Hands-on with Shadow Cities on iPhone

Last year we took a look at Shadow Cities, the Finnish MMORPG that was popular enough to knock Angry Birds off its perch.

Now the game is hitting new countries and expanding its gameplay. Shadow Cities landed in Sweden and Canada a couple of weeks ago. This Tuesday, it will hit America.

The premise remains the same as it did in the November Finnish release: fight for control of your city by capturing spirits and battling an opposing team. The twist in Shadow Cities is that everything is location-based.

When we had our hands-on time, the streets of San Francisco were overlayed with a cool, Tron-like blue glow. Spirits floated up and down the boulevards.

You can cast spells by drawing a symbol on the screen – like a 'Z' – and you can take satisfying blast at the spirits, which then flip into Battle mode ready to soak up more firepower.

The real combatants, however, are other players. Two factions fight for different segments of the city. Each person has his own ranking, magic spells, and experience points. Defeating certain spirits will raise your ranking, as will completing missions that are updated daily.

The controls are smooth and the interface is slick. We were blasting spirits, picking fights, and starting trouble in no time.

The game lets you engage in local battles based on your current GPS signal, but things get much cooler when you transport to other locations.

Once your team has taken control of an area, your teammates can open up a portal to let you jump into their section. For instance, as we played in San Francisco, a teammate in Helsinki, Finland, had a portal available. We were able to jump to his area in Helsinki and explore it remotely.

The transporter even comes in handy within your own city. If a battle is happening on the other side of town, but your team controls a nearby area, you can jump to the local area and remotely get to the battleground.

Shadow Cities doesn’t force you to walk, bike, or drive to specific areas just to battle.

Shadow Cities is shaping up to be one of the more original games available for the iPhone. Developer Gray Area says it's considering bringing the chaos to other platforms, but for now the iPhone is the only place you can experience the fun.

It's also bringing the game to the UK, but it hasn't said when.

Coming this Tuesday to the US, Shadow Cities is free to play with optional in-app purchasing.