Today I got hands-on with one of the most eagerly awaited iPhone sequels, N.O.V.A. 2 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance.
[Originally posted November 23 - Updated below] Kicking off with an epic pre-rendered cutscene, our hero Kal leaps from an orbiting ship and space-dives down to the planet below, only to land on a beach slap-bang in front of the enemy’s key war factories.
After a quick controls tutorial disguised as a health check (where have we seen that before), the game wastes no time in hurling you into the action against all manner of foes. Most of these I outlined in a post last week revealing the background story and characters you’ll face. These included the Red Fury Troopers which are as nimble on their feet as they are in the air thanks to their Boba Fett style jet packs, and the Volerite Psycher brutes, which are no push over either. Not only do they take a fair amount of bashing before taking them down, but they can activate their clocking device and disappear from view, and hurl rocks and objects at you with their telekinesis powers for good measure.
Thankfully, my time with the first game and other Gameloft FPS’s ensured that the controls work instinctively. This I was happy about, as if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Gyro controls are also available for the hardcore which, if you didn’t try it out in the update to the first game, it’s certainly worth trying, especially on a swivel chair. New to NOVA 2 is a new melee power. In the first game you had a stun power that temporarily froze your opponents, this is here again but this time joined by disc punch.
Set-piece after set-piece after set-piece later and I’ve already had encounters with giant robots, elite soldiers, big ass aliens, and man eating plants… and that’s only in the first 25 minutes. Unlike the first games’ opening level which was claustrophobic by comparison, this first level was huge. It starts on a beach, then quickly moves into a large warehouse area where i squared off with a couple of ED-209 style bipedal robots. Next up is a large bridge like structure comprising of duck-and-cover spots, open areas and gun emplacements, and then changing again as you enter a lush jungle, only to change once more as you are taken down a fast flowing river, over a waterfall and down into the enemy base. The variation of environment within the same level with no loading times was impressive. Running on an iPHone 4 this was all moving at a very smooth frame-rate in HD. Graphically its a step up from the first game, and not just from a high resolution perspective. The geometry of levels, vehicles and most importantly the enemies is much improved, not quite to the detail of the concept art on show last week, but far more detailed than the enemies from the first game.
Parallels with HALO are crazy at this point, it’s obvious Gameloft are not ashamed of copying one of the biggest game franchises of all time, it was apparent in the first NOVA and it’s even more so in NOVA 2. This game though seems far more skewed towards action, with no examples of mini game puzzles and exploration from the first game’s opening level.
A problem with many FPS’s from Gameloft in the past have been the AI routines of enemies. The first NOVA was actually one of the best in this regard, but here the enemies exhibited even better AI. Leaping away from your gun aim, running off to find cover and even finding weapons to help take you out were on show here, and resulted in a deeper and more satisfying challenge.
Weapons are always the be all and end all of FPS’s and NOVA 2 comes packing with more than a dozen weapons including hand guns, the assault rifle, shotgun, automatic shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, alien plasma gun, alien lightning gun, alien rail gun, turrets, frag grenades, and mines… Pheww! I had hands-on with a few of these, and by far my favourite was the rocket launcher. It packed a serious punch against the larger foes, and included a cool lock-on feature.
Not available for play was the multiplayer offering, and Gameloft seem to be going bigger with it this time round. No doubt utilising the same perk-based structure of the excellent Modern Combat 2 multiplayer, NOVA 2 includes 10 player action (5 on 5) and five modes; Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, Capture the flag, freeze tag and a mode called instagib.
Based on playing that one level, NOVA 2 looks set to deliver a bigger and better experience across the board, and fans of the original are unlikely to be disappointed. It’s not going to blow you away with originality, but when the action is this much fun do we really care? The game is set to release in December, in time for the holiday season. And as always be sure to stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks and of course our full review.
UPDATE 1. Monday 6th December: During my hands-on with a number of upcoming titles, including Shadow Guardian, Eternal Legacy and Starfront Collision I once more got behind the controls of NOVA 2. This time I was able to play the podrace-esque level I mentioned in last weeks Gameloft Media Event. Utilising the accelerometer, you control a jet bike style craft as you must speed through a dessert canyon to head off a convoy, all the while avoiding chasms, and air a ground enemy attacks with your front mounted laser. It’s good to see some change of pace in the game, as with my first hands-on with the game I didn’t experience any vehiclular combat or puzzle sections. I also played through some later levels and can report that the computer terminal hacking mini-games are back, though this time with a slight difference. It’s the same neon like presentation, but this time you must navigate a moving ball of light to the goal instead of a beam, by bouncing it in real-time off of movable panels. Much like the first level I played, the game seemed more challenging and each level deeper and longer than before. It’s shaping up to blow its predecessor out of the park this holiday season.
Update 2. Wednesday 15th December: With the game now available on the New Zealand AppStore, here is the video we took of the game in action durong our hands-on.
