Mass Effect 3′s release is just around the corner and already has us excited like a fat girl in Thornton’s. To stave off our urge to watch/read/digest every single spoiler filled post online we picked up Mass Effect Infiltrator for iOS devices.

Mass Effect Infiltrator is a pretty basic cover based shooter. If you are expecting a full-blown console experience then you are not going to get it. The story follows rouge Cerberus agent, Randall Ezno, as he battles against Cerberus after some of their experiments go too far. The story is good for an iOS game, but not quite up to scratch. What is really disappointing is the good/bad decisions you can make. These boil down to shooting a worker or letting them live. It felt like a weak concept in the game, thrown in just because the console versions do it.

The combat is where Mass Effect Infiltrator excels. You run into objects to use them as cover. You can move about easily enough by swiping to get to other pieced of cover. Tap enemies highlighted in blue and you will pop out of cover and fire off some rounds into them. The game focuses your shots in the right area and automatically shoots but it is up to you to aim for a highlighted weak spot. You even have a set of upgradable biotic powers and melee attacks to play with.

Things are not perfect with the controls. At times I felt frustrated that I could not aim and shoot manually. If you get caught out in the open it can be hard to defend yourself against others. Getting into cover can sometimes be off, with Randall needing to be looking directly at the cover for him to get behind it. The control system of Infiltrator generally works but it takes a little while to get used to.

The game does a good job of mixing up the enemies. When things feel like they are about to get stale, Infiltrator throws a boss battle or new enemy at you. I really liked the boss battles in the game as they force you to switch-up your play style.

As I said earlier, Randall’s combat skills can be upgraded and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of stuff you can add. New powers, moves and upgrades are purchased using coins found throughout the game and those awarded for how you play the game. The better you play, the better your rating after each level, the more coins you get.

 

Intel (small pick ups) and coins can also be used for “Galactic Readiness” which effects how far Commander Shepherd’s influence reaches. So if you’re heavily invested in the Mass Effect world there is a reason to play this game.

One thing that I couldn’t finish this review without writing about is the games looks. If Mass Effect Infiltrator was a woman it would be cross between Jessica Alba and Megan Fox with a dash of Hayden Panettiere. Although some of the assets have clearly just been tweaked from the mobile version of Dead Space, the whole thing looked brilliant on my iPhone 4.

Overall I was quite impressed with Mass Effect Infiltrator. Whether you click with control system will have a big impact on how much you like the mobile game. The asking price of £4.99 isn’t cheap either. Whether you buy this app really balances on how much you love Mass Effect. For the price this isn’t a day-one purchase unless you are a  fan of BioWare’s trilogy, if you are it’s definitely worth checking out.

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