Review: Shoot To Kill - Worse Than Dead

Overview

You haven't died yet, but you've fallen into the center of hell itself. As you open your eyes, you notice menacing monsters moving closer with sinister looks on their faces. With no other choice, you have to shoot down waves of demons in a desperate attempt to escape the depths of doom.

Features

Shoot to Kill has over 30 levels in which you tap on your screen to kill incoming enemies with 5 weapons. There are 14 types of demons with different behaviors and strengths that appear over the course of your journey. There is also a survival mode with 4 difficulty levels and bluetooth multiplayer. The game has Game Center integration with leaderboards and 13 achievements.

The Good

Shoot to Kill is a more unique take in an arcade shooter genre that has become stale in recent months. Instead of moving around the screen blasting opponents, you stay in the center of the screen and use your firearms on demons as they close in on you. If any of them reach you, the health bar on the left side of the screen deceases until you die. At any point in time, you can equip 2 weapons. The primary is fired whenever you tap anywhere on the screen and must be reloaded every once in a while. To fire a secondary weapon, you hold down a button and tap on an enemy. The game has a lot of content and play modes that can get very challenging. If the 30+ campaign levels isn't enough, a survival mode with 4 levels is included to keep you busy. Each of the 4 difficulties is unlocked upon completion of a chapter in the campaign. If you have a friend with Shoot to Kill, you can also enjoy a nice round of bluetooth multiplayer. The graphics in the game are representative of Tower Studios' depiction of hell, with violent blood effects and explosions.

The Bad

Although the game does feel unique, it is repetitive and shallow in nature. You're never required to do anything besides tapping on monsters that show up on the screen. Most of them can be dispatched with a few taps, but some take many shots to bring down. Later levels are essentially button mashers where you try to fire as quickly as possible. The controls are simple but not very effective either. While firing your primary weapon is easy, the secondary controls are very inconvenient. You have to hold down a button in the bottom left and fire instead of switching weapons, which would be much easier. This isn't explained clearly in the tutorial either and will probably result in a few deaths early on in the game. The paid version of Shoot to Kill is the exact same thing as the free version with the exception of being able to restart and continue levels when you lose all your lives. If you don't mind starting over every time you die 3 times, then there's really no point in buying something that you can get for free.

The Verdict

Shoot to Kill brings a unique style of gameplay to the shooter genre, but lacks enough depth to make it much fun. The number of levels, enemies, and weapon types doesn't make up for the fact that the thing you do in the game is stand still and tap on demons. Be sure to try out the free version if the game interests you before handing over the cash for this one. Shoot to Kill is not worth it for $0.99, partly because of how similar it is to its free counterpart.

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