The biggest new mobile game of the month is Resident Evil: Survival Unit but there’s a lot of other interesting new smartphone apps for you to try.
After the traditionally frenzied mainstream release schedules of October and November, things are settling back down for Christmas and the New Year, when nobody buys anything until the January sales. As is also traditional, the world of mobile gaming continues unabated.
This month’s new games include Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor’s compelling genre fusion, Timelie’s time-bending puzzles, and the appalling yet strangely inevitable disappointment of Resident Evil: Survival Unit.
In other words, it’s the usual mixed bag of the derivative, the grossly manipulative, and the unexpectedly brilliant.
Besiege
iOS & Android, free – full game £6.99 (Playdigious)
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Originally released on Steam in 2015, Besiege is a whacky medieval siege simulator that presents you with a series of puzzles in the form of armies and fortifications to dispatch using machines you build and pilot.
It’s fair to say they go quite far beyond traditional medieval technology, and can incorporate rack and pinion steering, bombs, flamethrowers, and rockets – along with the ability to fly via wings, corkscrews and buoyant balloons.
The things you build get increasingly tenuous and absurd, their frequently hilarious self-immolations and catastrophic failures proving at least as entertaining as your successes. Building and steering remain fiddly on a touchscreen, adding to the chances of comical disaster, but there’s a lot of game here for a small price.
Score: 7/10
Pools
iOS, free – full game £9.99 (Tensori)
When walking simulators meet psychological horror you get Pools, in which you trudge through an infinite maze of unpopulated, interaction free swimming pools.
That might sound pleasant – or possibly a bit boring – rather than unsettling, and initially it is quite mellow. The sound of walking across tiles and the slosh of water of different depths is comforting, but the pools most definitely are not. Their configurations are weird and wrong, their windows just blank whiteness, and their network of strange side corridors and staircases mostly lead back the way you came.
The endless liminal space soon starts to induce claustrophobia, like being trapped in The Backrooms, but partially filled with chlorinated water. All you can do is walk, while the atmosphere of creeping dread becomes oppressive. However, beware of tawdry fakes of this game on Android.
Score: 6/10
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
iOS & Android, free – full game £8.99 (Ghost Ship Games)
Taking the dwarves and mining from deep rock galactic, and the auto-aim swarm control of Vampire Survivors, this is a glorious mobile mash-up that proves at least as addictive as its twin inspirations.
Mining feels a bit like Dig Dug, as you burrow new paths through the rock, taking detours towards mineral deposits. That also helps funnel the legions of enemies that assail you into more manageable streams. You’ll need to clear landing zones for supply pods and then once you’ve finished each level’s boss, get to your drop pod before the 30 second countdown expires.
Like Vampire Survivors, when you level up you get a choice of three power-ups, as well as being able to buy more between levels, helping deal with aliens that get progressively tougher the longer you spend in each level. Its highly addictive roguelite gameplay has the polish, finesse, and huge amount of content that comes with being a ported console game.
Score: 8/10
Timelie
iOS & Android, free – full game £6.99 (Snapbreak Games)
Games like Timelie, that toy with the fourth dimension, can often be mentally taxing, your mind straining to build strategies that encompass both space and time. And so it is with Timelie, although at least it starts simply.
Each minimal, neon-drawn level takes place on a timeline that you can rewind or fast forward whenever you like. Your job is to guide a little girl to the exit, while opening doors, repairing broken bridges, avoiding patrolling sentry bots and plenty more as you make your way through its discrete worlds.
The touch interface works well, letting you tap to guide your heroine past the many obstacles that threaten to derail her journey, and its puzzles get genuinely tricky, making this a pleasingly cerebral challenge.
Score: 7/10
Resident Evil: Survival Unit
iOS & Android, free (Joycity)
When PC and console franchises get translated to mobile many are materially altered to allow for the smaller screen and absence of mouse or controller, while others are simply grafted onto an existing mobile game genre.
Resident Evil: Survival Unit is one of the latter. It’s effectively a State Of Survival clone that uses Resident Evil themes and settings. So it’s a base builder at heart, except your base is Raccoon City – not that it makes much difference since you’ll be raiding rival Raccoon Cities in dull multi-hour engagements and paying real cash to unlock legendary heroes like Leon S. Kennedy.
There are zombie-orientated exploration segments, and lane-based tactical battles, but the meat of the game is gacha and pay-to-win base building of the type that’s by now wearyingly familiar to mobile gamers.
Score: 4/10
Archer Heroes: Tower Defence
iOS & Android, free (Pokoko Studio)
Archer Heroes’ brand of tower defence has you protecting a temple from waves of enemies that spawn from different portals on each map. Tower emplacements dictate the type of turret you’re allowed to build, but the order in which you construct and upgrade them is up to you.
There’s plenty of enemy variety, with many appearing at random points on the map, while your peripatetic hero goes after them, whilst also defending the temple from attack – with a brief few seconds before each wave when you can decide which turrets you want to build and strengthen next.
It really clips along, its maps and enemies varying enough to keep the challenge feeling fresh, even if it would be even better if wasn’t constantly trying to irritate you into buying stuff.
Score: 7/10
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