Mass Effect: Infiltrator

I’ll come right out and say it – though I usually like to beat around the bush a bit in my reviews; bandying about anecdotes regarding game play and design while doling out buzzwords like “playability” and “screenspace” – but Mass Effect: Infiltrator is just so amazingly good I want to give you my two thumbs up before I say anything else. Seriously, this is the best game I have yet to play on my iPhone.

For those of you familiar with the Mass Effect game series you’ll be interested to find you are not playing the role of our old pal Commander Shepard. This time you’re controlling Randall Enzo, a Cerebus operative who discovers that Cerebus isn’t the benevolent operation it was once purported to be. Fighting the agency, it’s cruelly augmented victims and even Turian soldiers tossed in his way Randall struggles to free his friend and advisor, Inali Renata from the evil Cerebus Director’s clutches.

The game is both exciting and fluid jumping you right into the action with controls so simplistic you find yourself making professional looking moves within a few minutes of first playing. Your character moves automatically into safe crouching and defensive positions when up against an object worthy of hiding behind and a simple swipe up or to the side has you executing vaults and rolls like a seasoned battle veteran with ease. As you advance you use credits accumulated through proficient play to improve Randall’s abilities and augmentations. Combat is a slo-mo affair that allows you to take out multiple enemies through coordinated moves in ‘bullet-time’-like sequences while your augmentations can do the attacking for you, tossing enemies about or barraging them with energy bolts.

The game itself is just the right balance of technique and luck to make playing it fun, but not easy. While the graphic design and animations are among the best I’ve seen for a game app. If I had to find something to complain about it would be only that the campaign is almost too short, but a bonus game is provided to make you feel as though you haven’t been ripped off.