Can a rich super-atmospheric first-person shooter like
BioShock really work well on a mobile phone?
IG Fun has taken on the challenge, as we've previously reported. But today I bumped into the company's CEO Sean Malatesta at the BREW 2008 show.
He had some footage running on a BREW handset of that version of the game, but also revealed that IG Fun wants to bring the game to iPhone too, as well as Symbian. Note, this is IG Fun's hope - it's not necessarily confirmation of a definite iPhone release.
Meanwhile, he said the company is working on a 2D version for handsets that can't handle the full 3D game.
But back to that BREW demo. It was non-interactive, but Malatesta said the visuals were being rendered on the handset itself (i.e. it wasn't just a video).
The demo included some spooky cut-scenes that indicate IG Fun is squeezing the most out of the BREW platform in terms of visuals.
Meanwhile, the snatch of gameplay footage looked spectacular, too – certainly not worth sniffing at, even if you're a hardcore fan of the original game.
The real questions are over controls (will the game be intuitive to play on a mobile keypad?) and on whether IG Fun can successfully translate the original's atmosphere to the small screen.
It's way too early to tell that from this demo. But from what I could see, IG Fun is certainly pulling out all the stops. And the iPhone version could be even better.
Meanwhile, for a taster, check out
IUGO's Re-Volt game for iPhone, which shows how a first-person shooter could work with the touchscreen and motion-sensing features of Apple's handset.
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