You have to be precise with Kill Shot, a new sniping game from Hothead Games

Kill Shot (Free) by Hothead Games Inc. is a first-person shooter (FPS) of the sniping variety. If you’ve ever wanted to be a covert special ops soldier, then this game is a great way to see how it is without putting yourself in actual danger. The game is similar to other titles like Dead On Sight and Metal Gear Solid Touch.

I’m not that big of a FPS game person, mostly because I’m terrible at them compared to other people. They’re just a bit too fast paced for me, and I never really know what I’m doing. But when I came across Kill Shot, I liked the fact that this wasn’t a straight up FPS game, instead just focusing on the sniping aspect. If I were to play an FPS game, I would probably be that one person who just camps out on a ledge somewhere and snipes enemies off one-by-one anyway. So Kill Shot was particularly appealing, and it’s a nice way to unwind after a stressful day.

The 3-D graphics in Kill Shot are beautiful. It looks so good on Retina HD screens that you could even say it is console quality. The world is realistic, colorful, and lush, just the way you’d want a game like this to be. The character models of enemies are viable, with smooth movements and physics when shot. Animations are fluid, and I love the slow-mo bullet time animation when you land your final kill on a mission — it’s a joy to watch. The music is adrenaline pumping, and sound effects are true.

There are four regions in Kill Shot, and each of them will have a lot of various missions for you to complete. At first, only the first region is available — you’ll have to beat all missions to unlock Region 2, and so forth. There are also different types of missions available: Primary, Black Ops, Daily Challenge, and Support. Each one will have different objectives and requirements, which you’ll see before you begin. These range from killing a certain number or type of enemy to killing a target before they get away. To make it more difficult, there is a certain amount of time you need to finish the mission by. Being successful on these missions will get you cash and other goodies as rewards.

The controls in the game are super easy to learn, so the game is intuitive enough for anyone to start playing. Your soldier will remain in one area — you can move left and right with the arrow buttons on the sides, but you cannot go forward or backward. Drag your finger around the screen to aim your rifle, or tap on the crosshair button to utilize your scope for precise shots. You can also zoom up to 2X by dragging the slider on the screen. If you have upgrades like Thermal, tapping it will activate it and make aiming easier against tough foes.

Sometimes you will need to use specific weapons or tools on a mission to make things easier. The cash you earn can be used in the shop to buy more guns (20 different types, including Sniper Rifle, Assault Rifle, Shotguns, and SAW guns), upgrades for each weapon, and awesome power-up items like a spotter (find all enemies) and armor piercing bullets. Eventually, as you get more stuff in your arsenal, you can customize your weapons to your own preferences, which is pretty cool.

Of course, since Kill Shot is a free game, you know what that means — there is an energy system in place, as well as in-app purchases. The energy will deplete itself if you fail missions, but they will refill gradually over time. The in-app purchases are for cash and gold, which is the premium form of currency in the game. And if you are a deal seeker, there are “special offers” available for a limited amount of time that bundles up several things into a single package. If you’re great at shooting games, then you shouldn’t need to buy anything to get through everything offered in Kill Shot.

Even though I don’t like free games much, I found Kill Shot to be fairly entertaining and fun, especially when I just have a few moments to spare. The missions themselves are rather short, so it’s perfect while you’re on-the-go. I just wish that the game wasn’t so obnoxious with pushing the IAPs and upgrades on you at times.

Kill Shot can be found on the App Store as a universal download for free with in-app purchases.