SPLIT!

Welcome to the first ever Mental Gamers iOS review, the title that has the pleasure of breaking the duck is SPLIT! from Touchy Interactive which is a tactical puzzle shooter where you move a couple of guys around into position and take out the enemy.

The first thing that greets you is a dubstep style intro tune which actually isn’t too bad and the same can be said for the rest of the music featured in the game. Graphically, it just works. Nice simple colours and animation that comes together to give you something that can keep you occupied for ages.
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The basic idea is that you place one of your guys behind a crate to draw fire while you move the other guy around to take out the enemy that’s shooting at your first guy. Sounds easy, to an extent it is, it’s just a matter of getting your guys in the right place without getting shot.
Controls are simple, drag your finger on the screen to create a line for one of the characters to follow, red for the red guy and blue for the blue guy. The reason for the different colours becomes apparent as you play the game, each one may be required to reach a specific spot in order to perform certain tasks like press switches to open doors, something that you’re shown near the start of the game.
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Replayability may come into question with a game like this, but alas, fret not as one of the things that will have you opening up the game again and again is the time factor. What may have you feeling a little agitated at times is when you make the same mistakes a few times, all it takes is a little thought and the seemingly impossible becomes much easier than anticipated.
You’re in a prison and trying to escape, the enemy are basically S.W.A.T. who are obviously trying to stop you escaping and the only way is to outsmart and outmaneuver them, if you can do that without getting killed, you’re doing it right! If just one of the guys is killed, game over.
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A couple of minor quibbles with how you can sometimes overdo the line you want a guy to walk to, but the good thing is, you can change course midway if you make any mistakes. You can pinch and swipe to zoom in and out of the map, but there are only two stages of zoom, close (the view as you play) and far (game pauses). Although it plays well on the iPhone, you’re better off with an iPad if possible to get the best out of the game as it would suit a big screen.
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There is more content for the game scheduled for release, but don’t think you’ll get through the 30 levels so quickly, the first ten levels may have been relatively easy, just wait until you attempt the Tricky and Complex campaigns. Being a strategic genius will get you far in this game, expect your brain to ache and the feeling of wanting to throw your iOS device at the wall in frustration pulsing through your veins.
Is it worth buying? Oh yeah, if you like a challenge, I’d say so!