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After spending some quality time with a preview version of Int13’s new bullet hell shooter Shogun: Rise of the Renegade [Free] last week, we were eager to get our hands on the final version to see how it all came together. And sure enough, earlier this week Shogun quietly snuck into the App Store.

It was interesting that Int13 was departing from their typical augmented reality based games, like ARDefender [Free], and trying their hand at an established and nuanced genre like arcade-style manic shoot ‘em ups, especially with veteran shmup developer Cave basically cornering the market with their stable of high-quality ports. However, Int13 has surprised me with just how right they got Shogun, and while it might fail to totally impress the more discerning bullet hell enthusiast, fans of shmups in general will find a lot of action and fun brimming from the game.

The very first thing that pops out at you about Shogun are its graphics. The environments are done up in 3D and give off a great feeling of depth as you’re scrolling by in your ship. It’s also Retina Display ready, meaning it’s razor sharp. Enemies are your standard alien-type of spacecrafts, and there are some rather interestingly designed mid-boss and end-boss fights that will give you a run for your money in terms of challenge. On the whole, gameplay in Shogun doesn’t divert too far from your typical bullet-hell shooter formula, but it executes the components of that formula extremely well.

However, Shogun does show some more innovative signs in a couple of areas. One is the method in which you change your weapons. Your ship comes with 3 weapon types: spread shot, laser, and homing. Whenever you lift your finger off the screen, the game slows down bullet-time style and a small menu pops up above your ship that lets you choose from the 3 weapon types, as well as trigger a screen-clearing EMP or choose to add small wingman ships for added firepower. It’s nice that the action slows down to allow you to concentrate on what weapon you need to pick, but you can still take damage in this mode so you’ll still need to stay alert.

The other thing in Shogun that I found very interesting is the system for filling and using your shield meter. You have the ability to scrape bullets that pass you by, which basically means getting your ship extremely close to them without actually getting hit. With each consecutive bullet you scrape, you build a multiplier, and this adds to your shield meter above which can go past the 100% full mark. Every time you fill up your life meter completely, it fills one of the 6 reserve tanks above the meter.

Now, these reserve tanks can be used for various things, like setting off the aforementioned EMP blast or adding one or more sets of the satellite helper ships to your own ship (which VASTLY increases your firepower, I might add). Also, when you do get hit by enemy fire, the game will automatically clear the screen of bullets and shield you for a brief moment while giving you a refilled meter, but it will cost you one of your reserves.

The scraping and usage of reserve tanks aren’t totally new ideas in the shmup world, but they’re done well and add a ton of strategy to how you go about being the most effective in Shogun. It’s in your benefit to scrape as much as possible and always strive to keep your reserves well stocked for particularly challenging sections and boss battles. But, you can’t concentrate too hard on just scraping, as inevitably that will lead you to take damage if you aren’t paying enough attention to killing the enemies as well.

While the graphics are gorgeous and the underlying mechanics are sound, about the only thing I don’t like about Shogun is that it’s pretty short. Featuring just 4 levels to play through, it comes to an end pretty quickly, but it’s a satisfying and challenging ride while it lasts. The pay model is also pretty accommodating, allowing you to download and play through the entire first level for free. The remaining 3 levels are accessible as well, but you can only play them for a brief minute – just long enough to get a taste. Each full level is then unlockable separately for 99¢ each, or $1.99 to unlock them all at once.

As a big fan of Cave’s shooters, I find it hard to really get into most of the other shooters on the App Store. They really did set the bar that high. But Shogun is a game that instantly drew me in with its visuals, and then backed it up with a ton of solid action. It even Universal and has iCade support, to truly complete the arcade experience. As a free download, there’s really no reason not to give Shogun a try for yourself.

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Sissel has a lot of problems, but the least of  them is that he’s dead. Well, not dead-dead, but dead. I’ll explain: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective [Free] is all about what Sissel has gained in the afterlife. Like a common ghoul, this guy can rattle mundane objects, activate levers and buttons, and possess stuff. He can also decidedly un-ghoulishly rewind time, which is a trick that comes in pretty handy; a lot of the people he knows tend to die, and he needs these people to help him with his biggest problem: memory loss.

