Review of Star Wars Trench Run for the iPhone & iPod Touch
I very much wanted to give Star Wars Trench Run for my iPod Touch (or
iPhone) a strong recommendation for a couple of reasons. First, it's
Star Wars and despite George Lucas' attempts to destroy my fond
childhood memories of his creation, they still persist. Second, it was
created by a local company, Infrared5, and I had met one of the
principles of the company at my Boston event. However, I can't truly
recommend this game mostly because its gameplay is too shallow and
repetitive to warrant its $4.99 price (which is moderately high by App
Store standards). To be clear, this isn't a bad game per se, just not
one I'd highly recommend.
Basically, Star Wars Trench Run has two different styles of play which
you can do either in a "mission" mode, where it sort of follows the
story of the final assault on the Death Star from Episode IV, or an
"arcade" mode where you choose either the dogfight or trench aspects of
the game. That appears to be the extent of the gameplay available and
both are pretty similar other than the fact that in the trench portion
you are dodging obstacles.
Navigational controls are motion based which generally work pretty
well, though with the general lack of fine-grain control that motion
controls generally have. You also tap one portion of the screen to
shoot and another to cause the game to slow down momentarily. I don't
recall any sort of time-bending powers in Star Wars and I assume that
aspect was added due to the frustration level you may experience with
the motion controls even with the added ability to refine their
sensitivity.
Graphically, the game is fine. The ships actually look detailed enough
and the backgrounds are straight out of the films. The only place it
seems to be a little lackluster is in the trench where the guns and
obstacles sometimes look grainy or blurry. Still, on the whole, the
game looks good and the addition of some clips straight from the movie
does work fairly well to make it seem as though you are playing through
the end of the film.
Without too much effort so far, I have made it to the part where, in
theory, Darth Vader is targeting your X-Wing while you navigate the
trench. Part of my overall frustration with the trench level in general
is that the 3-dimensional aspect seems off enough that you'll often
crash into obstacles it looked as though you'd easily clear and clear
ones it looked as if you'd definitely hit. You absolutely need the
time-bending/slow-motion abilities here. The dogfight portion is just
as it sounds and you'll just spend your time spinning around trying to
aim at various TIE Fighters which isn't terribly difficult though more
annoying than it needs to be due to the motion controls.
Overall, as I mentioned, this isn't a bad game necessarily, it just
isn't great and has limited replayability due to its shallow and
repetitive nature. A year ago, that was acceptable and expected for
most iPod/iPhone games, but nowadays, with games like Civilization
Revolution or even classics like Doom, that just isn't really
acceptable anymore beyond free or $0.99 games. If you are a big Star
Wars fan (yes, I mean you Ray), then you'll probably want it anyway and
I am sure it'll sell well enough. Nonetheless, I am hoping that in the
future they can put the Star Wars brand and talents of Infrared5 to use
on a richer and deeper game.
Our goal was to target the group of people that use the phone like 90%+ of the iPhone users - for quick, good gaming. Brothers in Arms failed because nobody has that much time to invest on their phone. Not to mention that there was way too much to control in that game.
Hence why Trench Run has very simple controls, and one basic philosophy - Have fun being Luke Skywalker in an X-Wing for your 15 minute bathroom break, bus ride, train ride, dentist visit, dr visit, obgyn visit, in-laws visit - you name it ;)
Anyway, your point about the price is well taken considering the goal of the game. However, there ARE hidden treasures to be discovered, and don't under estimate the power of the leaderboard force and arcade play - we've been at it for months trying to come back in the next day with bragging rights, and we STILL love playing it!
If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll love all the attention to detail we put into the game - from the music, to the VO's, to the markings on the xwing, to the textures in the trench
1) Price Point - Yes. Could be a little lower for what you get. As you pointed out, it's a fairly basic game. I could see knocking a dollar off.
2) The "depth" - I agree with John. I bought Madden when it came out, but never play it. Why? Don't have a half hour at a stretch to play a game of football on my iphone. The games that tend to get the most play from me are blackjack, yahtzee... the short games that I can play while on the train or in the waiting room.
3) The time-bending powers - Madden has this as well. At first I didn't use it, as football players don't really have time-bending powers any more than the rebels did (well, Peyton Manning might). But eventually I relented and tried it, and I was finally able to run for more than a yard. On a smaller screen where the action's moving a little too fast, I think it does help. Either way, just pointing out that it's not unique to this game. Don't know if many other games employ that tho.
Overall, I'm sure I'll play it a few times. It's fun. Although it is kind of tough on a 3G. In the comments on a review at TUAW.com (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/17/star-wars-trench-run-for-the-5-jedi-in-all-of-us/), one of the developers noted that turning off audio might help (which I've done, and it seems like it has). He also mentioned they're looking for ways to improve performance on older devices. Hope they do, as it'll motivate me more to play it if I don't have to worry about it locking up the phone :)