Major Mayhem [Adult Swim + Rocket Jump] - FREE

Adult Swim has published some fantastic games over the last year. Monsters Ate My Condo, Bring Me Sandwiches!!, Snoticles, and more. But recently, a little title that really just seemed to really slide by a lot of gamers, Rocket Jump’s Major Mayhem got a huge, and I mean HUGE update. 3 new gameplay modes, a crazy amount of weapons and equip items and one of the most requested features, GameCenter achievements (100 of them!) have all been added to the game. Major Mayhem has also gone free, following the freemium trends with the hopes of recouping some of the costs of development. Not to worry though, as this has got to be one of the best paid to freemium conversions to ever happen within the AppStore.

Back in November of 2011, Rocket Jump released Major Mayhem. Being published by Adult Swim, and having a bunch of advertising done on late-night TV, and across the net, it was pretty surprising that the game didn’t really sell too well. Maybe it was because gamers were hoping for some more strange and goofy games after Monsters Ate My Condo and Bring Me Sandwiches!, maybe they were let down by Shadowngun and EPOCH, and didn’t really want to take another chance on the cover-based shooter, but whatever it was, Rocket Jump dove back into the game to try and make it stand out in the AppStore, and recoup some of their losses at the same time. 

One week ago, the Version 2.0 update went live, and I, along with others, were thoroughly impressed with the new game. 3 new gameplay modes, TimeBomb, which has you trying to get the best score you can in 60 seconds, Arcade, which has you go through the levels in random order trying to get the best score you can, without getting any health drops throughout the game, and Survival Mode, which has you trying to survive a whole world without any continues. Not only were new modes added, but a whole gang of power-ups, weapons, and cosmetic equip items were thrown into the mix as well. 

On top of all of this, the game was converted to a freemium title, with the hopes that more players would pick it up for free, see how much content the game has, and how incredibly fun it is, and want to support Rocket Jump by purchasing the game’s new currency. Those who still had the game on their device when the update hit also got 20,000 coins, which would have cost them about $1.99 with the new IAPs, as a little thank you. However, not many people did still have the game on their device, but luckily, the IAPs are very unobtrusive, and are not required to unlock or purchase anything new in the game. You’re able to unlock every game mode, and purchase every new weapon and cosmetic item just by playing and progressing through the game. 

Back when the game was originally released, a lot of players were upset that there weren’t any GameCenter achievements. These have also been added to the game, and not just a couple, a whole mass of achievements and objectives were included. Now, you can try and unlock the 100 GameCenter achievements, as well as try and grab all 150 and the game’s objectives. Set up like Jetpack Joyride’s objectives, every time you earn 3 or 4 of them, you gain a new rank. You’re also awarded with a random prize for every rank you reach, as well as 50 coins for each objective you complete. With the GameCenter achievements, you’re given even more coins, depending on how many GC points the achievement is worth. 

Major Mayhem’s move to freemium is easily the best I’ve seen happen with any game in the AppStore. It’s obvious that an incredible amount of time, effort, and work has gone into making Major Mayhem one of the best cover-based shooters available on the iOS, and it’s incredibly surprising that all of this was done for free, with the hopes that people would purchase IAPs. If you haven’t checked it out yet, now would be the perfect time. Rocket Jump has definitely proven that they are in it for the long-haul, and know exactly what it takes to go above and beyond to create an outstanding video game. 

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Bio Crisis [Sphinx Entertainment] - $2.99

Sphinx Entertainment has released some awesome games in the past; Carrot War, VR Mission, Mole Dash, League of Extraordinary Birds, and more. Their newest title, however, is easily their best yet. Bio Crisis, a title that’s won numerous Indie Game Design Awards, has been polished up and released for the iOS, and takes it’s place next to the small, but growing list, of cover based shooters. 

Bio Crisis throws you into the roll of Night Hawk, a marine who’s guided by Claire, the operator of the Missions, who is pretty much your tutorial master. It’s 2035, and Earth’s resources are depleted. Thankfully, a meteor that wound up landing somewhere near the jungle that use to be the South Pole has been found. It’s said to contain a mysterious crystal which could be a source of great power. Your mission is to find Bull Dog, another operative who hasn’t been able to be reached since finding Crystal Samples. 

Like other cover-based shooters, you’re outfitted with various weapons, and will need to fight your way through loads of enemies in order to complete your objective. But with Bio Crisis being a top-down type shooter, it allows for some great strategic additions. This is amplified by the great level design, and positioning of barriers which you’re able to take cover behind.
All of this would be pretty much meaningless if it weren’t for the great control system. You’re given a virtual joystick, roll, fire and reload buttons. Once you get close to a barrier, Night Hawk automatically takes cover behind it, blocking all of the projectiles coming your way, and in order to make it through the game without running out of ammo, you’ll need to figure out what weapon best serves the situation. You’re outfitted with an auto riffle, shotgun, missile launcher, grenades, and a laser gun, and switching between all of them throughout each level is basically mandatory. Your shotgun is great for taking out enemies close-by, while your riffle is better for enemies further away. If you’ve got enemies back to back, the laser is able to shoot through them, hitting all of them at once, and the missile launcher and grenades take care of bigger enemies or groups of enemies. You’re also equipped with a knife, which you’ll be able to use when you’re close to an enemy. You automatically use it by pressing the ‘fire’ button, no matter what weapon is equipped. 

There are 24 Missions, and every 6th Mission you’ll come across a boss battle. Here, you’ll need to figure out how to use the environment and your heavy weapons to best serve you. The first boss battle is fairly easy, requiring you to roll out of the way when the boss comes charging at you, and then shoot missiles and throw grenades at him once he hit’s the wall and is dazed. However, the second boss has some great armor, and in order to take him out you’ll need to figure out where to stand in order to make him damage himself. 

