Archetype Review

The entire goal of Archetype is to be a first-person shooter that promises no gimmicks, just pure gameplay, so wasting time on a cute opening paragraph seems inappropriate and a waste of time, so the best way to start off a review of Archetype is to just jump in and talk about it. Archetype features little story beyond a CG intro, it's all about the first-person shooter gameplay. This means that unlike Eliminate, there's no system that compels you to buy some sort of consumable in-app item, there's just an experience system and nothing else. This is more of a raw first person shooter experience, and this is what the game focuses on entirely, almost to a fault.

And, well, if you like fast-paced FPS games, and hate consumable in-app purchase elements, Archetype is the game for you. You run around everywhere just killing enemies, picking up weapons and ammo, hunting down enemies using the radar. There's little to no configuration necessary to get into a game. You just choose "Team Deathmatch," and you start searching for games. After a minute or so, you get into a game and you're off and fragging. The game runs great on Wi-Fi and on later generation hardware, but even on older devices like the iPhone 3G, the game is still very playable, and it even works well over cellular data connections. The controls work fairly well, but the right aiming joystick stops moving once you reach the edge of the movement area, instead of constantly scrolling around, making rapid turning a tricky proposition.

Archetype's problem is that there is nothing going on beyond the default mode - it's online team deathmatch or nothing. There's pretty much nothing beyond that - no local wireless multiplayer, no free for all or capture the flag modes, just team deathmatches. The maps all blend together, and the character designs are generic futuristic super soldiers. The whole game largely just feels like an approximation of some other work - there's little to define this game beyond the fact that it exists on the iOS platform. Archetype is desperately crying for more - and one can only hope the developers are out to provide more.

Archetype feels just incomplete. What is here is fun, albeit very generic, but there just isn't much here. If the developers are committed to adding more modes and maps to the game to expand what the game already provides, Archetype could be a killer first-person shooter for iOS, but as it is, Archetype's lack of substance hurts an otherwise solid game.