Deploy and Destroy - A shooter that has no right to be as good as it is

Deploy and Destroy feels a lot like the creation of a committee. Someone smashed a Goog' on what was popular in mobile gaming at the moment and came up with shooters and games where you collect famous characters.

And so we get a game where Ash from the Evil Dead fires a shotgun at some guy from something called Divergent. Right now you're definitely thinking that that sounds pretty darn awful.

But, and this is a the sort of but that people will one day write songs about, it somehow actually manages to be a lot of fun.

The game is a pretty straightforward multiplayer FPS. You pick a character, kit them out, and then wander around tight levels trying to shoot everything that moves.

Sometimes you're playing in 4v4 team deathmatches. Sometimes you're playing in eight player free-for-alls. In the end, the results are the same. Kill more stuff, get more XP, move up the league ladders.

Games like this live and die on the beef in the middle of their metagame sandwich, which means that if the shooting isn't up to scratch, all the cameos from characters you vaguely remember aren't going to mean squat.

Luckily though, Deploy and Destroy handles the carnage pretty darn well. There's auto-fire, but the game is smooth and slick. Learning the timing of your melee swing is an important key to success. Because then you can stab or chainsaw people.

There's tension here too, especially when the clock's ticking down and you're tied for the lead. It doesn't quite capture the frantic cat-and-mouse of the endgame of a battle royale, but then that's not what it's going for.

Fights here are over in a few minutes. You drop out, add some new stuff to whatever character you're maining, and then head back in to the slaughter. It's fun, it's fast, and you're going to grin at the mania.

My friend Roy and a toy

There are problems here, like a system that limits the number of health packs and grenades you can have unless you chuck out some premium currency. And while the game is entertaining, it's about as original as a painting of a woman with an enigmatic smile called the Moaning Liza.

In spite of all that though, there's a rich, chocolatey blaster here that sucks you into its quick-fire butchery with a cheeky grin. Plus you get to shout “this is my boomstick!” a lot if you're playing as Ash. And that's brilliant.