Ghost Trick first saw a release on Nintendo DS around a year ago. This isn’t its debut on iOS, though. A couple of months after the DS release, Capcom dropped a Universal version of the game on the Japanese App Store. Now, the rest of the world is finally getting to see a version of this port tonight.

And it seems like it’s OK from a technical standpoint. In my modest amount of time with it, I haven’t seen any port-specific issues like stuttering or flickering. It controls pretty well, too, and caters to your finger just about as well as it did to the stylus.

There’s some stuff still bothering me. The assets aren’t as high of a resolution as I would like. Also, a good sixth of the screen is covered by a thick layer of UI that, it seems, is simply there to keep the pixel density high. It’s weird.

In case you missed out on Ghost Trick, it breaks down like this: Sissel is often charged with reversing people’s deaths and he has to use his powers to do so. Each death is like a puzzle, basically, that has you opening doors, spiritually oozing to adjacent objects, and otherwise setting up Rube Goldberg-ian scenarios that’ll change that person’s fate.

In most cases, you’re watching a death, infesting that person’s body in order to rewind time, and then actively trying to disrupt that sequence. The solutions to puzzles seem to be mired in weird video game logic, but the saving grace here is that there is a single and true solution to every puzzle. You just gotta find it, you know?

I’ve been having a blast so far, by the way. This is a pretty thoughtful, if not challenging game with some insane, but fun-to-discover solutions. And while the minutes of overly long exposition is starting to wear me out, I’m digging the characters and the humor. Just wait until you meet dog, man. Wait for it.

We’ll definitely continue on with Ghost Trick, and try to give you something much more definitive than this in the near future. This is a free release, though — the first two chapters, which take about 60 or 70 minutes to complete, are what you’ll get with a $0 download, so that should give you a good indication of what you’re getting into. Our gut says grab it. Here’s some more screens:

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Relax those fists and wiggle your fingers. If you weren’t elite enough to get into the Steam Mobile [Free] beta and are experience some, er, anger issues over the whole deal, you don’t have to anxiously ball up your hands anymore. The beta process has ended almost as suddenly as it began. The app is now available for all as a free download.

We’ve given Steam Mobile another look, and aren’t noticing any features that weren’t listed as initially beta features. Text-based chat with friends, profile and group stuff, as well as game shopping and asset viewing are all included in the package. And yeah, we also bought a game from a toilet. If this isn’t the future, then what is it?

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There’s nothing more frustrating than a game that has good core gameplay that is ruined by missteps and issues in all the other game elements. Such is the case with DvO [$1.99 / HD], a castle defense game that’s heavy on the gameplay depth, but falters in its visuals and slow execution.

DvO (a.k.a. Dwarves vs. Orcs) plays very much like a classic castle defense title. Players send units down five battle lanes taking down the resistance until they reach the opposing castle (with the enemy doing the same to you, obviously). The side that takes down the opposing castle first wins the match. Littered throughout the lanes are crystal patches, which must be mined by your mining units and are used as the currency necessary to build supplemental units.

There are no special moves, upgradeable units, or even changing lanes; units will march down their path until they are either taken out or are attacking the opposing castle. I can see how this kind of simplicity in gameplay can appeal to some folks, but gamers that have experienced (and enjoy) other castle defense games with more modern approaches may feel a bit disappointed.

DvO’s primary strength lies in the wide variety of units you can play with. While you only start out with a handful of units, you unlock subsequent allies as you complete each story mission (you must then ‘buy’ the units using gold earned in matches before you can add them to your list). Once you get a large amount of units unlocked, the real strategic magic of DvO begins. Units include basic melee and ranged units, to mages of a wild variety of elements, to even conjurers that will summon other units onto the field. There are over 25 units available for use, and since you can only bring seven into any individual battle, players will really have to start paying attention to their units and build teams based on their play style.

