While it seems recycled, (Combat system from Splinter Cell, Jumping from Avatar / Hero Of Sparta 2 / Prince of Persia, AI from Most of their previous shooters) Shadow Guardian takes the best parts of certain games (except multiplayer!) to make a really good game. Obviously copied Uncharted 2 and for some reason the base story line reminds me of Black Ops, where you are tied down and tortured to help remember memories in strange orders. I’m surprisingly impressed however because of these recycled and unoriginal components I feel they spent hardly any time into the development of this which disappoints me and makes future content updates even less likely than usual for Gameloft.
Graphics – 8/10
Graphics are great, large detailed environments and nice character models, probably the best from Gameloft. My only complaints are the textures of large environments especially rock walls are low quality and the damn characters mouths can’t move while they speak, even in the cut scenes, something done by BC2.Gameplay – 8/10
Gameplay is good however the balance between shooting and platforming isn’t particularly good with 5mins jumping followed by 5mins shooting, instead of a blend (something Uncharted did brilliantly). The campaign is reasonably long and challenging however being unable to die while jumping / climbing and getting constant hints of what to do next that take the fun and problem solving out of the game are annoying. The addition of multiplayer would have been brilliant for this game and that is a disappointment as well. Overall this is the best single-player in a Gameloft game tied with splinter cell for me, and at least the best action adventure game on the App Store.Sound – 4/5
The sound effects and music in this game are reasonably high and stays at the standard of Gameloft games however small things like the dialogue not matching the words on the screen and the main character’s attempts to make witty remarks after EVERYTHING he does is frustrating.Controls – 8/10
I won’t look into controls much as they are fairly standard for all Gameloft games but I would say they are decent however some of the ‘multi action’ buttons will perform the wrong action at the wrong time.Overall – 28/35 ****
Not the best game on the AppStore (cough…Aralon…cough) however this is far from the worst and for Uncharted fans and action adventure fans this is a must have.
kiranb28 compares Shadow Guardian to similar games, and adds some comments:
I finished Uncharted 2 just last month (yeah, i was a bit late) but it quickly turned into my favorite game of all time. As I fired up Shadow Guardian and played the first few levels, I could also note the obvious similarities between this and Black Ops (the SP plot, torture, memory flashbacks, etc).
That aside, how does it play? Bloody fantastic, in my opinion, for an iDevice game!! There’s virtually no skill involved as far as aiming is concerned on the basic/normal difficulty level; it’s as simply as getting yourself in position (cover), tapping the (auto)aim icon, and shooting. Bam bam bam, 5 enemies down.
The graphics, environments and overall feel of the game makes this one of the top single-player experiences on my iPhone already, after only playing 3 levels. It’s amazing to feel as if I have a miniature version of Uncharted on my iPhone; two thumbs up.
Seeing how amazing Uncharted 2′s online play is on the PS3, I could only wish Gameloft put in a multiplayer mode in this as well. Oh well… c’est la vie.