Graves Robber

Why is it that video game characters always have the most outlandish professions?

Take the buxom, scantily-clad Sara of Graves Robber, for example. While her childhood friends have gone on to become beauticians, secretaries and stay-at-home mums, she has decided to follow the lucrative career of a professional grave robber.

While we certainly wouldn’t want to meet Sara’s career adviser, her job does afford some unexpected perks - namely the opportunity to blast away at countless hordes of zombies using a wide range of devastating weaponry.

There’s a more serious side to this grave-robbing lark, though. Sara is tasked with collecting magical skulls from six good-for-nothing monsters that hold court at the end of each of the game’s levels. Before she can fight it out with these brutes, however, she has to contend with wave upon wave of festering undead assailants.

Graves Robber uses a combination of tilt and touch controls to put you in the action. Turning is achieved by tiling your device, while a virtual D-pad controls your forward and backward movement.

It’s an obvious attempt to mimic the twin-stick approach, yet the end result is as awkward and shambling as your undead enemies.

This is because turning your character takes longer than it should: zombies attack from every angle and when you’re suddenly set upon from the rear you will have lost a substantial amount of energy before you’re able to turn and bring your guns to bear on your enemy.

It’s a shame, because the actual process of aiming and firing is quite enjoyable using the combined accelerometer and touch controls. You can even adopt a first-person perspective for added accuracy.

As you progress through each level you accrue cash to spend on new outfits and weaponry. You’re also able to use special items during your missions, such as life-imbuing potions and smart bombs, which damage nearby foes.

Unfortunately, you have to learn about these features through old fashioned trial-and-error, because aside from a stunningly lacklustre training mission you get no real indication of what each item does.

It all comes together to make Graves Robber something of an enigma. It’s obvious that quite a bit of effort has been expended on its creation, but it nevertheless feels half-finished and incomplete.

It's certainly a good looking game too, with sharp visuals and detailed characters. Some of the end-of-level bosses are particularly well-rendered, creatively designed, and brought to life with above average animation.

With tighter controls, a strong narrative drive, and a more informative training mode Graves Robber may have risen from its enforced slumber to become a decent shooter, but as it stands there are a few too many issues to make this a title worth looting.