While DvO’s gameplay variety obviously drives the title forward, its visuals and presentation take the game a few steps back. Graphics-wise, DvO lacks any retina display support, and it’s very apparent in everything from the blurry text to the units and environmental backgrounds. The art style seems to be built more for the iPad’s non-retina display – considering that the HD version is sold separately, I don’t know why they couldn’t have made that one retina compatible. While the blurry visuals aren’t bad enough to actually affect the gameplay, it’s still an eyesore.

Presentation-wise, DvO feels very bare bones. There’s no story (other than a cliché-riddled introduction), and there’s very little to even make you feel like you’re in a world. In addition, the few tutorial portions and even the in-game encyclopedia on the various units don’t really seem to do the game’s depth justice. One of the worst things a strategy game can do is not sufficiently explain the great system it’s built. Unfortunately, DvO seems to fall into that trap.

There are also a lot of silly UI bugs that just feel out of place. For example, tutorial screens pop up when you purchase new units that you unlocked in the previous battle. If you happen to die in the next battle and restart, the game will feed you a tutorial screen for a unit you haven’t unlocked yet (because you haven’t beaten that level). Does it really affect the gaming experience? Of course not, but these kinds of silly missteps hold the game back from being taken seriously.

Perhaps the biggest issue with DvO is simply that the game is too slow. Units plod along at a very sluggish pace, with only the special “fast” units seeming to move at an appropriate speed. Even early battles seem to drag on, and as you get further into the campaign and the likelihood of temporary stalemates rise, missions take forever. Even worse, there aren’t any ways to speed up the gameplay, meaning each map starts painstakingly slow as you’re initially collecting minerals. I’m all for giving folks the time necessary to make proper decisions in a strategy game, but the amount of waiting you will do in DvO is excessive.

With that said, DvO still has a good core gameplay system that should appeal to most fans of castle defense. However, all the missteps in other game elements definitely hold this game back from having a greater appeal. At this point, I’d recommend DvO for hardcore fans of the genre looking for their next fix. Otherwise, you may want to pass.

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Also at Macworld this year was ZigZaGame Inc, the developers who are bringing Adventure Bar Story to the App Store. We’ve already gone pretty in depth with Adventure Bar Story in our hands-on preview, but another title that they were showing off is their Pokemon-style game Dragon Island.

Dragon Island has you exploring a huge world, battling and collecting over 200 different species of monsters. Each one can be evolved several times, and you can even collect recipes which will allow you to combine two different creatures to create a new hybrid version. Also, you’ll be able to battle bosses and claim their spirits in order to summon them in future battles.

Another interesting feature is that there are no healing spells or items in the game. You can return to the main town hub to heal, but if you’re out in battle and one of your creatures dies, then they’re gone for good. I kind of like this as it adds an element of suspense and risk, and should affect how you go about tackling battles and completing the many dungeons in the game.

To balance this, even though you can only battle with 3 monsters at a time, you’ll be able to bring more than that with you as you play. So if you do end up losing one, another monster from your queue will take its place. As you level up in the game, you’ll gain the ability to carry more and more monsters with you.

An example of 3 evolutions of a dragon

The world which you can explore in Dragon Island is massive, with tons of points of interest to discover. These include towns, forests, random battles, and dungeons. When you come upon a dungeon, it is randomly generated and turns the game into more of a rogue-like, and there will be one infinite dungeon where you can grind and discover monsters and items, as well as compete on a leaderboard for how many floors you can descend.

Finally, the battle system will be a traditional 3-on-3 turn-based affair. Each monster can have up to 4 skills, each assigned a special swipe gesture. Although your character doesn’t get involved in battles himself, you can still level him up as you would in a normal RPG, and then his stats will extend to the monsters under his control. In this way you can influence how you will play the game despite the massive number of different monsters in the game which are actually the ones doing battle.

I was blown away when I saw Dragon Island in action. The amount of creatures in the game, coupled with the ability to evolve them and level up your own character has the potential for just a ridiculous amount of customization and strategy. Along with a huge world to explore, a storyline, tons of items and abilities, and even an infinite dungeon, there will be plenty to keep you busy in Dragon Island. Be on the lookout for Dragon Island to hit in the coming months, or check out the thread in our forums for even more discussion on the game.

