iGuerilla 2: Asian Operations

There's nothing worse in a war game than to be told to defend an area from enemy attack. You just know that you're going to be bombarded with enemy fire, all while restricted to a small cordoned off area for some specific length of time. It's nowhere near as fun as runnin' and gunnin'.

That's why it's so surprising, perhaps almost by accident, iGuerilla 2: Asian Operations gets the upper hand on defencive play. In this battle, you're rooted in one spot and firing at a range of targets popping up all over the screen is your only action.

Rarely a genre that stands as a bastion for realism, iGuerilla 2 nonetheless has a number of tricks up its sleeve to ensure that you never feel like you're at the carnival. Using almost photo-realistic stills and a soundtrack that really nabs from nature, it's easy to buy into the game's potshot style warfare.

With a plot that does little more than to tie the missions together, you initially start out assaulting hideouts, clearing buildings of combatants by shooting at them when they pop up in a window or dart out from behind shelter. Later on, play varies with helicopters and even the odd wild animal coming into play.

Taking steps to right the wrongs of its predecessor, both the accelerometer and touchscreen can be used to aim (calibration now also available from the get-go). A slide of a finger controls your aim point when using the latter, a tap of the screen firing your gun under both control schemes.

Your targets are static images, but their lack of movement doesn't stop them being difficult to take down. Head shots wipe anyone out in one go, but nicks to the torso or legs require follow-ups and offer up less points as a result. Ammunition and health are picked up by shooting at icons on the screen, making iGuerilla 2 a non-stop tap fest, even on the easiest difficulty setting.

There's certainly much to encourage repeated play, too, but parts of iGuerilla 2 also suggest that this is one war many won't have the fight to win. When sniping, for instance, the cross hair is barely visible on the screen, making targeting specific body parts less a question of careful aiming and more as a result of lucky guessing.

Shaking to reload is also an annoyance, a feature no doubt designed to be a nifty alternative to merely touching the screen actually impacting on targeting.

That said, this is a game that strives to fight the norm almost at every turn. iGuerilla 2's Asian adventure comes with an almost unexpected amount of variety, a superb sense of style and the uncanny ability to make a straightforward shooting gallery feel like an immersive war simulator.