iPhone App: NOVA: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance

January 17th, 2010

= 5 stars

Stave off alien invasion with a variety of cool weapons in this first person shooter.

The Good

• Overall, solid controls. A D-pad on the left controls going forward, backward, and sliding left or right. A screen swipe using your other hand orients your direction. A fire button in the lower right also controls a cross hair for better targeting. Other controls on the right allow switching weapons and throwing grenades. You can choose from several control schemes.
• Runs surprisingly fast, especially in comparison to another first person game Ravensword. Really important in tense situations where every bullet counts.
• Lots of variety in both weapons and scenarios. The weapons have a Doom-like variety from pistols to ridiculous rocket launchers. In terms of environments, I’ve already wandered through the outside of a spacecraft (no oxygen, requiring frequent ducks inside of airlocks), a jungle planet, and am now fighting a giant bug.
• Multiplayer option (WiFi only), using a Gameloft account. Blow away other opponents with any weapon you can find scattered around a small maze. No lag; great fun.

The Bad

• Relatively high learning curve on the controls — each gun has its own peculiarities. The sight-enabled gun can get you into trouble if a creature starts attacking at close range, so know how to put it away (tap the arrow on the left).
• Wet noodle whip that this is a HALO clone.

Conclusion

I gave high ratings to other first-person games like Doom Resurrection and Ravensword, well, with solid controls, tons of variety, responsive performance, and a kill-em-all multiplayer option, NOVA raises the bar. This is an awesome game.

iTunes App Store Link: N.O.V.A. — Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance — Gameloft