Game Reviews

WarMen

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WarMen
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Not that I want to waste too many words on comparisons to other games, but WarMen reminds me too strongly of Gears of War not to give the latter a mention.

Here, in this fascinating new iPhone game, you're essentially playing an on-rails shooter that's as much about taking cover as it is about shooting.

It's a fully 3D affair, and an impressionable one at that. Viewed from an over-the-shoulder perspective, tapping the screen takes care of aiming and allows you to pull off some quick and sharp shooting at the enemies occupying the dystopian city.

These enemies come from all directions, even shimmying down lines from a helicopter or ducking behind cover when a stray shot gives away your location. It's a pretty standard shooter experience, but it's the way in which the controls are handled that really gives WarMen an edge on iPhone.

Being shepherded through a 3D level, taking out the enemy as you go is pretty much standard practice, but as we know all too well virtual buttons do these games no favours at all. Cleverly, movement is semi-automated as you run between cover points.

It's an ingenious idea. Rather than fumbling with a pretend analogue thumb stick, you simply hit the forward button, and your character sets off moving to the next point of cover. You can have him crawl or stop if he's in danger or you can stand up and run quickly if there's time.

Once in position, you can look around the immediate vicinity by sliding a finger about the screen, while tapping anywhere brings you briefly (and dangerously) out of cover to aim and take pot shots at the enemies. Although I might not have particularly realised it until playing WarMen, this is pretty much the gameplay mechanic of the celebrated Gears of War, which admittedly has you make the move from cover to cover manually, but the shoot-outs are essentially the same.

WarMen moves its gritty 3D visuals about with ease and grace. The lulls in between add tension and drama make for as beautifully refined an arcade shooter as the iPhone has seen in a long time.

With multiplayer and a longer campaign, this would have been a strong silver, but even as a single player it's one for the console gamers looking for some serious, hardcore, pocket-blasting action.

WarMen

The bold decision to automate the movements pays off in droves and makes this a remarkably accessible and intense third-person shooter - just what the iPhone needs
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Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.