N.O.V.A. 3 Hands-on Preview

The first, and the most important thing to get out of the way is that N.O.V.A. 3 is NOT a freemium title. Gameloft have played the freemium waters, successfully at times, spectacular failures at other times. But let me repeat, N.O.V.A. 3 will not be a freemium title. There will be in-app purchases available for certain things, but they are not required to play or progress through the game. Whew. I know that takes a load off many core gamers minds.

N.O.V.A. 3 starts out with our hero, Kal Wardin, crash landing on Old Earth (in San Francisco no less), to find that the enemy Voltarites have invaded. In this first of 10 levels, you progress quickly, but as you'd expect building the game difficulty as you go. Starting out with just a pistol and gathering other weapons and equipment as you kill enemies and move through the level.

The story of what has happened builds as you move through the first level with very well done, fully voiced storyline played out in cutscenes. One difference noticed between this one and previous ones is that it just feels more natural. Even N.O.V.A. 2, as good as it was, felt way more contrived and scripted. N.O.V.A. 3 flows more naturally and just feels more professional. This installment is also has full retina support, even on the new iPad. That means it's one gorgeous game.

To sum it up what you can expect in N.O.V.A. 3, it's the great N.O.V.A. experience we expect, turned up to eleven. Better gameplay, better graphics, better script, and more of everything we have loved in the previous installments. Take a look at this teaser for a peak at what you can expect.

N.O.V.A. 3 also includes a 12 player multiplayer mode. The multiplayer is sure to be great with six different game modes. All of the weapons and vehicles are available in multiplayer.

While we weren't able to test multiplayer in our preview time, it is a feature that I'm looking forward to as Gameloft has, in the past, done a good job with the multiplayer modes in their games.

N.O.V.A. 3 will be available in May. Check back and we'll let you know as soon as it's available.

Take a look at the following video for the first gameplay footage.

Hit the jump for a few more details on N.O.V.A. 3!

Multiplayer details: 12 players, 6 modes, 3 vehicles, customizable player classes with 15 different perks.

Enemies Include: Volterite infected Marines Infected Red Fury troopers (Flying) Alien Commanders (mid-level boss) Skullcrushers (mid-level boss) Boreas Thugs

Weapons Include: Pistol Assault Rifle Shotgun Sniper Rifle Rocket Launcher Grenade Launcher Flamethrower Lightning Gun Plasma Gun Rail Gun

Items: Explosive Grenades Remote-Controlled Mines

Special Powers: Repel Paralyze Time Shift

Vehicles (in both single player and multiplayer): Mech Jeep Jet Pack