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6 iPhone and iPad games like Gears of War 4

All around me is familiar gameplay

6 iPhone and iPad games like Gears of War 4
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iOS
| Shadowgun

Gears of War 4, or Gears of Four as it is not called, is out today.

Once again you will help impossibly burly men (and a woman!) fight off an army of alien monsters using guns that have comedy attachments. Like a chainsaw, or a leaf blower, or a backscratcher.

Unfortunately, Gears of War 4 doesn't QUITE work on an iPod touch. Yet. So for now, it's going to be exclusive to Xbox One and PC. But, never fear, mobile gamers! There is hope you yet!

There are a number of games that offer similar thrills and spills to those you'd find in Microsoft's quartet of carnage. Here are a few we can recommend

Epoch. 2 Epoch 2

Epoch is like Gears of War, if Marcus Fenix were a robot. And maybe he is? Look, I don't want to spoil the secret after-credits sequence in Gears of War 4.

The game bounces you from encounter to encounter, so you only need to focus on shooting dudes. But, like Gears, it's all about hunkering down behind cover and moving quickly between blocks of knee-high concrete.

The game's full of interesting enemies and bosses that force you to find new strategies. And while there's a full story mode to work though, you can also compete against pals on the leaderboards in an endless mode.

Deus Ex: The Fall Deus Ex

Deus Ex is - thematically - quite different from Gears. It's set on Earth (in the future, mind), you're not at war, and you can spend more time sneaking and talking than chainsawing a monster's nuts off.

But it's really up to you how you play the game and if you want to play it like a cover shooter then that's on you. Grab a gun, put all your points into lethal upgrades, and say goodbye to that pacifism award as you go to town on enemy soldiers.

The game's also got a pretty good story that helps fill in gaps between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. But don't expect much resolution - the story peters off and promises more in a second chapter that never materialised.

Trigger Fist Trigger Fist

Trigger Fist does something interesting, and slightly crazy, to make its multiplayer duels work well on a mobile device. It gets rid of the Y axis.

Like classic Doom from 1993, you can't aim up or down. There's no higher ground and no trenches to hide in. The game plays entirely on one horizontal plane. But it works, meaning you can spend more time shooting opponents and less time wrestling with the controls.

No idea if anyone is still playing this game - or the bonkers take on capture-the-flag that has you giving a goat a piggyback across the battlefield - but it's free so give it a download and see if you can get a game going.

Shadowgun Shadowgun

You were waiting for this one, right? More than any other game, Shadowgun is hoping to emulate Gears of War on your phone.

It's got men with biceps the size of tree trunks, a ridiculous storyline that I encourage you to immediately discount, and more cover points than you can shake a shotgun at.

It also looks pretty great and gives you a lot of bang for your buck, offering loads of levels, guns, different enemies, and bosses. And if you dig all that, there's a free multiplayer version called Shadowgun: DeadZone to play, too.

Afterpulse Afterpulse

Most people play Gears of the multiplayer. It's true. Maybe someone out there cares about the story of Marcus and Dom and Dom's wife and that guy who keeps getting shot in the head. But most people are playing these games with their pals.

Which is why I recommend Afterpulse! It's a third person shooter about running around and generally murdering people. Just shooting them a bit. Until death. You've played video games. You know the score.

Afterpulse is one of the best of the bunch when it comes to man murder on iOS. Reviewer Harry said "Afterpulse almost certainly shouldn't be as good as it is, but it is as good as it is, and you should definitely play it"

Max Ammo Max Ammo

Gears of War might have big sweaty meat men, with realistic faces that go "Grr", but there's more to it than that. And if you put aside the graphics you'll see that Max Ammo is actually a similar experience.

You bound from cover to cover, taking pot shots and enemies. The only difference is that it's super charming and cartoony.

Importantly, the game has been made with mobile in mind meaning there's only a few taps, swipes, and pokes between you and complete alien annihilation. So that's good.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer