Hands-on Preview: Gun Bros. From Glu

Gun Bros. is a different kind of free to play game. One of my biggest complaints with most free to play games is that they are designed just to get you to spend lots of time in the app. This usually means that these "games" are really short on game elements. They focus on checking in, skill free tasks and quests, and interacting with your friends' playfields in the same way. While Magic Life from Glu fits that description pretty well, Gun Bros. doesn't.

Gun Bros. is what I had hoped to see more of when we started seeing free to play / freemium titles released for the iOS. A real game built with free to play elements and not just a social network with colorful characters and tasks. In Gun Bros., you have strong social elements and lots of customization possibilities.

The basis of the game is a top-down shooter with a team of two players on the screen at once. You and your partner go to planets to fight revolutions. There are multiple revolutions, each with multiple waves per planet. One of the players is controlled by you and the other player is someone from your buddy list playing with their weapons and armor. The bonus you get by having friends playing with your character is that you get XP when they play -- the more they play, the more XP. This leads to the desire to upgrade your character and weapons as the stronger your player becomes, the more likely your friends are to play your character.

Back to the customization options -- there are currently 30 different weapons and 40 different armor pieces you can purchase. Most of the items will be earned by playing the game and getting XP. It's unclear at this point if you can earn all of the weapons and upgrades or if you will be required to purchase some of them.

The game is set up to be infinitely expandable. With 50 levels per chapter and multiple chapters per planet, there can be a nearly infinite number of planets added to the universe.

I really think that Glu has set up the possibility of a very fun and long-lasting game with Gun Bros. As long as they hit the sweet spot with game players and can maintain their interest, this game could be a hit for a long time.

Gun Bros. will launch early October and be free to play with in-app purchases used to level up your player more quickly.