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I'd say the best possible way to start any morning is with a massive cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee and a downloading whole pile of App Store freebies. There are quite a few free games available today, but some of these promotions have been running for a couple days now. Given the temporary nature of most freebie sales, I'd say there's a decent chance of some of these games returning to their original price very soon so be sure to grab any/all of the games you're interested in ASAP.

Babo Crash HD – If you like puzzle games where you're able to pull off massive chains of blocks being cleared, intentionally or unintentionally, Babo Crash HD is right up your alley. It follows the familiar Bejeweled style gameplay model with gems you swap around to form matches of three or more. What sets Babo Crash HD apart is the ridiculous array of power-ups in the game that can clear out entire swaths of gems at a time. Free, fun, and universal– What's not to like about that?

Crystal Quest – Originally released in 1987, Crystal Quest was one of the first game to support the color display of the Macintosh II and since then has been ported to a number of different platforms including the iPhone. Gameplay is fairly basic and amounts to surviving through waves of enemies and collecting crystals. It feels a little dated, but if you were around for the original Macintosh release this should be an awesome blast from the past.

DinoSmash Online – An extremely cool online deathmatch game which piles up to 16 players in to a 2D map filled with platforms to jump around (or use your grappling hook) on and weapons to pick up. It was recently updated to support the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, and the game seems to play well on both WiFi and 3G networks. Also, the title screen music absolutely owns and DinoSmash Online is worth downloading just to listen to it, even if you have no intention of ever playing the game.

Dr. Nano – 3D Artery Adventure – We first got a peek at this game back at PAX East, and while the controls feel a little clunky the game is based around the amusing premise of shrinking yourself small enough to solve medical problems in the human body by running around and shooting them… You might even learn something about human anatomy in the process.

Max Vector – This is a Game Salad game so gameplay is a little basic and performance is on the mediocre side, but Max Vector has so much awesome retro flare to it that it's worth checking out for that alone. The graphics and music are awesome, and like any good shooter, it has a heap of screen-filling bosses to spam massive amounts of bullets at.

Mecho Wars – A turn based strategy game with some cool gameplay mechanics such as a day and night cycles which does things like freeze water so your troops can walk across it, forcing you to take time of day in to account with both your attacks and defenses. Mecho Wars has a full single player campaign as well as four different OpenFeint-powered online multiplayer modes.

Piyo Blocks – This match three is loaded with bright pixel art and a ton of personality. Piyo Blocks features three different game modes, along with full OpenFeint integration for online leaderboards, achievements, and all that other fun stuff. Doing well hinges on pulling off massive combos, and it's fairly rewarding when you get your score multiplier going like crazy.

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An official version of Risk [$4.99] just hit the App Store, and as I mentioned in the roundup from the recent EA event, this really seems like too little too late from the massive game developer. When third party software first graced the iPhone, it wasn't hard to see the potential that the touch interface had for board games, and this potential only grew as Apple implemented push notifications which allowed developers to create some extremely robust asynchronous multiplayer experiences. An absolutely fantastic example of this in the classic board game arena is Carcassonne [$4.99] which we detailed in our review not too long ago. In Carcassonne, developers The Coding Monkeys masterfully duplicated the board game while providing more single player and multiplayer features than I think anyone was expecting when we first heard of the game.

In Risk: The Official Game, EA brings a fully licensed version of Risk to the App Store with futuristic looking graphics, a decent soundtrack, and all the same army fortifying dice rolling gameplay that has been evolving for the last 50 years through various iterations of the board game. You can either play single player against AI opponents, or play local multiplayer with up to 6 players on a single device, or up to 4 players with their own devices via WiFi or Bluetooth. There's a decent amount of stat tracking and achievements in game, but that's where the bells and whistles stop.

The problem with Risk is that the brand name is so powerful that I think that most people who are downloading it are just thinking, "Oh, finally, Risk for the iPhone!" without being aware of the many other better alternatives which aren't exactly the same as Risk, but scratch the same strategic dice rolling itch– Often with much more content, options, and game modes. If this applies to you, here are just a few of the better Risk knock-offs available on the App Store:

Lux DLX 2, $4.99 – This world conquest game which recently was updated to version 2.0 sports universal compatibility between the iPhone and iPad, single device multiplayer, challenging AI, and tons of new maps to play that can be downloaded within the game for free. If you want to try Lux before buying, there are two different free versions, Lux Touch, and Lux USA which are also universal apps.

