N.O.V.A. 2 Review

Review of N.O.V.A. 2 for the Blackberry Playbook

Gameloft recently unleashed some brilliant games into the Blackberry App World for the Playbook and N.O.V.A. is a definite gem. N.O.V.A. 2 is a futuristic First Person Shooter for the Blackberry Playbook.

The storyline is similar to that of its predecessor, following the same protagonist, Captain Kal Wardin, in to the fight to protect the human race from the Voltarites, an alien race who allied themselves with a small number of human politicians. The Human-Voltarite Alliance aims to destroy all species that oppose them. It's a simple Storyline and not one that you ever feel rather connected to, but the stunning graphics and gameplay make up for it.

 Okay, let's begin with the opening menu as always. Before the menu shows up, there is a slow-motion action sequence with dramatic music, shooting and your character flying through the air and in general a very cheesy action moment. Once this has played you are taken to the home screen menu which for me is one of the nicest I think I've experienced on the Blackberry Playbook. I know it may be weird to comment on the menu being nice, but when you see this, it does look very tasty indeed. The menu is like a 3D hologram and when you hit an option, the corresponding selection seems to slide on as if on a turn-wheel; it's all very flashy and nice. Anyway, enough oggling of the nice animations in the menu; you have 4 options to choose from when you first open the game (and 5 when you have already played some of the storyline, it shows up with a "Continue" option.) These four options are: New Game, Multiplayer, Levels and Options.

When you begin a New Game you are given a short cut scene to just bring you up to scraps on where you are, what is happening and the likes. After this cut-scene, you are thrown straight into battle after a very short tutorial. I actually failed the tutorial because I didn't recognise the arrow marker just below your life bar at the top and so I was killed by a big machine! Anyway after this there are some pretty epic battles to play during the story-line. There'll be times when you're in a high-speed truck race shooting at other enemies which are in trucks also. One quick thing I did notice was that the car used with the turret on the back does look an awful lot like the "Warthogs" from the Halo series, but i'm sure it's just a coincidence that they are both first person futuristic shooters with the same vehicle... Anyway, I digress, there will also be the opportunities to use big robot suits during the story-line to walk around firing rockets and bullets into other big and little enemies. This may all sound very  exciting and it is! The scenarios are enhances by the fluid motions and brilliant graphics that N.O.V.A. 2 has to offer. In the main story-line to do pick up money which is in the form of glowing beams from the ground and with this money you can choose certain upgrades for your suit such as enhanced accuracy or more powerful rifle shots, that type of thing. I didn't personally feel that these made any major difference when in actual gameplay, but maybe that's because I was more focused on shooting enemies than seeing how accurate my shots were. However, at the end of each mission you do get a mission report showing you the statistics of your last mission such as accuracy and how many head-shots you got and things like this. All-in-all the story-line feels less like a story-line and more like a bunch of missions stacked together with a few action cut-scenes every now and then. However, it is fairly long so you can get a few good hours of enjoyment out of it.

You do have a multiplayer on this game that works okay, however one of the big draws to the storyline mode is that your crosshair has auto-aim so you can fire quickly; online you don't get this feature and as a result it is incredibly hard to shoot and kill anybody especially with some of the smaller weapons. The multiplayer is a little bit of a let down in this factor, however if you're bored of the storyline, it is a mode to play to rack up a few more hours of gameplay as you can level up and can change your suit also.

The gameplay in N.O.V.A. 2 is surprisingly very good considering the screen size and that it is a first person shooter. The way it works is that you have a virtual control stick on the left with which you move around and then you drag the screen around to change your direction and point of view. The game features auto-aim which is possibly the only way to make a first person shooter enjoyable on a tablet, this feature helps a lot, but if you don't want it, you can turn it down in the settings. Anyway, you have a shoot button in the bottom left along with a jump button and a button for your powers which i'll talk about in a moment. In the top right you have your guns which you can cycle through by swiping through them and you reload by tapping on the icon of the gun. Also, just below that you have grenades which you can throw. Your two powers that you possess are the ability to paralyse things, you can stop things from shooting and mechanical doors from sliding out and squishing you. I am not too sure as to what the other power does as i've not once used it.. Throughout the storyline there are different opponents to face as, I've brushed over the bigger robots, I don't believe you ever actually find any of their names. But here is the list of different types of enemies: the small ones that have assault rifles, the small ones that have shotguns, the one small that have rocket launcher, the bigger invisible ones that can use powers to fire objects at you, the big dog robots, the taller machine robots that shoot bullets and fire and the largest robots that blast you with thousands of bullets. Apart from the smaller robots (unless there's loads) you generally have to be quite tactical with the larger orbots, hiding round corners and firing larger weapons at them. Whilst we are on the subject of weapons, you have: a pistol, a shotgun, an assault rifle, a plasma rifle, a rocket launcher, an automatic shotgun and there are dotted turrets that you can use during the levels. There's definitely enough features here to keep you entertained!

The graphics and presentation on N.O.V.A. 2 are truly sublime! You see blood fly off the enemies and sparks fly when you graze your car against a surface. What is most impressive is when you're against a larger enemy and there are firing rockets destroying exploding barrels and you're firing rockets at them which end up missing and firing into the wall. You can really get the sense of being right in the battle with this game! The presentation of the game in general is really nice too, as I mentioned at the start, the menus flow really nicely. What I also liked was that at the end of a mission, it doesn't just say "Mission End" or something, the gameplay physically slows and it goes grey and then the statistics menu comes up. It's all just put together very nicely and I never found any problems with lag or having to double click.

N.O.V.A. 2 is a supremely fun game for the Playbook with intense graphics and easy-to-use gameplay, it is a dream to just pick up and complete a level or two when on the bus or at home just chilling. You'll find yourself not being able to put the game down easily once you pick it up as you just want to see what else the game has to offer with new weapons getting unlocked as you progress and obviously the upgrades you can purchase for your suit also bring a feeling of progression to the game.

Presentation - 9.4

Graphics - 9.3

Gameplay - 9.6

Sound - 8.5

Lasting Appeal - 8.3

OVERALL - 9.0