Game Reviews

The Incident

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iOS
| The Incident
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The Incident
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iOS
| The Incident

An incident is never a good thing.

Police file incident reports. Parents are called at work by principals. A prominent corporation loses a prototype device during an incident at a local watering hole.

The threat of death from objects randomly falling from the sky is enough to put The Incident in league with all of these unpleasant situations.

Drama defines each scenario, but the drama never lasts long. Like many arcade games, The Incident is entertaining for a few short minutes, yet its one-dimensional gameplay limits the long-lasting fun

The sky is falling

As a quick distraction, The Incident delivers. Tilting your device enables you to move a desperate tie-wearing man out from under falling objects. A flash along the upper edge of the screen lets you know when an item is about to come crashing down, at which point you tilt out of the way and jump with a tap, if necessary.

Three hits and you're out. Lives can be accumulated by collecting ten coins, which drift randomly up the screen attached to balloons. Additionally, grabbing purple gems nets you an extra life. There are also health balloons that appear whenever you take a hit, making it possible to avoid losing a life at all.

Starting at street level, seven levels rise up to the outer limits of the atmosphere to space itself. Each level introduces new objects, cursed black balloons, and an ever-quickening tempo. By the time you complete the second stage, though, you will have experienced all that The Incident has to offer.

One trick pony

Too few embellishments on the core game mechanic - evading falling stuff - prevent it from having much long-term appeal. Much like other quick-hit arcade titles like Doodle Jump and Tilt to Live, The Incident is meant to be taken in bite-sized bits.

Early levels that demand only a couple of minutes of your time to climb a few dozen meters are enjoyable, but levels ascending hundreds of meters aren't fun. The game becomes monotonous. It's a quality that's a poor fit for iPad, but understandably novel on iPhone and iPod touch.

Better incentives to keep playing would help, as the current trophies and achievements are ineffective. Surely more than four achievements can be offered, not to mention integration with a social gaming network. More can be done to vary the levels too with some filled with objects of a particular type or additional hazards to increase the difficulty.

With more achievements, shorter levels, and greater variety, The Incident could develop into a longer lasting experience. Right now, it's only good for a quick play.

The Incident

An amusing game of evasion, The Incident holds little in the way of lasting appeal
Score
Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.