Generals – Online Global Conquest!, $2.99 – Where Generals lacks in multiple maps it more than makes up for in the online multiplayer department. Like most Risk-like games, you can play locally on one device with human or AI opponents and Generals also allows you to organize online games over WiFi or 3G. Currently, games are played in real time online, but the developers are working on an update to add push notifications to allow for up to 20 games to be played simultaneously as well as more online game modes. The free version has ads and no multiplayer, but will give you a good idea of what you're getting in to.

Stratergery, $1.99 – Also a universal app, Strategery boasts single player, single device multiplayer, and online multiplayer with push notifications. My favorite thing about Strategery is that it randomly generates maps of four different sizes, which always keeps things fresh since you need to develop new strategies on the fly instead of just going by your old standby of building up armies in Australia. Strategery Lite is also available, which doesn't have any ads but lacks a few gameplay options and online multiplayer.

Dominion, $1.99 – Like the other games already mentioned, Dominion has local and online multiplayer with either classic world domination mode or objective based games. It has multiple maps and a full featured online component with asynchronous push alert powered play, player statistics, and a bunch of other goodies. Unfortunately, Dominion isn't universal so if you don't want to run the game pixel doubled on your iPad you will have to spring for Dominion HD.

Unless you really really need to play the official Risk game for some reason, I'd really give any of the four previously mentioned games a spin if you're looking for some awesome online world conquest action. At least for me, board games are exponentially more fun when you're playing with real people, and if the success of Words With Friends [$2.99 / Free] is any indication, most tend to agree.

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Ever since we spotted the online first-person shooter Archetype in limited release, we'd been dying to try the game out. At long last, Archetype was released to the global App Store this past week to much fanfare and a huge marketing campaign. After finally getting our hands on it and spending some quality time playing, we can safely say that Archetype is one impressive game, and developer Villain has, for the most part, followed through on their promises for the title. That's not to say there aren't a few issues with it, or a wish list of things we'd like to see added, but all said, Archetype delivers one of the most robust, beautiful, and most importantly fun FPS experiences that can be had on the iPhone.

For starters, if you have Apple's new iPhone 4 then you are treated to some unbelievably crisp graphics. The textures that make up the levels and player models aren't the most detailed — which is fine, as this allows the game to run at an ultra-smooth clip — but, on the retina display, it really approaches a high definition console game running on the small screen. For all other devices, including the first generation of iPhones and iPod touches, the game is still very graphically impressive and maintains a solid framerate. The five stages available in the game are also visually quite nice, and are all indoor arenas with a high tech industrial look similar to games like Eliminate or the Halo series. It's not a groundbreaking style, but it gets the job done while maintaining good performance across all devices.

Controls in Archetype are a familiar dual analog stick setup that works well, though doesn't leave many options for players that prefer different control schemes. The two sticks are visually situated in the usual spots in the lower corners, but can actually be activated by touching nearly anywhere on either half of the screen. This lends itself well to people who like the “touch anywhere” or “swipe the screen to aim” mechanics of similar touch screen FPS games. Your weapon can be very quickly changed by touching the upper right corner and grenades are thrown by touching the upper left corner. A melee attack is performed by touching the bottom of the screen anywhere in between the two analog sticks, which is also where the radar is displayed. Minor options to invert the aiming axis or adjust sensitivity are available, but the default control scheme described is basically all you get. This isn't really a bad thing though, as they do work very well and are semi-flexible, but surely won't suit every single gamer.

An important thing to note is that this game is meant to be strictly an online affair, so if you are looking for a single player campaign or don't have any interest in online multiplayer then Archetype is not for you. There's a very basic offline mode where you can run through a timed training level taking out stationary cardboard cutout style targets — but that's it. Everything else is matchmaking against live opponents over a WiFi, 3G, or EDGE connection. If you're the type of person that loves online FPS multiplayer, then you're in for a treat. Archetype runs and plays near-flawlessly over all of these connections.

Starting the game will launch you into a lobby that is connected to the server closest to your region, although you can choose to play on any server you wish. The current servers are US East, US West, Europe, Asia, and South America. Matchmaking allows just under a minute to find opponents to match you with, and once the timer runs out the game will start with whatever number of players are in the lobby by that time. Archetype boasts up to five-on-five team matches, but in my experience this is a somewhat rare occurrence. More often I'd get into two-on-two or three-on-three matches on a regular basis, with a fair amount of four-on-four as well. The good news is that I haven't had any trouble quickly picking up a match during my time with the game (US West).

