App review: Nova for iPhone

Nova is an unashamed Halo clone, packing stunning 3D visuals and a huge variety of environments to test your shoot-em-up skills.

The substantial single game takes you through 13 levels of action, featuring levels set in five distinctive environments; jungle, snow, bunker, mountains and alien city. There’s also an under-utilised but still absorbing 2-4 player Deathmatch mode requiring a Gameloft Live account and a WiFi connection. .

Needless to say, combat is the order of the day with an onscreen joystick for movement, looking around controlled by swiping the screen and more onscreen buttons for shooting, reloading, jumping and switching between weapons.

And whichever of the 6 weapons you use (Assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, handgun, rocket launcher and plasma gun) they fire with an unusually satisfying heft for a handheld game There are also occasional machine gun turrets that let you loose in key choke-points against what are otherwise unusually intelligent enemies.

After years basically ruling the world of licensed smartphone games, Gameloft’s entry into the iPhone arena may be belated and a tad pricey but, judging by this month’s performance, hugely promising.

Price: £3.99
Web: App Store

Verdict: 8/10

Written by Mike Anderiesz.

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