Review: Warpack Grunts
by Staff Writer
July 10, 2009
Overview
Warpack Grunts is based upon the classic game Cannon Fodder just stylized for today and integrated with unique iPhone controls. It is an arcade style military campaign where you control an elite force of four grunts. You control the entire squad leading them to location, and then directing their fire. A story is actually included instead of just blowing things up just for the sake of it. The entire beginning mocks a typical war movie pointing out all of the stereotypical laughable points.
You’re somewhere in a generic South American Country where Evil Dude and his forces of U.B.E.T.C.(Ubiquitous Badly Trained Evil Chaps) have occupied a local jungle, and are up to no good. It’s up to the best of the best of international forces (your 4 grunts) to stop him.
Features
The main part of Warpack Grunts is the campaign mode containing 40 levels. Each level has a unique objective, and provides a different set of enemies. Most levels you play as your squad of four grunts, but on a couple you play solo with Sarge, and near the end you hop in a tank or a helicopter. Also included is a level select mode which allows you to play any of the 40 levels at any time no unlocking required.
The one other gameplay mode is Zombie Survival which is based upon one of the levels where you’re squad is surrounded by continuous waves of zombies. There are online high scores for everything in the game including campaign, zombie survival, and each individual level.
There are four difficulty levels, and for each campaign mode you have three lives. Each level score is based on the time taken, health of squad, plus bonuses. The game can be played in landscape of portrait mode as well.
To control your warpack you simply place your finger on the screen and drag it in the direction you want your squad to go. To fire you double tap, and then drag your finger to guide where you grunts are firing. Many secondary weapons are included, and you just tap the icon in the bottom left to activate, and then fire the same way.
The Good
The visuals and overall polish of this game are great. It truly is Cannon Fodder updated with awesome graphics. The explosions are top notch, and may be the best seen on the iPhone. The environments are designed very well as you can see the trees sway, and the fog move. The sounds are great as well, with a hardcore military theme song played in the menus. When in the generic South American Jungles you're surrounded by all the typical jungle sounds. The explosions don’t sound as good as they look, but they’re good none the less. There are a few sayings by your grunts which are humorously high pitched, “Sniiipper” or "On Me." The gameplay is fun, but takes awhile to get used to. Take note that this game gets more fun the more you play so give it a chance. Playing through the levels is fun with varying environments, and different tactics needed to win. The upgrades are great too with grenade, bazooka, sniper and then playing as a tank or flying a helicopter.
The levels are short and quick and great for a mobile title. In campaign mode the game saves your level progress, and the online high scores add reason to replay levels. Each level has a different mission, but on replaying the same level the obstacles and enemies are in the same location which make it easier to beat.
Note: If you want to play through every level without having to restart, like in Campaign mode, just go level by level in level select mode. This method doesn’t save your progress though, so just remember the level name you were last on.
then you can play each level in order, and you can also compete for a high score on each individual level.
The Bad
This is an arcade style game so when you lose all three lives in campaign mode it starts over at the beginning. This can become very frustrating, and Swamp Training and the first few levels will become very repetitive. For a mobile game you want to play in short bursts, and you don’t want to play the same levels over and over again just to reach the level you lost on last time.
I think the game should be more user friendly and allow you to choose to continue, resetting your score or start over completely.
The controls take awhile to get used to, and are a little inconvenient when your finger covers up part of the screen. Also when firing your grunts can’t move so thatss where strategy comes into play. You must try to be protected as much as possible when firing. It seems too easy to die when you can't move at the same time you're firing.