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I was able to stop by Gameloft’s San Francisco offices while at the conference, and chatted with them about some of their recent releases as well as some of the backlash they’ve received over them. First was the issue of how they put advertisements into Hero of Sparta II [$4.99], and after an overwhelming amount of negative feedback they decided to take them out. I think it’s good when a company goes out on a limb to try something, and then can admit they were wrong about it and make things right in the end.

Next we discussed the reception to Dungeon Hunter 3 [Free], which was pretty mixed. The game itself was actually pretty good, but so drastically different from the previous two entries that I think it alienated the established fan base of the series. Had they positioned it as a spinoff rather than a direct sequel, I think the outcome would have been a lot more favorable. Plus, it’s a freemium title, which is the type of thing that will always draw criticism from some folks.

Finally, we talked about their recent release Urban Crime [Free], which was essentially a repackaging of an older Gangstar title into a freemium model. The game has not gone over well with either critics or players, and we didn’t have too many good things to say about it in our review either. The combination of outdated visuals, a rehashed game world that many people had already played to death, and tough freemium restrictions was just a recipe for disaster with Urban Crime.

(Left to right: Hero of Sparta II, Dungeon Hunter 3, and Urban Crime)

So what do these three games all have in common? Well, they’re all examples of Gameloft trying to find out the best way to sell their brands in a turbulent market like the App Store. Honestly, I think putting ads in Hero of Sparta II and making an old game into a freemium game with Urban Crime were just their way of experimenting to see what works, and although neither of those really went over so well with gamers the negative feedback was actually invaluable to Gameloft moving forward. And as for Dungeon Hunter 3, I think they made a good game but just didn’t position it right, which is another lesson learned the hard way.

What I did take away from our meeting is that Gameloft is not going completely freemium with their games from here on out, as some people have been quick to conclude. Part of these experiments is finding the best way to go about selling their future titles, and with nearly all of their development cycles lasting from 10-14 months, it can be hard to keep up with a market that moves as quickly as the App Store. But they assured me that they do have a mixture of the types of premium games that they’ve built their iOS reputation on still coming down the line, as well as titles that take advantage of the freemium model, which seems to be the prevalent model in the App Store as of late.

To wrap up our meeting, they let me get some hands-on time with their upcoming Unreal Engine title, which is still extremely early in development and doesn’t even have a title just yet. I’m sworn to secrecy on most of the nitty gritty details for now, but let me say that I was really impressed with how good the game is shaping up to be, and of course it looks absolutely gorgeous with the Unreal tech under the hood. About all I can say is that it’s a fully 3D real-time action game that will have a full storyline to play through. It will be a paid game, but will have some in-app purchase items. Finally, we should be seeing the game in the second quarter of this year, which should be by this summer.

I’m really hoping to be able to share more on the upcoming Unreal game as it gets closer to release, and after meeting with the representatives of Gameloft in person, it’s easy to see that they’re a passionate bunch who care a lot about putting out products that their customers will enjoy. Their recent missteps really seem like a part of a larger learning experience in a marketplace where traditional rules are pretty much thrown out the window. I’ll look forward to seeing how Gameloft adapts and grows on the App Store this year, and if they’re able to unlock the key to a happy medium between being profitable and keeping their huge stable of fans happy.

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Brad Nicholson said it best in our preview of Dungeon Crawlers [$1.99]: “It’s the video game equivalent of a mullet, reserved and business-like, yet fun-loving and goofy.” I’d add “A little bit awkward in any situation,” for both the mullet and the game. It’s a quirky strategy RPG that invests heavily in tropes of old, glorifies the Ghostbusters, and isn’t quite ready for prime-time.