Actually playing matches in Archetype is a blast. The five maps are designed well and feature a nice mix of different elevations, passageways, teleports, and weapon drops. As with any good FPS game, learning the ins and outs of each map is really beneficial. Player movement is fast, and by default your weapon will auto-fire when an enemy enters your aiming reticle, although this can be disabled in the options. A radar at the bottom of the screen shows the position of enemies and teammates (and can also be disabled if you wish). The six weapons in the game run the usual gamut of assault rifles, a shotgun, a sniper-type weapon (minus the zooming capability), and a rocket launcher. Grenades are here as well, with a normal frag grenade as well as an awesome grenade that splits into multiple parts when thrown.

Rounding out your offense is the ability to melee with any weapon available, or even pick up a brutal battle axe that can be used exclusively for close combat. Melee can feel overpowered at times, as you can rush up on opponents and spam the button wildly usually ending up in a kill, although this can also leave you open to an easy counterattack from savvy players. The precision rifle feels a little too strong as well, able to kill players with only one or two shots across an entire map, thanks to auto-firing. While rockets and grenades are also strong, the proximity damage of these will kill you just as easily as the opposition, if you aren't careful. So, there may be room for improvement in the balancing of the weapons, but there are tradeoffs with each, so it's not been a huge issue and gameplay doesn't suffer much for it.

Matches are incredibly fast paced and combat heavy. The match length is determined by the amount of players, so a one-on-one match goes for just one minute, a two-on-two for two minutes, and so forth. Since the matches are so brief, there's not a lot of reason to camp or lie in wait to get the drop on other players. Instead, you'd better keep moving if you want to get a decent amount of kills.  The setup is also really well suited to mobile gaming, as you can quickly pop in and have a match or two with just a spare few minutes. The only available game type is team Deathmatch, with no sort of free-for-all or objective based gametypes like capture the flag available at this time.

With all the great fun to be had in Archetype, it's not without its issues. For the most part it runs incredibly well online no matter what type of connection you're on, but there's inevitably instances of minor lag or even games completely locking up and dropping out altogether. The lobby shows you your current ping rate, so you can have an idea of how solid your connection and that of other players will be. The two biggest points of contention I'm hearing from players in our forums is over the auto-firing nature of the weapons and the ability to actually do damage to your own teammates. Auto-fire can be disabled, but this can just put you at a disadvantage to everyone else who uses it. Teammate damage cannot be disabled, so you'll need to learn to be careful around your own team, especially with tossing grenades around.

My biggest complaint about the game, personally, is the lack of options in setting the parameters of matches. It's very easy to add friends in Archetype, either from the post game lobby following a match or by searching out usernames and sending requests. From your friend list you can then issue a direct challenge to up to 9 other players to engage in a private match together. It works extremely well, giving other players a push notification inviting them to the game, and accepting that notification launches the game and sends you directly into the lobby very smoothly. I would love to be able to set longer matches in these instances, or adjust other variables like weapon types and frag limits. To be expected, match performance can be hit or miss when trying to play with friends in other countries. As it is, the private match feature is extremely basic but is still a nice addition to the overall package.

See our gameplay video for a closer look.

If you've actually managed to read this far, chances are you're really interested in this type of game and, with that, I can wholeheartedly recommend Archetype to you. It does have a few issues, some of which only amount to personal taste, and it does want for variety or progression somewhat, as it is just team deathmatch over and over again. But it's still incredibly fun. It gives you a game that you can quickly jump into and play practically anywhere in a reasonably reliable fashion. It also avoids the two common complaints about its closest competitor, Eliminate, in that you just pay for the game when you buy it, without any sort of in-app purchasing involved, and you don't have to worry that other players' equipment will be more upgraded than your own. Everyone plays on a level field here and, although it's a bit simplistic, it does work wonderfully. If you're liking the sound of what Archetype has to offer, then don't hesitate to check it out. It's personally become my favorite iPhone FPS to date.

Note: Archetype is presently being advertised on this site, but it has no influence on our choice of coverage or the outcome of our reviews. See advertising and editorial policies for additional details.

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A couple weeks ago we first caught wind of Archetype, an online first person shooter by iPhone developer MunkyFun which is comprised of veterans of LucasArts and the creators of both Shift [99¢] and Ivory Tiles [99¢] for the iPhone. Much like ngmoco's Eliminate [Free], Archetype is said to work over WiFi, 3G, and also EDGE connections. Players will rank up as they play, earning experience and winning medals along the way.

