During my visit to gameloft today, I got a chance to play Shadow Guardian, Gameloft’s iOS answer to Uncharted and Tomb Raider…
I was able to play through a few of the levels today, and just like it was announced at the Gameloft Media Event last week, each level has not only its own look and feel based on real places, but a different style of gameplay too… mixing it up between Splinter Cell style action and Prince of Persia-esque platforming.
As you’ll see in the video below, the game sees you captured by an evil scientist hell bent on extracting a particular piece of knowledge from you. Of course, you don’t know yet what that piece of knowledge is, and so the game unfolds with each level as a flash-back of your memory. It’s an interesting and more original way of telling the story.
The opening jungle level takes you through the gameplay mechanics, allowing you to get to grips with the action and platforming controls. The virtual sticks and context sensitive buttons are easy enough to get to grips with, especially if you’ve played a Gameloft title before.
The next level I played, Alexandra, was pretty much all action. With you fighting through the city streets with enemy troops wielding all manner of firearms, ending in a showdown with a helicopter gunship. Fighting can be both run and gun, duck and cover, or allow for up close melee combat. For best results I’d stick to taking cover and shooting down iron sights, as trying to run at a heavy gunner will only end in tears!
Luxor, the next level, by contrast was all about the platforming, with no fighting to be seen at all. Here you’ll find yourself taking your time as you flex your platforming skill to get our hero Jason from one part of the temple to the other, all via ledges, poles, and chains.
On the iPhone 4, it is apparent that the development team have really pushed the device to its limits, with high resolution texture work, good draw distances, high geometry and lighting effects. The music, sound effects and voice work sounds better than previous efforts, though I did notice that the character models don’t mouth the words at all. Much like Gangstar 2 before it.
As mentioned in my event report last week, the game will run to around 4-5 hours, but will require a few play throughs to unlock everything. With its mix of gameplay, Gameloft may have crafted an action game for all types of gamers out there. We’ll have more in this game closer to its release as well as a detailed review.
In the meantime check out the video footage below.
