Lockdown is a new 2.5D side-scroller from Mehware that reminds us of a mash up of the Aliens and Transformers franchises with a little bit of Robocop and Iron Man thrown in for good measure. The mixture of eerie atmospheric effects, OpenFeint leaderboards, weapons upgrades, and varying enemy forces quickly drew us in. Yet, the high level of difficulty combined with an uncomfortable control mechanism left us yearning for a revamp.
Lockdown Pros:
- Appealing visual effects and environments
- Reserved soundtrack
- Numerous enemy and weapon designs
Lockdown Cons:
- Frustrating difficulty
- Awkward control mechanism
The goal of Lockdown is to battle your way through five levels of destructive robots and aliens and reach an escape ship waiting to rescue you from this nightmare. While the back-story consists only of a quick synopsis at the beginning of the game, it explains that the hero has suffered years of containment in an alien detention facility. Secretly building a mechanical suit, he now must fight his way to survival. Mehware has equipped you with numerous weapons to get the job done. Lasers, freeze cannons, and fire shooters are available within each level. Complimenting your assault is a companion drone that follows you overhead. This robot can throw grenades and drop bombs at your command. Be careful though, as you can also be injured in friendly fire.
Lockdown’s opposition is fierce. As you move the character forward, aliens and “battlebots” appear before you as if they were teleported into the scene. They quickly begin their assault in the form of weapons fire. As you shoot back, they flicker red until crumpling to the ground and vanishing. As it takes multiple shots to defeat each enemy, it seems it would be appropriate for them to have a health meter, but they don’t. Defeating an enemy usually rewards with a new weapon or health boost. Boosting your character’s health is essential as it will quickly be drained by enemy fire, and the enemy fire is relentless. In addition to the enemies you can shoot, there are background forces constantly attacking you. Huge robots stand from afar hurling bombs, stationary machines fire lasers that you must avoid, and aerial drones drop bombs as they pass over. Hardcore gamers will love the difficulty, but casual iPhone gamers will most likely experience frustration.
Three modes for gaming are offered in Lockdown. Campaign Mode grants three chances to continue the game after losing three lives. Survival Mode allows for one chance to win using three lives. Immortal Mode offers the chance to continue the game over and over while trying to make it to the escape ship. We found ourselves spending most of our time with Immortal Mode as the other two modes destroyed us too quickly. Actually, Immortal Mode is a great way to build up resistance skills before embarking upon the other modes. Plus, no points are awarded in Immortal Mode.
We loved the look of Lockdown. The dark design scheme lends itself to the overall scary nature of the game. The enemies are well designed and varied. A real-life feel is nicely integrated into the gameplay by the screen shutter effect accompanying each bomb blast. Weapons are generously available. The background music is under toned and portrays the feel of science fiction horror. Sound effects are adequate but the “tink tink” sound when getting hit is slightly underwhelming. The biggest problem we had with the game was the control mechanism. On the left side of the screen stands a bidirectional D-pad that moves the character forward and backward. The right side of screen holds the jump and fire buttons. While this is a pretty basic set-up, it just felt uncomfortable. Perhaps it was the inability to duck when getting pummeled by enemy fire. Or the fact that jumping and firing presented such precise timing that it often failed and rapidly depleted our heath. Many enemies fly overhead and can’t be defended against without being able to fire skyward. Moreover, we often killed ourselves due to inaccurate grenade throws from our companion bot. We would gladly give up this overhead assistance in exchange for a multi-directional thumb wheel with duck and upward aiming abilities. Another suggestion would be tap-and-hold-anywhere firing and double-tap jumping. This would give the feel of other successful survival shooters like Minigore. Mehware has informed us that they re pursuing a control mechanism like the one we have suggested. If properly implemented, this will greatly enhance the value of this title.
Lockdown provides Openfient leaderboards and achievements in each of the three game modes. This adds a level of replay value to the title while you compete against friends to see who can survive the longest in this alien dungeon. The great graphics and environment depiction impressed us. Unfortunately, the control mechanism did not. Currently Lockdown version 1.2 is selling in the App Store at $0.99 and receives our 3-Dimple rating.