Don’t get me wrong; fans of traditional SRPGs will find a lot to love if they give Dungeon Crawlers a chance. It’s a funny, charming, and mostly well-crafted game. You’ll run into a few glaring omissions, and you might have trouble with the game’s high memory footprint, but rest assured that Ayopa Games and Drowning Monkeys plan to address all of that soon. No matter how much I enjoy myself, though, I keep coming back to the same problem: Dungeon Crawlers is just way too ponderous.

The mix of dungeon crawling and strategic combat works well. Basically, you poke around a dungeon floor by floor, fighting baddies, finding secrets, and occasionally solving puzzles. The game slips into turn-based combat mode the moment you enter an area with enemies. A movement grid is laid out on the floor. Enemies take their turns, one by one, and then the heroes take theirs. It’s a good formula, but every bit of it is too slow.

Enemy turns take too long, and can’t really be sped up. Every movement and attack feels a bit slower than it should, and everything has to happen in turn. Sometimes it feels like no one has any idea how to land a hit. In combat that already feels too slow, a whole round spent with weapons missing harmlessly (or landing glancing blows, a common problem) is dull, dull, dull. It would shorten the game, but combat would be a lot more fun if the developers cut out the weak hits, lowered everyone’s miss rates and let you fast-forward through enemy turns.

If only they could apply that sort of trimming to the rest of the experience. For example, you start with only three of your four heroes: Payter, Aegon and Roy (if you’re thinking Ghostbusters already, those should sound familiar), and each gets just one ability initially. For the first few levels combat is mindless. Payter walks up to an enemy and slashes it. Aegon casts Magic Missile from further back. Roy heals whoever is wounded. Rinse. Repeat. It’s a fine way to start, but the game takes far too long to start filling your arsenal with new friends and abilities.

It’s a shame, because I doubt many mobile gamers are going to wait the hour or two it takes for things to start getting interesting. Try to be the exception, because it’s worth it. Even though Dungeon Crawlers has a limited roster of characters, its encounters get both challenging and strategic. Much of the strategy is in learning to carefully position your party members. Payter, for instance, eventually learns to stun the enemies that surround him. Predicting where the enemies will move, you can put him in just the right place to get surrounded. Then you can line up Aegon to hit the grouped up baddies with an AOE, and keep Failston blocking the way back to Roy. Mana isn’t a consideration, but action limits are, so healing is a once-per-turn affair. If a character falls, they’re out of the game until the next floor.

Failing isn’t a a huge deal, since you can always restart from the beginning of a level or an encounter. But that decision really hurts when encounters start lasting for half an hour or longer. You should be able to offset this by using the coins you collect to buy potions in a tight spot, but you can’t. A shop is coming, as are IAP coins for the poor adventurer with a wealthy player. The game can already be completed without the store, though, so the IAP will be optional in the extreme.

Unless, that is, you try to plow straight through. Dungeon Crawler’s loot system rewards the explorer. You won’t find much if you just stomp around killing enemies and opening chests, and your equipment will quickly fall out of date. If, on the other hand, you manage to find the levers that hide secrets in nearly every level, you’ll be at the tip-top of your game. The game could use a balance tweak or two to keep less-curious players geared enough to fight, though. The loot is all pre-determined, and it really hurts your chances if you miss a few secrets.

Even with all the frustrations and issues, I really dig Dungeon Crawlers. If you’re a sucker for references, this game plays with a ton of them – from the blatant and encompassing Ghostbusters theme to jokes about things the younger crowd might still understand. That’s on top of an engaging adventure tale that does its best to keep you interested in slogging through fight after fight. The characters, the music, the level design and environments – all great. You get the idea: the game would be fantastic if only it were pared down, cleaned up and sent out much more streamlined.

Until then, a cautious recommendation will have to do. If you’re looking for an old-school strategic romp through some very traditional dungeons, you’re in the right place. But these aren’t play sessions you can cram into five minute smoke breaks. Dungeon Crawlers is built to last – for better or worse, you’ll get hours out of it. If you’re a sit-back-and-be-patient sort, you’ll be just fine.

