Apple App-Aholics Anonymous (N.O.V.A. 3)

Apple App-Aholics Anonymous (N.O.V.A. 3)
By: @ZTLaidlaw

App Name:  N.O.V.A. 3
Developer:  Gameloft
Price: $6.99
App-Aholic Rating: 4/5

For fans of XBox’s Halo series, Gameloft’s iOS installment of NOVA was well-received. The addition of NOVA 2 was even better. NOVA 2.5 (Gameloft’s ’12 April Fools gag that featured Kal Wardin hunting joyous Green Farm animals) was frightening. Now enter NOVA 3, Gameloft’s latest 3D endeavor. 
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Contrary to what most of the buzz has been saying, this is NOT one of Gameloft’s 3 future titles scheduled to run Epic Games’ Unreal 3 engine. However, counting all the 3’s in this week’s blog post, 3 must truly be the lucky number, as it would appear the third contribution to Gameloft’s self-proclaimed blockbuster has a lot of refinement.

NOVA 3 begins in a more realistic location than the others, San Fransico, even if it is a futuristic, post-human version. No worries, though; your expedition will carry you into the space beyond soon enough into the adventure.

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The Good Stuff: Addition of the sprint button is nice. There is a plethora of battle options to choose from (guns, grenades, special attack, etc). For fans of online multiplayer and Gameloft’s browser edition of NOVA, entitled N.O.V.A Elite, N3 has you covered! Even though this isn’t powered by Unreal 3, Gameloft’s own in-house engine system is truly shaping up into a nearly-worthy competitor for Epic Games. Maybe Gameloft will even opt out of their remaining 3 Unreal games? (only time will tell).

The Flaws: Unfortunately, awesome graphics means memory hogging and lengthy download times (approx. 44 minutes on a 4S w/ a moderately efficient wifi connection), something most current Gameloft games have suffered from.

Also, there still isn’t a crouch button? That’s kind of odd by this stage in the game, especially since Gameloft’s Modern Combat series virtually works on the same setup and includes a crouch switch, as well as a dive options, which is also lacking from NOVA 3.

In N1, the pistol option was a single limitless gun. In N2, the pistol option was upgraded to dual guns. In N3, the pistol option has been downgraded back to a single; this is saddening.

For a higher-caliber game such as this one, there are quite a few (lengthy) loading screens, sometimes occurring in the middle of action sequences. This is odd for two reasons: 1) Unreal 3 games, which are still slightly higher in quality than Gameloft’s, don’t have this problem.  2) It’s wild to think the 4S dual core processer and A5 chip are no longer good enough.

Overall: Of course, none of the negatives above are meant to take away from the positives. The overall product DOES display the quality any gamer would expect from the iOS powerhouse that Gameloft has become. For any NOVA (or Halo) fan, this third edition is a must-have for the collection. 

May as well just add it to your collection. This may be one of the best FPS’s you play all year!

Happy Downloading, Addicts

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