Game Reviews

Midnight Star

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Midnight Star isn't the perfect mobile FPS, but it's a step closer than most of the imitators we've seen over the past few years.

It's a shooter boiled down to taps and swipes, with a rhythm more reminiscent of Time Crisis than Call of Duty.

There are niggles, and there's a free to play system that some people are going to find unpalatable, but there's enough gorgeous looking action here to keep most folk entertained.

Midnight space cowboy

There's a story about time travelling jump gates and the last four humans left in the universe bibbling on behind the scenes, but it's mainly just window dressing for the shooty core.

And that core's pretty solid. You move automatically, and tap to fire your weapon. Swiping lets you aim, and pinching the screen lets you zoom in on the nearest target.

You need to keep an eye on your ammo, and reload by tapping an icon in the top right before you run out. Fire your last bullet and try to shoot again and, while you will reload, it'll take a lot longer.

Pushing two fingers on the screen powers up your shield, which can block projectiles. You'll also have to perform tappy QTEs when one of the lumbering alien beasts leaps at you with melee in mind.

Everything looks gorgeous, and there's a high-score chasing element to each of the levels that dares you to speed up your swipes and taps to kill as efficiently as possible.

Stars (bullets) in their eyes

Yes, it's a free to play game, but it's also pretty generous with its currency. You can basically play through the entire campaign without having to wait or fork out, and while you can pay for boosts, it's not strictly necessary.

If Midnight Star gets its claws into you, you'll find a dangerously entertaining, albeit rather simple, shooter. It's not the answer to the FPS question on mobile, but it fizzes and pops in the right ways, and it'll keep you tapping for a good long while.

Midnight Star

A fast-paced and engaging tappy shooter that looks stunning. It might be a little too simple for some, but there's a neat high score chasing rhythm here that's hard to ignore
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.