Escape from Doom

With no shortage of free-to-play endless-runners on the App Store, and even more available for a dollar, Escape from Doom faces an uphill battle to justify its $1.99 / £1.49 price tag.

It tries its best to wow and impress from the outset, and it does a great job of dazzling with graphics, but it's ultimately a bit like running on a treadmill.

You know you should do it, but it's just not the most exciting activity in the world.

Pyramid power

Outside of the crisp graphics, the greatest thing going for Escape from Doom is its control scheme.

You don't turn or change direction during your run, but a quick tap on either the left or right of the screen strafes you off in the corresponding direction.

The movement feels incredibly natural when matched with the forward momentum of a run, and it's a very fluid control system overall that's reminiscent of weaving through traffic cones in a car.

Add some weapons into the mix and Escape from Doom really starts to feel like something special. Instead of simply swerving around mummies and crypt horrors, you can choose to gun them down with all manner of weaponry.

Unfortunately, for all the promise, Escape from Doom begins to feel incredibly repetitive after a few minutes of play.

There's really no variation to the game environments, and while running through a desert full of ruins in a sandstorm sounds pretty exciting at first, it just feels dull and routine after the first few outings.

Given the nature and setting of the game, I suppose this is somewhat unavoidable, but it would have been a welcome breath of fresh air to see levels that at least looked a bit different - especially considering the price of the app.

Additionally, the 'game over' screens of mummies hacking your character to pieces feel stale after the third or fourth time you've seen them. A close-up on a skull-faced villain is frightening when you first see it, but it's easy to yawn once you watch it splatter the screen with your blood for the umpteenth time.

Escape from Doom boils down to Temple Run with mummies and a first person perspective.

Look beyond the control scheme - which really is quite excellent - and the Egyptian horror setting and you're left with a relatively expensive endless-runner that's more humdrum than horror.

Ultimately, Escape from Doom is the sort of game that you're likely to fire up to show a friend what your iPhone or iPad can do - but it's also one that you'll probably forget about shortly afterwards.