Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Review

With Captain America set to hit cinemas next week, the time for the movie tie-in game has arrived! Thus arrives Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, which puts players in control of the First Avenger himself, as he tries to defeat the forces of HYDRA across 24 levels. Captain America apparently has been injected with more than a super-soldier serum, as he can't...stop...running. He runs left, he runs right, he runs off the walls, he bounces off the walls, he swings from poles, he just doesn't stop! Well, he only stops when there's a wall he runs into or an enemy he hasn't beaten to a pulp; he then beats them to a pulp or throws his shield at them.

The strength of the game is the acrobatics; the game involves a lot of acrobatic movements, and when they get involved with the combat, and usage of the shield to stun enemies or blow up barrels near them, the game is at its best. Wall-hopping has never not been a fun gameplay mechanic and the rule holds true here. The game is also a universal build for iPads as well as iPhone and iPod touch devices. The game comes with Game Center support, and unlockable costumes and comic book covers earned by collecting files in the game's levels.

The game's tutorials are absolutely horrid, in that they serve as a major disruption to the pace of the game. It doesn't help that the game often chugs along, skipping and being unresponsive to commands, even on latest-generation hardware. Combos are often just random to pull off, rather The game is all about making swiping and line-drawing motions, but without any way to see a line trail that is being drawn, it's difficult to tell what move is being made. The whole game just feels like it's out of control, and the controls are the game's greatest challenge, not the levels or enemies. The whole game plays very similarly to the iOS version of Mirror's Edge, except wrapped up in a Captain America shell. It's actually not the same developer - this game was developed by Sarbakan, Mirror's Edge was developed by IronMonkey Games, and are owned by EA. Still, it just feels so similar that it's hard to believe that it isn't the same developer.

It's a shame, just because there are some good ideas here. Of course, a lot of them were also good in Mirror's Edge, and that game is a much better version of what is here. This is neither the hero the App Store needs nor deserves.