The main differentiator between Archetype and other similar online shooters is that Archetype will be playable with up to ten players at once, in teams of five, with an assortment of six different weapons to choose from. We're anxious to see how the game works, and likely won't have to wait too long as per the Archetype web site the game is launching in "early July" for $2.99.

For more information on the game, including a few hands-on impressions from a few people who managed to snag the game early, check out the thread in our forums. I'm not entirely sure how MunkyFun is going to be able to provide a solid 5v5 first person shooter experience that will even play well over EDGE, but needless to say we're going to be keeping a very close eye on this game to give it a try once its released.

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SGN's Exo-Planet made its first appearance on the App Store in early April as Exo-Planet Elite for the iPad [$6.99], a few weeks ago Exo-Planet Elite [$4.99] was released for the iPhone, and it wasn't until a few days ago that the DLC-powered free to download Exo-Planet [Free] joined the ranks. Exo-Planet is an online shooter, somewhat similar to ngmoco's Eliminate [Free], but with a third person perspective, multiple game modes, and an always-equipped grappling hook.

The game is controlled similar to most shooters, and a brief tutorial tells you practically everything you need to know about playing. Movement is controlled with the left side of the screen, and sliding your thumb around the right side of the screen allows you to look around. Virtual buttons are scattered about that do things like allow you to view the scoreboard, switch weapons, and fire. Every player is equipped with a grappling hook that can be shot at most surfaces, and grappling is as simple as tapping where you want to fire it and waiting for your character to reel themselves in.

Exo-Planet takes place in space, and hopping around and sticking to magnetic surfaces with your boots is highly reminiscent of the zero-gravity extravehicular activity portions of Dead Space. The third person view is actually really nice for all the maneuvering you'll be doing, as you can really get a great look at both your surroundings and the locations of your opponents with the pulled back over the shoulder viewpoint.

Exo-Planet includes three gameplay modes, two online and one offline. Online modes include capture the flag and deathmatch, and both are 2v2 team based battles. The offline gauntlet mode is substantially less exciting, with players competing in timed sessions shooting a series of moving targets. I suppose this answers the common complaint of most online-only games in giving iPod touch users something to do when they're not near WiFi, but gauntlet mode doesn't provide much challenge and really only seems useful for grinding scrip, learning the controls, and killing time.

What's this "scrip" stuff? Well, like similar games, Exo-Planet uses an in-game currency system to purchase various upgrades for your character. Everything from tricking out your weapons to increasing your run speed or even making your grappling hook reel in quicker can be purchased with scrip. This seems to be the major division between the free and paid versions of Exo-Planet.

If you shell out some cash for Exo-Planet either for the iPhone or iPad, you get something called "scrip boost" which increases the amount of scrip you earn by playing matches and fighting in gauntlet mode. In the free version, you have the ability to buy scrip in increments ranging from 99¢ all the way up to $19.99.

Playing online is a lot of fun, although in my testing the quality of the games I get matched up with varies wildly. Some are fast paced 2v2 matches with little or no lag filled with players who know what they're doing (capture the flag is particularly fun in these situations) and others are 1v2 lag fests that either end with the timer running out while you return the flag over and over or kill inactive players, or just simply lagging out. There isn't any Eliminate-like energy system, so you don't really lose anything but the time it took to load in to the game when you get a bad match… Which oddly enough has made me much more willing to put up with intermittent connection and lag issues.

Few games match the experience Exo-Planet provides when you find yourself in a game with 4 solid players with good connections. Playing with skilled players amounts to constantly grappling while firing, grappling again to avoid incoming fire, and either trying to stay alive or capturing as many flags as possible which can be a lot of fun. Connection issues are a problem, and it remains to be seen how much post-launch support SGN is going to give Exo-Planet, as you can really only play the same maps and use the same weapons so many times before getting bored. People on our forums are really digging the game, and I really recommend at least giving the free version a spin if nothing else– Especially if you've found yourself even slightly enjoying games like Eliminate in the past.

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Mountain Sheep's Minigore [99¢] has been somewhat of a cult favorite on our forums, with legions of fans still willing to defend the honor of Minigore whenever a new dual stick shooter hits the App Store. The Episode 4 update was announced quite a while ago, with the developers promising a new level, new playable characters, a new weapon, and even co-op over Bluetooth and local WiFi.

