Implosion - Never Lose Hope Review

Developer: Rayark Inc
Price: $9.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.4
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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[Need help finding your way around Implosion’s upgrade system? Check out our Tips & Tricks guide.]

“Bringing AAA console gaming experience to mobile devices” is a pretty bold claim to make no matter how you look at it. Not that I don’t have faith in iOS games’ abilities to surprise us but I mean come on now.

And yet, Implosion - Never Lose Hope makes good on most of its promises - although I’ll admit that tagline isn’t entirely accurate.

The Earth has been abandoned for quite some time after hostile alien forces appeared and basically wrecked everything. What was left of humanity left the planet a long time ago, but a mysterious signal draws a small crew of specialists back. Mystery, intrigue, and a lot of action follows, naturally.

Action is what Implosion is all about, and it does this incredibly well. The touch controls feel extremely nice and responsive to the point where the optional MFi controller support almost feels unnecessary (though they're definitely appreciated). I’m not kidding, they’re really good. I’m especially fond of the way you can tap and slide a thumb over the attack button to switch from your sword to a machine gun; it’s really easy to pull off and seems like the kind of thing we can expect to see emulated in other games in the future.

The controls wouldn’t matter much if Implosion wasn’t fun, but it’s a blast to play. Cutting through waves of enemies is always satisfying, the vaguely DMC: Devil May Cry-style combo system that lets you trigger different moves by pausing between strikes is a great way to add variety to a single attack button, and there are all sorts of loot drops to pick up. The levels also have a couple different special conditions that can be met to earn medals, which can then be used to unlock special upgrades or even a new mech. Most of them aren’t pushover tasks, either.

Implosion also looks great, and there’s a good deal of variety to both the enemies and the environments. Really the only gripe I have is that some of the menu interface and the "Ark System: never gets an adequate explanation. Everything eventually clicks, but it can be daunting to dive into the upgrade system for the first time.

A little skepticism is understandable, but if you enjoy action RPGs or have a soft spot for loot gathering thenImplosion - Never Lose Hope is a purchase you won’t regret.