iPhone Games Review: Archetype Review

Archetype - Gameplay

The game offers two modes of play, make that three if you include Training. The main game is called Deathmatch where you are pitted against another team in an online shooting frenzy. You’ll be part of a team and together with the rest of your team members, you’ll try to out-shoot the other teams. You’ll earn experience points in the process.

Archetype is played online so you must be connected either through Wi-Fi or 3G. Others who’ve reviewed the game mentioned something about having difficulty playing the game over 3G on their iPhone 3Gs. Fortunately for me, the game ran smoothly while my iPhone was connected on the 3G network. If you’re having the same problem, try playing the game over Wi-Fi and see how good this game is.

As you play through, you’ll have access to various weaponry. You can also pick up other cool weapons as well as power-ups along the way including battle and precision rifles, rapid-fire automag, shotgun, missle launcher and brutal melee axe plus two grenade types.

The game is played on a dark, dungeon-like environment. Somehow it will remind you of classic FPS games such as Halo, Doom and others.

When it comes to gameplay, Archetype gives you just about what you would expect from a first-person, multiplayer online game, that is tons of shooting fun. To hone your skills, the game also has a training mode where you will be given a time limit to kill as many enemies as you can and become skilled with various weapons.

Archetype - Control, Graphics and Sound

In a game such as Archetype, one of the most important factors has got to be controls. Fortunately, Archetype delivers in this department. You are given two buttons on the lower left and right part of your iPhone screen. The right one is used for firing and strafing your enemy while the left button is a virtual joystick for movement.

You can also use an in-game radar to track enemies. Now this is very important since the game environment is dark. The last thing you’ll want to experience is an enemy suddenly showering you with his bullets. So, monitor the radar and you’ll come out of the game alive.

The game’s graphics are also good. If you have an iPhone 4, the game was optimized for the retina display, which means you’ll have high-resolution and crisp game visuals. As for us iPhone 3GS users, the game’s graphics display decently enough, although it tends to get dark in some areas making it difficult to spot enemies, but there’s always the radar to help you with that.

Our Verdict

Archetype was created with the hard core first-person-shooter fan in mind who happens to use the iPhone for gaming. It took this long for such a game to come to the iPhone and thankfully the wait was all worth it.

Archetype is a solid, hard-core, multiplayer, online, FPS game, and if you’re into this kind of game, Archetype is right for you. If you’re a casual iPhone gamer, you might want to try the game as well. You might actually enjoy it as I did.

iTunes download link for Archetype.