Your 7 dollars could be put to better use. Like buying a Styrofoam cup.
In a recent blog post, I compared Gameloft's games to cheezeburgers. That analogy also works another way, as in "This cheezeburger is so greasy and messy I can't believe they served it to me. It looks like they tried to sucker me in with the ability to eat this cheezeburger with other people. But that's even worse! Now we're all drowning in grease!"
You may think I'm biased because I hate Gameloft, but I honestly wanted this to be good. The description said "3 vs 3 online play" and "Enthralling story that'll take you on a journey beyond your wildest dreams" or some other marketing BS.
The premise for the story actually intrigued me. You play Wilson, a soldier during WWII. His brother gets killed and some sort of award is taken from him. In the right hands, this could turn into a captivating storyline that would've had me trying to finish that last level.
But these are not the right hands, these are Gameloft's hands (which are extra sweaty after ripping of Madden 10). The story is handled so idiotically, so half-assed, that I didn't really give a toss about anyone after the first campaign. The script is even worse. It's so dry and bland I had to slap myself to keep from falling asleep, and Gameloft continues their proud tradition of voice acting that sounds like a 6th grader reading a book report. Sure, later on they try to flesh the story out, but then they rip off all the flesh and we have a bloody carpet and the carcass of a promising game.
Another tradition Gameloft's proud of are the damn MG's. Not your Thompson, the stationary ones. Ones that turn the game into a point and click game, as in you point at the Nazi's and click their faces off. It'd be fun if it was used sparingly, but there's one every 3 feet. I honestly don't think there's a single mission with fewer than 3 required MG's. It get's way beyond tedious before the first mission is over, and is about as much fun as finding a microscopic needle in bale of lit matches. With your tongue.
I've played many WWII shooters. I've even played the last Brothers in Arms on the iPhone. And I can say, without a doubt, this is one of the most boring campaigns I've ever played through. In an extra hard effort to piss me off, Gameloft actually un-innovates and removes the full enemy AI from N.O.V.A., which made that campaign somewhat bearable. As a matter of fact, I could be lazy and copy and paste the AI section from my Modern Combat: Sandstorm review. So I will:
"Yet, one of the main problems is the AI. This is truly some of the most boring artificial intelligence I've ever fought against in a game. Enemies walk out of a room, plop themselves in one spot, and pop up and down, waiting for a sniper round to the face, never moving from one position to another. Every now and then, one of them will toss a grenade your way, but you can easily throw it back with a single tap (a totally original concept, ha, ha)." - From my Modern Combat: Sandstorm review
There hasn't been a single improvement. By the second campaign, I went into crunch mode, not enjoying myself one bit, thinking about much better ways to spend my time, like throwing myself in front of a bus.
You'd think that at least the graphics would be better. And while textures are surprisingly high res, the animation is awful. There are no transition animations, and every single person in the game dies with the exact same animation.
Then there are the vehicle sections. Oh, boy, the vehicle sections. They were in the last Brothers in Arms, too, and they were surprisingly decent with serviceable controls. Here, all the necessary driving controls are emulated with one virtual stick. Yes, accelerating, breaking, turning, all done with ONE stick. Needless to say, it's beyond awful. I'd honestly compare them to the controls in Superman 64.
Don't be fooled by the picture on the App Store description showing a flamethrower. You get it 3 times during the entire game, and you never get it for longer than 2 minutes. As a matter of fact, it's rare to get any gun other than your Thompson and M1 Garand, which has unlimited ammo. This makes a boring campaign even less varied.
Speaking of guns, Gameloft seems to have completely forgotten the point of iron sights: to be able to see your enemy. Almost all of the iron sights are too damn small to see anything through. Not that there's any difference, though. Shots from the hip are just as accurate as shots from behind the sights.
So, there's the campaign. "Oh, Mr. Morozov, surely the 3 vs 3 multiplayer makes up for it?" says a hypothetical reader. I'd then proceed to with "Actually, it's one of the worst multiplayer experiences I've ever played."
One simple fact completely breaks the multiplayer: grenades. Now, grenades themselves are a common multiplayer element (excluding Team Fortress 2). However, when you give them splash damage 7 times larger than the player, it becomes an insta-kill button. There's no way to throw them back or get enough time to move out of the way. You simply have to stand there and take it like a man.
I'm not exaggerating things. I've never had a grenade miss someone. Ever. Even if they were 4 yards away, the target is dead. There's no grey area where the target only takes a little damage, if he's in any vicinity of a grenade blast, he's dead.
Interestingly enough, sniper shots take 2 hits to kill someone (yes, even to the face). This removes the problem with Modern Combat: Sandstorm's multiplayer. If there weren't any grenades, it'd actually be fun. But they're there. So it isn't.
So, is this a good game? Well, in case you're incredibly thick and can't read the above review or score, let me put it this way: if it was good, I'd try to beat that last level. The whole game is easy up to that point, than cheap deaths overtake actual skill. The whole package is something they shouldn't give away, let alone sell for 7 bucks, which you could spend on literally anything else. Like a cardboard box. Or a hammer to smash your iPhone.