Previews

Hands-on with Xperia Play-exclusive BackStab

Button stabber

Hands-on with Xperia Play-exclusive BackStab
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| BackStab

So what is it? Assassin's Creed in the colonies? 19th Century Grand Theft Auto? Prince of Persia on holiday, maybe?

In fact BackStab comes across as none of those, and yet all of them at the same time, borrowing elements from each to create what could be Gameloft's first title that’s hard to make wry comments about.

By jove, have at thee!

Put in the shoes of Henry Blake, a high ranking British Naval officer with the clipped accent and natty threads to prove it, you begin the game scrambling around a besieged British Colony in the Caribbean, under fire from the Spanish.

Gameplay initially follows the familiar linear template of action games like Hero of Sparta, with you tagging along with a British officer named Kane and dodging exploding houses.

The game, as with all Xperia Play titles, can be played on both the touchscreen and with physical buttons, with the latter being by far the choice for the discerning mobile gamer.

You can dispatch Spanish soldiers violently - or sneakily should you catch them by surprise - with your sword using the Square button, and you fire your (one bullet at a time) pistol using the two shoulder buttons.

Hola-rgh!

Having let you kill a number of sneaky Spanish blighters hanging around the town, BackStab suddenly switches into a more Assassin's Creed style setup, with Blake automatically scrambling up the sides of buildings if you point him in the right direction.

The similarities don't just end with the effortless acrobatics, however. Having dispatched two ships in a slightly dull cannon shooting gallery section, the town opens up into an open-world adventure, with townsfolk around the place requesting help from the Spanish invaders in exchange for cold hard cash.

There’s an element of GTA about these open sections. In a later part of the game (you can choose whether to start a mission of just warp into one of the islands and towns you've already visited) there's the opportunity to steal a few horses as well as take on main missions denoted by the first letter of a character's surname on the mini-map.

Mad and bad

BackStab certainly looks pretty on the Xperia Play’s screen, with long view distances showing off ships anchored in harbour and smooth animations of the main character.

The animation for when you shove townsfolk out of the way is particularly satisfying to behold.

But the sound and cut-scenes look incredibly stilted, and the voice acting is less than professional calibre.

The build I got to play with was also a little unstable, although this is something Gameloft is currently ironing out before the launch.

BackStab is tentatively down for a mid-to-late April release for the Xperia Play, with the other formats likely to arrive a month later in either May or June. It'll cost around £3 from the Gameloft Android web store.

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).