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Man, these digital platform companions apps come out of nowhere. Today, Valve, the creators of Half-Life and everyone’s favorite PC download platform, Steam, announced Steam Mobile [Free]. It’s what you think it is, which is to say, it’s a companion-y type of experience that’ll let you chat with Steam friends, view Steam groups and profiles, check out video game screenshots, and just about anything else Steam-related, including sales.

Best part? It’s available right now across iOS and Android. Worst part? This particular version is still in “closed beta.” To get in, you’ll need to sign into Steam through the mobile app as a way to “express interest in the beta.” Users will be rolled into the beta eventually.

Steam sales are deadly for our collective wallets under normal circumstances when we’re sitting at our computers. I’m not sure I’m ready to live in a horrible future where I’ll be able to impulse-buy $2.99 PC games from the toilet.

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Star Warfare: Alien Invasion [99¢] is a first-person arena-shooter from Freyr Games, which features wave after wave of relentless attacking alien creatures. The aliens emerge from holes in the wall and from underground, or come flying, bounding or waddling straight towards you from all sides. And once you’ve shot them, the next wave arrives immediately. It’s almost as if you don’t even need to explore, as the aliens will come straight for you.

The single player campaign includes five maps, each with six levels of increasing difficulty to unlock (30 levels in total). A progress bar indicates how many of the enemies have spawned and if you survive to the end, your reward is currency to spend in an in-game store. The sixth level of each map is a “survival” level.

In multiplayer mode, you can team with up to three players online (via Game Center) to engage in a co-op boss battle, or to play co-op on a map you’ve already unlocked. The incentive for fighting bosses is that you earn greater amounts of gold. Unfortunately, these bosses are not accessible in single player mode, although you can set-up a 1 player room online if you want. Playing co-op with teammates makes the boss battles easier, and so does upgrading via single player mode first since the gear you earn in single player mode is also available in multiplayer.

This is a dual stick shooter, with the left stick for movement, the right for aiming and shooting – and there’s no option to change this, although you can tweak sensitivity. The dual sticks are located one third of the way up the screen on each side and can’t be repositioned. To look around, or turn around, you swipe the background with your finger. You can also use the right (fire) stick to turn, but that’s slower and wastes bullets.

There are 26 weapons to unlock and purchase, including assault rifle, shotgun, laser gun and machine guns. The heavier weapons, like grenade launchers, decrease your speed while other powerful weapons like the RPG consume more energy. Each weapon has power, fire-rate and energy attributes and can be upgraded through 8 levels.

The catch is that some items are purchased with money earned in-game, but other weapons and bags (including the cooler ones) are purchased using a raw material named “mytheril” which seems to only be available through in-app purchases or for getting bonuses for playing online regularly. But aside from this premium currency, even the weapons sold for regular in-game currency get very expensive, making the weapon upgrading more difficult than it feels like it should be.

Also, If you run out of bullets, you end up running around the level unable to do anything as there’s currently no melee attack or ammo pick-ups. You just have to die or quit, having wasted the remainder of your bullets, which is frustrating, although the developers advise they may possibly introduce a weapon with no ammo cost. The in-game store also sells space suit parts (helmet, chest, hands and legs) which can improve your hit points, power and speed. Other available items include first aid items, forcefields and the ability to revive after death.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion is a pretty good first-person shooter for a dollar, despite the expensive weapons, emphasis on IAP and need to buy bullets with in-game money. The developers are planning a minor update with new equipment and maps, and a major update with a brand new game mode. If they can also balance out the in-game currency systems in regards to weapon upgrading and ammunition usage, then Star Warfare might be able to extend beyond just being an average to above average shooter.

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It’s Z-Day, baby, and the cure for what ails the undead populace isn’t going to find itself. In SKS Games’ upcoming survival-horror title End Night, you play as a grizzled marine dude on a simple quest: find the core components of a vaccine that might end the crazy stuff that’s going on outside of a cozy lab. In a not-so-unusual video game turn of events, most of these ingredients have to be discovered in the wild.

It ain’t going to be easy. It’s the apocalypse, man; Z-Day. The dead have risen and are roving anxiously. Some are even armed or armored. These aren’t your typical slow-walking types of creeps, either. In my short preview session, I met runners as well as amblers, and even had the pleasure of running into one or two seriously hopped up bullet-sponges.

