ShadowGun Review

ShadowGun is a brand spanking new game from the Czech Republic based Madfinger Games. With amazing graphics it threatens to push the boundaries of mobile devices as gaming consoles. While currently a Tegra 2 exclusive, I expect that this title will become more widely available eventually. The game is currently a single player narrative only; however the studio plans on eventually introducing cross-platform multi-player between iOS and Android.

Shadowgun's Title Screen

I have been playing ShadowGun on my Asus Transformer using a PS3 Sixaxis controller plugged in via usb. This game seriously sucked me in; I did not even realise that the hours were flying by as I was being entertained. On normal difficulty I died quite a few times in several places, however I never found my deaths to be terribly unfair. If you don't have a controller to use then the on screen controls are adequate, although you may find it uncomfortable to hold a tablet device like the Transformer for long periods when playing. In regards to longevity, the creators claim 5 hours, but I probably spent 6-7 due to not being awesome, and because I was enjoying the scenery (mmm dynamic lighting).

If you don’t have a Tegra 2 device but still want to get in on the action you might want to consider reading Murray’s guide to using Chainfire 3D to play Tegra 2 games on other devices. You might also feel the need to get your PS3 controller working wirelessly over Bluetooth, Murray has written a guide for that. Finally, if you have attempted to use your Bluetooth wielding PS3 controller to play Shadowgun you may have found that it doesn't work. We also have a guide for that, along with a pretty great video of the gameplay that you can watch below.

Now on to the review!

The Story

The gist of the story is that the year is 2350 and you play the part of John Slade – a bounty hunter (known as a ‘Shadowgun’ in this universe) who has a contract with the intergalactic corporation TolTech. You must go and retrieve a scientist, Dr Edgar Simon from his mutant infested research facility. You are accompanied (although she stays in the ship) by a female Android named S.A.R.A, which is very reminiscent of other games released over the last ten or so years (think Halo).  While the story is the stuff of a typical Science Fiction game, it has full voice acting of a high calibre, with some attempts at witty banter (Android sarcasm...) and a small number of fairly unobtrusive in game cut scenes.

Generic Sci-Fi story stuff

The creators also claim to let you decide how it ends with 'multiple outcomes'. This basically equates to a decision between two choices right at the end of the game with no recognition of the outcome, not even a finale cut-scene. As far as action games go however, the story is just an excuse to get killing!
 

The Gameplay

Yes, this is a violent game. You shoot things (mainly mutants), they die. If you don't like to do that then you should stop reading and go play My Little Ponies or Farmville. If you do like shooting, then you'll be glad to hear that there is plenty of it. 

Most of the game plays like Gears of War – it’s essentially a third person shooter with a cover system.  To hide behind cover you just move close to it and John will automatically crouch or slide up against a wall. You can lean out to shoot and hide back behind cover when you take damage. You can also move forward to jump over cover where possible. Where it differs slightly is that much of the cover is destructible so you can’t keep hiding behind that same barrier and expect to survive. The enemy AI is also pretty good and will keep behind cover, while moving around to try and flank you.  There are also tiny little buggers that charge at your feet and explode, fortunately you can usually just ignore them.

The level design is fairly linear with your major decision for each area being where to find the best cover, there are no alternative routes. There are secret items scattered throughout the game if you stray from the beaten path. These secret items will unlock 'Extras' in the title menu. Extras are basically just little blurbs for each of the enemies or characters in the game's so called 'Shadowpedia'. Some OpenFeint achievements here would've been a more welcome extra.

Also in the spirit of Gears of War; you don’t have a health bar – instead a red cloud will begin to grow at the edges of the screen until you are presented with a lovely screen telling you that you were killed. This will then send you back to the last checkpoint. This can sometimes be infuriating as the checkpoint was several waves of enemies ago. I think the greatest number of times that I died was during the final boss, where I had to repeat it perhaps 7 or 8 times before I nailed the pattern.

If you suck you will see this screen a lot

Riddle Me This
While not actually including anything resembling a riddle, Shadowgun does have a small number of puzzles to try and break the action up. Essentially it’s just a ‘Simon Says’ sequence where you must repeat the pattern shown to you on screen. Even though I was playing with a controller, I found these sequences easier to perform using a touch screen – which is probably what they were designed for.  If you happen to forget the sequence you can just select Repeat which increases your alert level and you will be shown the sequence again. I am not quite sure what happens if your Alert level reaches maximum as I am not quite that terrible at remembering things (although my Fiancée might argue otherwise).

