Plenty of AAA developers have tried to make the precarious jump from PC and consoles to the booming mobile market. And who could blame them? On average, mobile games are much cheaper to produce and can, potentially, reach a much larger audience. Over the years we’ve see studios such as Codemasters, Rebellion NetherRealm, and Creative Assembly all take a crack at conjuring up the perfect touchscreen timesink.
Another developer among their ranks is Splash Damage, the Bromley-based outfit best known for its competitive online shooters. Aside from the upcoming Dirty Bomb and divisive Brink, the team has also worked on other hits such as Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It’s even argued that Splash Damage were the ones to introduce RPG-style levelling in the modern FPS but that’s another story.
With Dirty Bomb currently in public testing, Splash Damage recently launched its second title of 2015, Tempo. It’s not the first time the developer has brought a game to mobile platforms, 2012 seeing the release of cartoon commander sim, RAD Soldiers. Tempo is completely different beast, however, almost detaching itself completely from everything Splash Damage has done in the past.
You wouldn’t think that by looking at the game’s official hub on the App Store. Without knowing anything about Tempo, in fact, you’d probably guess that it was a third person, cover-based shooter of sorts – virtual joypad and all. What you get, however, is much, much different.
Straight off the bat, players are introduced to a modern-day London, overrun by a sinister terrorist organisation, led by the conniving Moloch. Naturally, a team of specialists are soon deployed and immediately go about stalked the streets of the capital, looking to put an end to the threat. It’s a no-frills story with playable characters who more or less represent different-looking avatars to control. Given how the game plays, that’s not such a problem.
Tempo, as the name suggests, is all about speed. Each of the game’s five chapters are split into numerous segments, each requiring a specific completion time in order to progress. The best way to think of these segments are as explosive, thirty-second set pieces. Although they are fairly cool to watch, however, the actual gameplay in Tempo will prove a real sticking point.
You see, in lieu of actual third person shooting, the game is chock full of quick-time events. Want to shoot that guy over there? Tap the marker at the right moment. Trying to push away an assailant? Bash the screen like crazy with the classic two-finger wave. Need to get a bit techy? Trace the outline shown on-screen. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
In truth, this limited trio of mini-games is actually quite fun, especially given how great the game looks. However, half an hour in, and you’ll likely run into a spot of bother. Levels will become more and more challenging in a way that simply feels inorganic where one mistimed input can force you to fail out right. As a result, players will need to go back and grind previous missions in order to scrape together enough money to buy stat boosts. That’s how impossible the game get in its latter stages.
As much as I really want to like Tempo, there simply isn’t enough there. It carries that recognisable Splash Damage artstyle that is delivered brilliantly, especially on newer Apple devices. However, the scarcity of actual interactive gameplay will leaving many wondering why they’ve just sank three quid into a three-track rhythm game.
Tony Cawley
It sounds like a decent idea to me because the traditional control method for shooters on mobile, the on screen sticks and buttons just doesn’t work, your fingers are always in the way of what’s happening and it just isn’t fun. This almost kind of tempts me, though I don’t really play games on my phone.