There are a lot of defense games hitting the store lately. With titles like 7 Cities TD [App Store], Fieldrunners [App Store] and The Creeps! [App Store], your all pretty much spoilt for choice.
You may however have overlooked one. It’s called Firewall: Defender 001 and it’s developed by independent Richard Stenson. Hit the jump to see what we thought of it, and watch it in action! …
Aim
You are Artificial Intelligence Agent 1.4.3. Your aim is to defend our vital interweb data in Grid 817 from attacks by cyber terrorists. Desperately trying to keep your string of data running smoothly, avoiding malicious attacks, you will battle through wave upon wave of nasties including: The polymorph virus, worms, the ambulance virus, phishing attacks and of course, Trojan horses.
Gameplay
The game starts off allowing you to setup a few turrets before the first wave arrives, and more turrets of varying capability and power become available during you being attacked. As levels progress, so does their difficulty, with attacks getting much faster and viruses multiplying in numbers. To add a bit of challenge, you’ll also find some of your turrets and weapons will only apply to a certain type of virus or enemy. With this in mind, and dependent on which enemies are said to be coming next, this sees you thinking very carefully about which weapons you will actually use – That is … when you’ve actually figured out which of the turrets eliminates which type of attack.
Describing the actual screen layout now; the game is played on a tilted grid consisting of 70 squares. Top left is the amount of attacks you have blocked alongside the amount of data you have lost to the terrorists cyber attacks. Top right you’ll find a fore-warning of which attacks are imminent. At the very bottom of the screen are your turrets, with the amount you have in your inventory shown in light blue. Each weapon currently available to you will be lit up. To use a weapon simply tap on it, and tap on the square you wish to place it, before the wave arrives. The wave number you are currently trying to defend can be seen top, center.
See it in Action:
Visuals and Sound
Nothing ‘WOW’, but better than expected. Taking a look at the screen shots before I bought Firewall, I had to ask myself: “Do I really want this game?” – but after playing for a while, your going to find they are pretty ok. Apart from being a little jagged looking in places, they seem to make the game what it is. So that’s visuals. What about sound?
Firewall has such a great soundtrack, we can’t fault it in any way. Exhilarating and pure, it manages to create a sense of increasing pressure that I’m yet to see from any other title we’ve previously reviewed. It truly makes the game enjoyable, and adds to the overall frenzied feel of game play. If we had to describe it to you, we’d say it’s sort of mix between something out of a bond movie, mixed with something you’d might find in say .. Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s fast paced, and you’ll know when it means business …
Price
At 59p (the lowest price available to devs on the store) it’s going to be something you’ll want to pick up. This title doesn’t need it’s impulse-buying price tag, it could just as easily sell for £1.19.
Overall
A strong little title which we think most will have overlooked. Visually lacking, but the soundtrack makes up for that. A good story behind game play, but again could do with a bit more depth in areas such as winnable achievements, more turrets etc ..
Current status: “Recommended”
Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 5.8MB
Released on: 20th Oct 2008
Retails for: £0.59 / $0.99
Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G
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