Ego City Invasion

If all roads lead to Rome, then all streets head out of Ego City. With waves of zombies bearing down on the titular city, the need to flee is obvious. Yet, there's more to be concerned about in Ego City Invasion than zombies, as significant shortcomings may have you thinking twice before heading to this metropolis.

For the uninitiated, the game's based on the social networking title, Ego City, where you create a personalised avatar and waste hours pretending to be a wacky cartoon. When we say 'based', we mean it in the loosest sense possible – aside from sharing the same name, the two concepts are as different as chalk and cheese.

You assume the role of a plucky tank commander placed in charge of Ego City’s security. The settlement is under attack from hordes of undead (those guys are really overworked at the moment) and you need to keep them at bay with a combination of superior firepower and tactical cunning.

Controlling the action is a matter of tilting and tapping. Your can move your tank left and right by tilting in the corresponding direction. To fire your cannon, you merely tap the screen. You can also take to the air using state-of-the-art jets, but these overheat after prolonged use and are to be used sparingly.

The walls of Ego City are located to the left of the screen while enemies enter either from the right or descend from the sky. There are standard zombies easily vanquished with a single shot from your cannon to brutish orcs that take multiple hits to bring down and gigantic crows carrying destructive bombs.

While the odds are stacked in favour of your opponents, you have access to a few bonus items that make the task at hand manageable. These include improved firepower, city wall repair kits, and shields that drop from the sky on occasion. You even gain access to a massive ram (the animal rather than the siege warfare machine), which gleefully ploughs through the undead ranks.

The game's straightforward structure makes it a hoot, but the overall experience is mired by some annoying problems. Firstly, the tilt control can be a real pain – you’re constantly having to adjust the angle at which you hold your iPhone. Combined with the non-stop tapping required to fire your cannon, keeping the undead legion at bay becomes uncomfortable.

Another issue is repetition. While there’s a surprising amount of strategy involved, there’s only so much depth available in a game that only features one environment. Other locations would have at least given the developer the opportunity to mix things up a little with new obstacles and challenges.

These flaws prevent Ego City Invasion from being anything more than a fleeting amusement. Despite the weak link to the fully-fledged online game, the chance to earn virtual currency that can be transferred to your Ego City account will please fans a great deal. Its appeal, however, is short-lived due to the narrow scope of the gameplay and the slightly awkward manner of controlling the action.