Today they released a 30 second gameplay clip of co-op mode, and it's hard to not get excited at the sheer potential of playing Minigore with a friend:

We liked Minigore a lot when it first came out, and since our initial review, an onslaught of updates have been released adding all kinds of new characters and features. There's even a iPad Minigore HD [$4.99] if you're an iPad owner looking to get your 'gore on. Mountain Sheep isn't discussing any release date estimates for episode 4 yet, but if you want to stay on top of all things Minigore, follow the Minigore blog or stop by the thread in our forums.

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Chop Chop Tennis

From developer Gamerizon, who brought us Chop Chop Ninja and Chop Chop Runner, comes the newest entry in the franchise Chop Chop Tennis. A departure from the style of their first two games, Chop Chop Tennis is a casual arcade-style tennis game with 3D graphics. The controls use a swiping mechanic that's similar to what's found in the other Chop Chop games, and actually proves to be quite intuitive. Since this is more of a casual game, control of the character is automatic and you must only worry about timing return shots and choosing what type of shot to use. The swipe gestures work how you would expect them to, with an upwards arc for a topspin shot or a diagonal swipe for a cross shot, for example.

There are 8 different characters in the game, and although they look cute in 3D they don't look as nice as their 2D sprite counterparts from the other games. The 5 different court environments are colorful, and although not very detailed or lively they get the job done. Content-wise you can take partake in one-off singles or doubles matches, choosing amount of games you'll play and difficulty, or you can partake in one of 3 tournaments. The tournaments are the meat of the single player game and pit you against the other 7 characters over three elimination rounds. There's also a practice round featuring a couple different mini-games that are a fun distraction but get old rather quickly. Local multiplayer over WiFi or Bluetooth was recently added in an update and certainly adds more replay value if you have a friend with the game.

The gameplay is surprisingly fun in Chop Chop Tennis, and our only real complaint is the lack of things to do beyond the short tournaments. If playing endless matches against AI doesn't seem like it will get old to you, or you have a friend close by with the game, then there may be a lot to like here. Chop Chop Tennis was the FAAD game for Tuesday, but as of this writing is still showing up free. If you do miss out on this sale, it's still probably worth the asking price if you are a fan of casual sports games.

Shaolin Training

Something of a mixture of platforming, physics puzzle, and zen-like meditation, Shaolin Training is a unique concept. You control a monk who must clear boxes from a platform high in the sky without falling over the edge yourself. Cannons surrounding the platform will bombard you, and if you're not careful they'll knock you right off, but can also strategically be used to your benefit to help you shoot off the boxes. It sounds a little strange, but given a few minutes with the game it's actually quite a novel concept.

You control the monk with a d-pad, with a button for jumping and another button for performing a special move. The special move slows down your actions, and releases a burst of force that knocks away anything near your body. There's a recharge time for this move, and typically you'll be pushing boxes towards the edges with good old fashioned strength. Swiping the screen will adjust the camera position on the fly. Boxes come in a variety of sizes, with larger ones being heavier and harder to push. The cannons will always fire towards the monk, so standing in front of a box that's in the line of fire and then quickly jumping out of the way of the cannonball can actually be used to help you with your endeavor. An onscreen counter tells you how many more boxes are left to shove over the edge, and if you fall off yourself the level starts over. There's 15 levels in the game, and the difficulty ramps up rather quickly. The graphics are nicely rendered in 3D, the physics are solid, and the music is peaceful and relaxing – despite the constant cannon fire.

It's an incredibly simple game, with no such frills as online leaderboards (local only), social network integration, or fancy special moves beyond the one your monk already has. But at the same time that's really what we enjoyed about the title, it's just you against the levels, and it's a real test of your skill. Certainly recommended at it's original 99¢ price, Shaolin Training is a must try while free until June 24th.

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From the same team at ngmoco that brought us the groundbreaking Eliminate Pro, comes their next next first-person shooter. The currently untitled game is set in a present day environment and the action is more heavily grounded in realism than that of its futuristic predecessor. No graphics or artwork has been released yet (embedded image is promotional art for the original Eliminate).

Maps will run the usual gamut of jungle, desert, snow, or city, and it will feature 6 player deathmatch or team deathmatch over 3G and WiFi. Rather than focusing on the player unlocking and choosing different weapons for one character to use in the game, the new game will feature a robust lineup of different weapon class specialists. The 'energized suit' mechanic is also giving way to an interesting – although unproven – system where you queue up what type of mission you want to play, and earn credit based on the level of that mission. It's an intriguing idea, and a welcome change from the energy system in Eliminate, but it remains to be seen how this design choice will fare once unleashed on the masses. One thing I can say for certain, however, is that during my time playing the game, the only thing on my mind was the superb FPS gameplay I was experiencing.

