Shadowgun

Shadowgun Review

by on October 13, 2011

Now the mobile veteran is calling on a past life spent making more complex, console-based adventures (‘Mafia 2′) and tactical shooters (‘Hidden & Dangerous 2′) for its latest effort, and you’ll notice something familiar about the thick-necked protagonist and his shoot-from-cover ways…

As timing goes, releasing ‘Shadowgun’ on iOS and Android just as Epic Games’ third ‘Gears of War’ hits shelves is genius. It quite clearly takes ‘inspiration’ from Cliff Bleszinski’s beast – there’s even a spider-shaped enemy that scuttles towards you and blows up on impact – but mobile game-makers have long been using the whiff of imitation (‘Modern Combat’ anyone?) to fuel their fancies, and in doing so Madfinger has made the most effective shooter on tablets to date.

We may have been on board initially just because the name sounds a bit like SNES classic Shadowrun, but we’re suckers for big guns, infiltrating mountain fortresses of bad ’uns called Edgar and anything that wills slate shooters off rails.

With graphics powered by the Unity 3D engine that are even more impressive than Dead Space, surprisingly intuitive touch controls and a tactical auto-cover system that makes run-and-gun a no-no, mobile shooters have definitely come of age.

But with this sat in our ‘Games’ folder, next to ‘Infinity Blade’ and ‘Epic Citadel’, surely a proper ‘Gears’ mobile incarnation isn’t too far away?

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