iSniper 3D

An average sniper doesn't last too long in his chosen profession. As soon as he pops off a few of shots, missing a couple along the way, his position is revealed and his days are numbered. A C+ just doesn't cut it in the sniping world.

iSniper 3D offers a sense of depth and scale so far missing from the sniping specialists already on the App Store, but it feels disposble. Pot-shot gameplay yields a shooter that's neither a glimpse of true warfare nor an easy introduction to trigger-happy sniping.

In terms of visuals, iSniper 3D hits the mark. Photo-realistic 2D vistas are given 3D dimension that really adds a sense of distance.

Compared with the 2D play of Sniper vs. Sniper: Online and iGuerilla 2: Asian Operations, zooming in on targets in fully 3D environments is totally different experience from taking out static, cardboard cutout-esque enemies.

This doesn't make the process of shooting them any more refined, however. While the process of firing off a shot is fairly straightforward - tapping on a portion of the screen zooms in, touching a button on the left focusing your shot, the button on the right firing it off - the game has an almost comical take on the results of your bullets. One shot to the head is the ideal, but shots to the chest are only effective in rounds of two.

Since two shots for each foe is plenty to take them down like skittles, any sense of realism gained is crippled by its arcade-like take on combat.

Aiming for arcade gameplay is in no way a bad move, but progressing through the stages is ridiculously difficult. It takes lightning-fast reactions to take down each and every target within the allotted time.

Fortunately, Challenge mode provides an alternative to the strenuous sniping of Story and Arcade modes. The only problem here is that the challenges don't really work.

For instance, one challenge asks you to take down six combatants with just one bullet, the idea being to use your shot to start off a chain of explosions that eliminates all targets in one fell swoop. With all said targets darting from side to side, though, managing to time your shot so that all are taken out is less a case of judgment and more pure luck.

These shortcomings superimpose themselves on the game's highly polished presentation, muddling what holds the potential to become a genuine thrill.

Too difficult and too random to truly surpass its rivals, iSniper 3D strikes an awkward middle ground that comes out more like a scatter shot than a bullseye.