Game Reviews

Lonewolf - More of a cub really

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iOS
| Lonewolf
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Lonewolf - More of a cub really
|
iOS
| Lonewolf

Sniper games are usually super-polished AAA gore-fests on mobile, which makes Lonewolf a breath of fresh air. It has a unique look, and while there's still a lot of gore, it likes to do things a little differently.

Unfortunately there are a few niggles here that keep the game from being a must-buy for fans of shooting people in the face from a long way away.

It has its moments, and it has some nice ideas, but they're not quite well implemented enough to shine brighter than the problems that it has.

So what do you do?

You shoot people. Lots and lots of people. There's a story bubbling away in the background, told through neat looking comic book-style cut scenes, but the core of the game is sniping.

Each of the levels is a thin slice of shooting. You're already in place, staring down the scope of your high-powered rifle. There are targets you need to take out, but each level comes with its own stipulations.

You might need to kill someone in a hospital without setting off any alarms, or kill a handful of guards without any of them noticing that the heads of their allies have been turned into bolognese.

There are pistol levels too that play out like a gallery shooter. Goons pop up from behind barrels and other bits of scenery and you need to fill them full of lead before you take too much damage.

The problems arise from these varying challenges though. Sometimes you'll fail a level and you won't be able to work out exactly what happened. And when there's an energy system in play that can be incredibly frustrating.

It's free to play then?

Yeah. It's not too annoying most of the time, but when things start to get sticky and you get caught in a failure loop it can really start to grate.

It's a shame, because Lonewolf does have some solid ideas. It's learnt from the likes of Hitman: Sniper that shooting people in the head isn't enough any more, and it has its own take on puzzling out the best way to finish an assignment.

But the free to play system means experimentation isn't really possible, since you have to wait or watch videos to fill up your energy again.

Lonewolf is worth a look if you're a big fan of sniping, but you can't help but feel that it doesn't quite live up to its potential.

Lonewolf - More of a cub really

There are some nice ideas here, but they never quite manage to coalesce into a truly engaging whole
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.