Exiles
Much ado about the final frontier
£3.99 Developer Crescent Moon Games, crescentmoongames.com
Works with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad Version 2.2
The year is 2375, the place is a planet far, far away, and your mission is to take down a corrupt government. That means trekking through vast 3D space deserts, infiltrating space bases and shooting down space beasts, but also riding around on hoverbikes and controlling mechs.
If that sounds great, it’s a shame that, whether following the main story or veering away, there’s so little to do or find. There’s always a giant worm or two to shoot, but side missions are few and far between.
The controls are too fiddly for combat precision, but at least it’s easy to beef up stats so you can stand and shoot from afar. There are several weapons to play with, but the most fun is found briefly in the punchy giant mech.
The role-playing side is limited to raising weapon damage and attributes, while the lack of a map system makes it easy to lose your way. It’s oversights like that which limit the motivation to explore beyond the main story. Sinan Kubba
A strong open world with plenty of thought put into the detail, but one that’s ultimately far too unrewarding to explore.