Zombies are bad and all, but SKS heightens the tension with a few tried and true old-school survival game mechanics and systems. As you’d expect, the dreary adventure begins at night. The darkness seriously puts a limit your situational awareness, while the lack of everyday sound ratchets up your ability to hear the undead’s footfalls. When you get hurt, your vision is also obscured by a layer of crimson.

Also, like an old-school Resident Evil or Silent Hill, bullets are few and the camera perspective is restricted. In this specifically, you’ll be dealing with an over the top camera that successfully limits how you move and react to threats. But it’s not like you can shoot your way through everything, anyway. You’ll need to know when and how to run.

One of the more interesting things about End Night is its world; it’s open, but isolated to a small, hole-in-the-wall town. There’s a lot of commercial real estate to liberate, as well as a police station to pilfer for supplies like ammo and armor. The walking dead spawn randomly throughout the environment, and as you close in on the vaccine, they also start spawning more frequently. It gets tough, fast.

A fair amount of the game’s buildings carry a core component for the cure being worked on back at the lab. You’ll need to hull back a vial of some anti-zombie juice every time you find one, which makes the experience fairly fetch-quest-y. These houses also have, for a reason I can’t explain, documentation that feeds into an experience points system.

I think that’s the other really interesting thing, by the way. Like Infinity Blade, End Night is meant to be played several times. Whenever you meet an untimely death, you’ll be prompted to start over from the beginning and then use the experience points you just gained to pump up the marine guy for another go.

I spoke with one of the devs behind the project to get a better sense of what you’ll be able to upgrade by playing through multiple times. Spoiler: your guy will get better at smashing zombies, provided you’re using the stuff you upgrade.

“One of the most useful upgrades is for pistol accuracy, which drastically increases the chance of getting headshots, and is especially helpful towards the end of the game with lots of fast moving armored enemies,” a representative told me.

“Other upgrades such as Armor effectiveness allow your armor take more hits before being destroyed. Upgrading your shotgun allows you to blow enemies apart even from far away, while the health increase means you’ll be able to take a lot more hits before dying.”

At the beginning of the game, you’ll get to choose one of three starting weapons: a pistol, a shotgun, or a fireman’s axe. Tools of the trade, right?

The town might be dangerous, but one of the hardest enemies I’ve come across is my own guy. If you get cut up too bad, you’ll need to search around for medical supplies and clean the infected blood off your body. To do the latter, you’ll need to find a tub. If you end up killing too many zombies, you’ll need to wash away the remorse with booze or bible pick-up items.

In my experience, some of the game’s most heart-pumping moments are spent in bathrooms; as you clean your wounds undead can stumble through the door, which leaves you little time to adjust to the conflict. This is some pretty feral stuff, but that first the vibe of the world; there’s a lot of undead and they all want you to join in on the party.

Technically, I think you’ll enjoy this. It’s 3D all the way — even though you won’t get a great sense of this courtesy the camera — and it has some decent assets to boot. The controls, which are your usual virtual array of bits and bobs, respond well enough. You’ll want to be sitting down to play, though, as this definitely isn’t an on-the-go kind of joint.

I think the camera and the leveling systems are going to be the biggest hurdles for people. I gave up arguing that survival-horror games’ cameras are poorly designed. A restricted perspective never gives me any pleasure, but I suppose the tension that it artificially stirs up is a valid plus. As for the rinse-and-repeat nature of the game, it’s just personal preference. If you like this stuff, you’ll dig this.

On the other hand, the open-world and the fetch-quest model provide some of the most satisfying stuff. Runs feel epic, if not downright dangerous, so getting back in one piece is powerfully redeeming. The weight and feel of weapons is satisfying, too, and the world has a lot of stuff to explore and discover.

End Night is in submission, so we should see it at some point this February. As of right now, it’s slated to hit the iPad exclusively at $2.99. An iPhone version might follow at some point down the road.

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