Even in this work-in-progress state, the game is shaping up to be a big step above what Eliminate Pro delivered last year. A staggering 76 different soldiers (read classes) are planned for release, featuring specialists in long range, short range, explosives, and more. Each soldier will have individual statistics and bear arms from an assortment of roughly 20 different weapons. Grenades are now a part of the arsenal and can be lobbed with a simple press of an icon. Auto-firing has been refined, and now features two aiming reticules on screen – a large circle in the middle of the screen with a smaller circle in the center of that. When an enemy is in the sight of the larger circle, you weapon will start firing, although with much less precision. Once you've adjusted your aim to have the inner circle directed on the target, the bullets are much more accurate. The outer circle can vary in size, and therefore accuracy, based on what weapon you're using. It's a good compromise that allows for the ease of auto-fire but still demands you be able to aim precisely for best results. Auto-fire can be turned off entirely if you wish, and firing defaults to the familiar 'double-tap to fire' control found in Eliminate.

As mentioned, the queueing of missions replaces the need for energy. You'll choose from an assortment of gametypes to play, all of which have some sort of wait time associated before becoming active. The missions that take longer to activate will net you the most experience, and if you so desire you can use in-app purchasing to buy 'Intel' that makes the missions initiate more quickly. The system sounded incredibly odd to me at first, but made some sense as it sunk in. If you have somewhere to be for a set amount of hours, like a job or school, then you can just queue up a match or two prior to that and look forward to being rewarded with playtime once you've fulfilled your real life obligations. If waiting around or paying to play isn't your thing, there's the option to jump into matches immediately, although with lesser rewards. Much like Eliminate, it seems there's the possibility of exploiting this if you're willing to pay money and upgrade quicker, although I'll reserve final judgment until I've played the finished product.

When you get fragged in a match, you'll have the option of selecting what class to start your next life as. As you level up in the game, more slots and soldier classes become available for you to choose from. The game requires you to be online to play, even in the single player bot mode, so if you're an iPod touch user with limited access to WiFi there won't be much of interest for you in this game. During our 6 player deathmatch with the developers, the game ran silky smooth and I felt right at home from all my experience playing Eliminate Pro. The two games control nearly identical, and the graphics of the modern settings were definitely impressive. Post game screens include a bevy of statistics, and it's incredibly simple to add recent players to your friend list for future matches. Players will be ranked accordingly, but this will likely remain behind the scenes to avert any predisposed notions before heading into a match with a higher ranked player. Possible mission queueing and ranking issues aside, we'll be anxiously awaiting the release of their next FPS sometime this year.

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Practically coming out of nowhere, Archetype is an upcoming multiplayer-focused first-person shooter from developer Villain. While not available in the US App Store just yet, apparently the game has been released for a while now in certain countries (at least since the beginning of June in the Czech App Store). It boasts some promising features as well – up to 5 on 5 team battles over WiFi or 3G, or even the EDGE network. Yes, you heard that right, ten players total in a match. This trumps other online FPS games in terms of size of matches and amount of players on each team.

Other features of the game include 5 maps, 6 different weapons (all of which can be used to melee), in-game radar for tracking down enemies, friend list functionality, and a robust ranking system where experience is earned and medals can be awarded for certain feats. It all seems very Halo-esque – both in look and execution – which is perfectly fine by us. The control layout is a familiar dual-stick setup, and it appears there's many options for customization in this area.

Some members of our forum have gotten a chance to pick up the game, and so far impressions are fairly good. Member Vinyl Darhma notes that matching up with other players went quickly, and lag during play is minimal. The game shows you the level of ping so you know if you're running on a solid connection, and a veto system is in place to allow users to vote to skip an upcoming map or gametype. While initially the performance of Archetype sounds very positive, that could be due to the limited release as of this writing, and the real test will be how the game runs once released in all territories.

This video demonstrates the game's tutorial:

Regardless it sounds very promising, and with the success of other FPS online multiplayer games like Eliminate, N.O.V.A., Modern Combat, and COD: Zombies, there's obviously a huge demand for a game like Archetype. If Villain really can pull off their lofty goals with success, consider the bar raised for every online FPS going forward. We'll report back once we've had a chance to try out the game for ourselves. Until then, enjoy this gameplay video:

App Store Link: Archetype FPS (very few countries)

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