It’s very tough to make a first-person shooter work on the iPhone or iPad; going from a physical controller to a touch screen definitely takes some getting used to. Archetype HD ($4.99) is absolutely one of the best games for satisfying your fragging needs while away from your console.
While there is a multiplayer campaign mode, the heart of this game is the multiplayer deathmatch; you can do battle in 5-on-5 matches with anyone online. At first, I became very frustrated with the lack of matches found, as I would spend a great deal of time just waiting for players to be loaded into the match. When it did load up a match, it was usually just one or two people. Just recently, the app was updated, making it much easier to find matches to play in. Now, matches set up quickly, with all ten player-slots loaded.
The online gameplay is surprisingly smooth and lag-free. You control your character with two virtual thumb sticks; it takes some getting used to, but after a while it becomes easy to move around and aim. You can touch anywhere on the screen to shoot, including the thumb stick area itself, so it’s actually a good strategy to shoot by tapping the right thumb stick. It was interesting to note that, while I usually prefer to play shooters using an inverted setting, with Archetype, I preferred to leave things on the default settings. I just felt much more in control that way, and it worked out very well.
There is a separate button to throw grenades, but throwing them is a bit glitchy. When you toss a grenade, the bouncing physics are ridiculous, and you can’t control how far to throw it. Sometimes, a grenade would even get stuck in a wall.
There are a decent variety of guns, and they all have their pros and cons. You can have up to two guns in your inventory and switch between them by tapping on them.
Overall, the Archetype experience is great. You can’t really compare it to the quality of console shooters like Halo, but for an iPad game, it’s absolutely top-notch. The maps are well made, the gameplay is smooth and the variety of game types keeps things interesting. Just a few bug fixes will make Archetype HD a contender for the top spot in FPS games.