Simon Says: push these strange symbols in a random sequence

Arsenal
Not the football team, instead I'm talking about the weapons you get to wield during Shadowgun. There are four different guns available for pick-up throughout the game; the default sub-machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher and rocket launcher. Each of the weapons feels very different and some work best against different enemies and in different situations. Though the fare of weapons was adequate, I do wish there was a chainsaw available as I'm always up for a bit of (or a lot of) dismemberment. The sounds of the weapons are semi-satisfying, but that could've just been because the headphones I was using didn't have enough bass. One thing I did find disappointing was the blast radius of the explosive weapons. I feel they could've been a little larger, especially with the grenade launcher where firing in front of an obstacle would not affect an enemy hiding behind it at all.

Dr. McCreepy loves to taunt you

Not Quite Perfection
This leads me on to some other minor annoyances experienced when playing Shadowgun. In general the collision detection is not very lenient to say the least. If you don’t stand exactly on that ammo, you won’t be picking it up. The same goes for aiming the shotgun - unless your cross-hair is precisely on the enemy he is not going down. Several people; editors included, have been experiencing issues with blood spatters getting stuck in the air as well as guns and enemies becoming invisible. This may have been due to a game update, but we are not entirely sure. Fortunately a full reinstall fixes things – however you will lose your save game. If you have a rooted device then I recommend backing up with Titanium Backup each time you finish a gaming session.

Bosses
There are several boss fights throughout the game, including the ending sequence. They are pretty standard fare and not terrible difficult to beat once you figure the pattern out. I preferred the normal run and gun action over the boss fights where I generally just found a solid barrier and camped but who knows, you might enjoy them. The Cyberlobster in the screenshot below reminded me of a robot from the Ghost in the Shell Anime series. You'll be lucky enough to fight two of these guys during the game, fortunately they are probably the easiest boss to face and you should be able to figure out their pattern without dying.

Watch out for the CYBERLOBSTER!

Graphics
For a mobile device the graphics in this game are astounding. The art style is very reminiscent of Quake 2 - but a helluva lot better looking. John Slade has obviously had a lot of attention paid to his character design, and it shows. The enemies also look pretty cool, although most of them are fairly ugly due to their mutated-ness (no, that is not a real word stop trying to look it up). The lighting effects are very impressive, and the textures look very high resolution even on a 720p display. I can only begin to imagine the types of games that will be coming out in the future, now that the bar has been pushed this high. Xbox 360 and PS3 better watch out for heavy competition from the mobile space in coming years, especially with their ponderous 10 year refresh cycle. In fact, Madfinger are developing a super high detail version for the upcoming Tegra 3 Kal-El chipset which may surpass the current level of console graphics.

Looks pretty sweet huh? go buy it now!

Second & Third Opinions

So you don't trust my opinion? well lucky for you we have some other awesome editors who have been playing the game as well.

Dr. Murray’s second opinion
Nick has done such an exhaustive review here I don't have too much to say really. I think maybe he was a little hard on the touch screen controls, possibly because he was playing with a PS3 controller via USB which is vastly better. If you're going to be stuck using the touch screen only I can safely say that for this style of game I haven't come across better controls - if you've played other shooters on your touch screen device you'll feel quite spoiled here. I've no doubt that the game design helps ease the worry of touch screen controls with it's cover system, which is a great design for a mobile game of this kind. That said, it's a double edged sword too. Because of the cover system the game is nearly a completely linear series of set pieces, which detracts a little from the experience in my books. Furthermore, I thought the enemy AI was a little poor, but here again the cover system helps, sheltering this weakness in the game design to an extent. Playing with a PS3 controller really exposes the AI - you can run past them when they're behind cover, and when they pop up to shoot you they'll be firing at where you were before for example. I should put these criticisms into perspective though. I'm nitpicking, because the bottom line is that this game is utterly superb, and any self-respecting Android gamer who can run this game on their device should be. The coming multiplayer should be immense too, adding many more hours of gameplay to the title, and demolishing any concerns about scripted set pieces and predictable enemy AI.

Nik’s Take
A mix of Quake II and Gears of War, Shadowgun showcases just how far touchscreen mobile devices have come in the portable gaming arena. While I’m not entirely sold on the touchscreen controls, the combat mechanics are simple and tasteful, the graphics are amazing, and the gameplay both addictive and easy to pause and resume. I was already a fan of Madfinger after the excellent Samurai II: Vengeance, so this was an easy purchase to make. One thing it does highlight is the need for user profiles on tablets, however, since there is only one save option rather than the traditional multiple slots. If friends want to have a play, make sure they don’t overwrite your save!

Verdict

If you have a Tegra 2 device (or a device that works with Chainfire 3D) and you enjoy action games, then Shadowgun is a must buy title and at $6.99 NZD it’s a pretty great deal for the amount of fun you get. 

Find Shadowgun on the Android Market