Ever since good old Star Wars, gamers have wanted to experience space battles and dogfights, but not very many games have lived up to their expectations. That’s where No Gravity lies on the scale. The graphics are good and there is potential, but the game is as confusing and difficult as rocket science.
This game is actually a port of a series of ports. It was originally on Windows/Mac, and then on the PlayStation Portable and now on iOS devices. I have not played any other versions of this game, and my review is based entirely on the iPhone version.
This game is simply confusing. The controls are never fully explained, and the menu navigation is strange. You can steer using a virtual stick or by tilting using the accelerometer. Oddly enough, it was easier for me to use the tilt method of steering, though still very difficult. There are several buttons on screen at any time, and I still don’t know what many of them do. The game also doesn’t inform you how much boost or secondary fire ammo you have left. The buttons can be very unresponsive, and you’ll often hit buttons you don’t mean to and just fly around aimlessly. This game gives new meaning to the term “lost in space.”
The graphics and sound are great, even if the story is cookie-cutter simple from what I’ve seen. The missions I played were very basic, and didn’t offer much variety. There are also no checkpoints throughout the levels, so have fun starting the missions over. You have three ships to choose from, though they don’t seem all that different. This is all really a shame because I usually enjoy games of this type.
Maybe the controls would be better on the iPad, where there’s more button space, but that version is currently having freezing and crashing issues. Overall, I feel like this game isn’t meant to be played with a touch screen. Maybe the old versions are better. If you can handle the controls, the game has a lot of other stuff going for it, but I, personally, would rather see it fly into a black hole.
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