There are goals which you’ll need to complete in order to unlock the other gameplay modes; Brutal, Insane and Hell. To unlock Brutal Mode, you need to kill 100 enemies with grenades, for Insane, you need to kill 999 enemies, and for Hell Mode, you’ll need to kill 500 enemies with your knife. 

There is a shop, with IAPs included in the game. In the shop, you can upgrade your weapons, as well as purchase ammo if you happen to run out. The IAP is for coins. You also earn these coins by playing through the game. With each enemy you kill, you’re given coins, and are given lump sums after completing boss stages. While progressing through the game, you’ll also come across ammo containers which help out with the ammo. You will run out of ammunition if you blast away emptying clip after clip into an enemy after their dead, or just decide to only use one gun the entire time you’re playing. But the game is centered around strategically figuring out what weapon best suit’s the situation, and carefully planning out your attacks. It isn’t a blast everything to smithereens while not keeping an eye on your ammo type of game. Your health is also pretty limited, but does regenerate. 

You can automatically refill your health for 300 coins if you don’t want to wait, but again, you will be dying and loosing a lot of health if you just decide to run into a group of enemies and start blasting away. Players that don’t use some strategy and don’t use each weapon as it’s meant to be used will probably wind up feeling like they’re being pushed towards buying coins through the in-app-purchases. However, you can also go back and replay missions that you’ve already beat if you wound up loosing all of your ammo by being careless. You’ll earn the same amount of coins as you did the first time you played through the level, so this can help out a lot. 

With Bio Crisis priced at $2.99, and being Universal, it’s a great buy for gamers looking for another cover-based shooter, or a shooter that requires thought rather than mindless killing. Sphinx Entertainment has definitely raised their own bar, as well as created a fantastic cover-based shooter that can hold it’s own within the genre. The game could use GameCenter support, with achievements, and possibly leader boards, but with the amount of content, there’s already quite a bit that’ll keep you coming back to the game, even after you beat the Campaign Mode. Bio Crisis is highly recommended for fans of the genre, especially if you’re sick of the mindless shooters found throughout the AppStore. 

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EPOCH. - 5.99 (Uppercut Games)

The Unreal Engine is really starting to pick up ground with developers as more and more games being created within it are being released. The latest development group to take advantage of this amazing engine is Uppercut Games, who has just released their first iOS title, EPOCH.. Now, generally, saying that a game is a development company’s first on the iOS brings with it some skepticism, but in the case of Uppercut Games, that weariness really drips away when you find out that it’s 3 guys who have worked on games like Fallout: Tactics, Freedom Force, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and XCOM.

So, with the recent release of Shadowgun, a lot of Gears Of War fans came out of the woodwork, and, before Shadowgun was released, there were quite a bit of people that were saying a cover-based shooter would be nice to see on the iOS, but until that first real title that focused on utilizing cover within gameplay came out, people really didn’t know how big of following there would be for a game like that on the iDevice. Since the release of Shadowgun, and the insane amount of players that stepped forward to throw their two cents in, it’s pretty clear that iOS gamers will have more and more cover-based shooters tossed their way in the years to come. But I’ve kind of gone off topic, as it’s clear that while playing EPOCH., you can tell that it wasn’t just thrown together since the release of Shadowgun to take advantage of the amount of cover-based fans.

EPOCH. takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where an on-going battle between robots is taking place. You’ll need to fight your way to a building while searching for a woman, picking up bits and pieces of information along the way by picking up transmissions, from before the world was destroyed, after each battle.

To control your robot you’ll use swipes and taps on the screen to jump, flip, and go in and out of cover while taking on waves of robots. To destroy the robots, you’ll need to tap on which one you want to focus your fire on, and then dodge the incoming fire by jumping and rolling between the 3 places of cover you have to choose from. There are 4 different robots, each with a variation of it, that fires different projectiles, or has a different firing pattern, really giving you 8 different enemies that are mixed and matched, creating quite a bit of variety with what you’ll encounter along your journey.

The difficulty goes up at a very good pace, giving you a chance to learn the game, and get to know how enemies work. You’ll start off only being able to play on Easy, and then unlocking Medium after you beat the game for the first time, then Hard after beating it the second time. All of your equipment that you pick up and purchase with credits earn after each level are carried over with each playthrough, giving it a strong Infinity Blade feel. You’re also given experience, with the game increasing your attack and defense as you level up.

Now I know it may sound boring, tapping on enemies to auto-fire at them, and swiping to take cover, but Uppercut Games has done an amazing job taking this sort of gameplay mechanic, and making it extremely fun, and incredibly challenging in the mid to later difficulty levels. Mixing up the enemies will have you franticly swiping and changing which enemy you’re focusing on constantly, and after you get through a level of heavily armed bad-ass robots, you feel like you’ve actually accomplished something. Throwing the perfect mix of agility into the cover-based shooter genre, and how it’s all pulled off was an amazing design decision. Needless to say, the graphics are incredible. Utilizing the full potential of the Unreal Engine, EPOCH. really brings the post-apocalyptic environment to life, giving gamers an all around immersive game; not only with the story, but with the gameplay, sounds, action, and graphics.

The main game is only about an hour long, but like Infinity Blade, and Dark Meadow, you’ll keep playing over and over again, gaining more experience, equipment, and bits of the story as you progress. Uppercut has nailed the exciting, entertaining gameplay that gives EPOCH. an incredible amount of replay value, and has definitely earned it’s $5.99 price tag. It has been named as the iTunes game of the week, and for very good reason. The future of iOS gaming is looking brighter and better with releases like this, and gives players loads of hope that the AppStore will not turn into just a freemium, “let’s do whatever we can to get as much money out of these gamers as we can” type of store.

EPOCH. gets a score of 5 out of 5.

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