Written by dgoldring on Monday, December 20, 2010

First Look: Artillery Brigade

OK, SOLDIER! LISTEN UP! YOUR UNIT HAS BEEN DECIMATED. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, AND YOUR POSITION HAS BEEN COMPRIMISED…BEHIND ENEMY LINES. TIME TO BUCKLE DOWN AND GET READY TO START SHOOTING. YOU HAVE A GUN AT YOUR DISPOSAL, HOPE THAT IS ENOUGH TO PROTECT YOU FROM THE ONSLAUGHT…GOOD LUCK!

In Artillery Brigade, you are the sole remaining survivor in your camp, and you are surrounded by enemies. At first they will come on foot, but soon they will come at you using any means at their disposal…jeeps, tanks, troop transports, and even planes. Survive the early rounds, and you will be assigned to defend more difficult positions against larger and more deadly attacks. There are a total of 16 different missions in the campaign mode, including the tutorial, which did a fantastic job of teaching you about the the enemies in the game, your weapons, and the controls.

To defend your position, you will have an assortment of guns, falling into three categories: machine guns, antiaircraft cannons, and rockets. Within each category, you can also advance to bigger and better guns. You will be awarded these guns as you progress through the game, or you can jump start the process by purchasing them with in-app purchases. I am not a real fan of using real money to purchase in-game advancement. But that is just me.

OK, so let’s take a look at how the game actually works. In the past, these survival games used to involve a lot of running around. I really enjoyed that because the ability to move and escape the onslaught (or at least try) added an extra element to the game. This latest generation of the genre, however, has changed that. Now, you are in a fixed position. Sure, you can swivel your view in order to defend a complete 360 degrees. This works well enough, but I still prefer the ability to run and evade the onslaught. Speaking of that onslaught, unlike many games in this genre, there is no indication of how far along you are in a particular level. It would be nice if they would add some kind of indicator on the screen showing how many more enemies you need to kill in order to complete the level.

Your view in the game is looking over the barrel of your gun. A radar in the upper right corner will show you the oncoming enemies. Just swipe your finger across the screen in order to aim at the oncoming enemies (the blue line under your funs will show how far the enemies have advanced toward your position). Tap the big gray button on the left to start firing. To quickly aim at the nearest enemy, tap the red button on the bottom of the screen to swivel your gun and instantly aim it at the advancing enemies. Next to that is the zoom. Slide the zoom in order to adjust your sights to a greater or lesser magnification. This allows you to fire on enemies who may still be further away, before they can hit you. If you are in a level with multiple weapons, those buttons on the left hand side will allow you to switch between them.

This game also connects with both Game Center and the Aurora Feint community, meaning there are plenty on achievements to attempt and online high scores.

I was really impressed by this game. It had fantastic graphics and animation, and served as a unique addition to the survival genre. The difficulty level of the game started on the easy end, but quickly increased as more powerful and skilled enemies were introduced. I found this progress to be appropriate as the game maintained a challenge without becoming frustrating. Simply put, using your guns to blow away some fairly realistic looking oncoming enemies, is just a perfect way to blow off some pent up hostility. I have been a pretty big fan of Bulkypix games, but I have not seen them offer anything like this before. You will waste countless hours decimating wave after wave of enemies with this one.