job of bringing consistency and solidarity to the gameplay. Another fantastic aspect of Star Marine is the audio, which makes a great accompaniment to the gameplay. Everything from the epic soundtrack during the title screen to the ‘pew pew’ of the assault rifle, it’s all there as expected from a neoretro game. However, nothing is perfect. And you’ll find the imperfections very early on in the game. You get chucked in right at the deep end with loads of enemies, which sounds fun, but I found those first few levels incredibly hard. I was stuck for a couple of days on the first three missions, having to start over and try different upgrades at different points in the game (little tip: upgrade the assault rifle and Arc’s health straight away, that will help immensely). I think the main reason for this is that there are no degrees of difficulty; there’s just the one, which seems impossible to start with. The enemies seem to do as much damage to you
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Publisher: Glitchsoft
The Blurb:
Star Marine: Infinite Ammo is the definitive Run n’ Gun experience! You play as Arc, a battle hardened drifter who is captured by an alien race in the depths of space. Arc’s capturers plan to enslave him and put his strength to work. But, Arc has other plans. He is a trained and elite Star Marine and in a fury of bullets he is going to take them all
The Review
I love my iPhone, and it has probably become my primary gaming device, having such a wide selection of games in my pocket is great. Many iOS games are quick, easy to play time-killers and others require a lot of time and effort to master, Star Marine is definitely one of the latter. After getting the game setup done you’re launched into the Prelude level. We learn, by way of a cool comic panel cutscene, that Arc took a shortcut (from where? to where?) through a hostile planetary system and was forced land due to a spaceship malfunction. Don’t you just hate those? Upon landing he’s greeted by some mean looking robots, taken to their ship and held
Drive games. Although the first few levels are a bit same-y, the settings definitely follow genre conventions. From grey space stations to sandy planets; Star Marine takes you across the universe. The character designs are good and