12 Jan, 2011
Title N.O.V.A 2 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
Platform iPhone/iPad via App Store
Developer Gameloft
Released December 16th 2010
Price £3.99
Since the release of Apple’s iPhone and App Store, mobile gaming has taken on a life of its own, speeding along a toboggan-ride of success and becoming a recognisable and respected gaming platform.
Award-winning Paris-based developer Gameloft have been doing the business for mobile gaming for the last 12 years, since the advent of Java, Symbian OS and the Nokia N-Gage. They are responsible for highly-acclaimed mobile additions to massive franchises including Prince of Persia, Brothers in Arms, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six. This week I took their sci-fi shooter sequel N.O.V.A 2 for a spin.
Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance 2, or N.O.V.A 2 as it’s affectionately known, is a slick, space-faring first-person-shooter in the vein of Bungie’s massively successful Halo series. From the spectacular opening cutscene, accompanied by an orchestral score so dramatic I was half-expecting Sir Alan Sugar to pop up amid the flurry of bullets shouting “You’re fired!”, you know you’re in for a real treat.
N.O.V.A 2's engine packs a huge punch, a million miles from anything I ever thought I'd see on a mobile device.
The game opens in a similarly spectacular fashion following our leading man Kal’s dubious landing on a Volterite homeworld, several clicks away from one of their ‘war factories’, a sprawling industrial site where gigantic, ultra-powerful mechs are being manufactured. This is the first of ten missions, all host to a plethora of stunning action set-pieces, blistering gunfights and even the odd real-time strategy defence section. The first mission serves as a handy tutorial – good for relative virgins of the mobile gaming scene such as myself – teaching the player how to use the innovative touch controls for the effective dispatch of human rebel forces and the Volterite’s despicable death-bots.
Putting aside my immobilizing fear of the horror that is Grubby Fingerprints On My iPhone Screen™, I listened with earnest to the Cortana-esque holo-lady barking orders like a 5’10 fax machine and found the controls – for a device with no buttons – to be surprisingly fluid and responsive, if a little under-sensitive. Luckily, the controls and interface are fully customisable, so one swipe over the Sensitivity bar later and I began to find aiming far more comfortable.
There’s no denying that the iPhone is capable of running stupendously powerful game engines and this one looks absolutely incredible. Frame rate drops and graphical glitches are common but tend to stick to cut scenes, while in-game things run fairly smoothly. The environments, weapons and characters are all so detailed and stunning to look at they could easily rival last-gen console games, whereas the soundtrack is typical sci-fi shooter fare but pleasant and catchy enough to tap along to.
N.O.V.A 2's multiplayer continues to mirror Halo. But let's face it, Halo in your pocket is not to be sniffed at.
Like a lot of first-person shooters, some of the best fun to be had with N.O.V.A 2 is with its online multiplayer, via Gameloft Live, the developers own online service. Perhaps shortsightedly, the game doesn’t support Apple’s increasingly successful Game Center service for online play. Aside from the shoot-em-up staple Deathmatch and Capture the Flag game modes, N.O.V.A 2 harks back to classic shooters like Quake, with the old faithful one-shot kill InstaGib game-type, amongst others.
All in all, N.O.V.A 2 is an impressive, solid shooter slightly let-down by a throwaway sci-fi storyline and a few pacing issues. It’s too meaty a game to squeeze five minutes with in between meetings but brilliant fun to pass the time on a bus or a train. For first-person shooter fans, or fans of mobile gaming in general, I highly recommend N.O.V.A 2.
N.O.V.A 2 is available now on the iTunes App Store.
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