Forget dual thumb sticks—2360: Battle for Cydonia takes full advantage of the iPhone’s multitouch surface; with an innovative control scheme that is more akin to a line-drawing derivative and it performs flawlessly. Whilst you’re guiding the Datalus-5 with finger swipes, you’ll be tapping the screen elsewhere to lock a sizable arsenal of weapons on Imperial units; cleverly each arm can target independently, allowing you to destroy the hordes of enemy units with ease.

Even on the easy difficulty setting, the enemies are unrelenting; perpetually closing in on your robot with ferocious determination, surrounding you at any opportunity that they get. Luckily your weapons are made of sterner stuff and they include auto aiming machine guns to tackle rockets and other projectiles, beefy shotguns, rocket launchers and laser cannons. Not only can they be upgraded to further their power and fire rate, but you can also buy other parts to increase your speed, improve your armour, or simply buying another cargo slot to make collection missions that much easier.

Speaking of missions, there’s a great deal of variety. Trawling around the map looking for radar pieces is a chore, as is slowly making your way across the map to take down an enemy cannon or three; and it is a handful of slower missions that let the game down. On the other hand you have many other far better escort and defence missions that feel a lot more involving. Each of the missions comes into its own, and that is important seeing as many of the enemies that you’re dealing with don’t differ a whole lot from level to level. You’ll be fighting against time, trying to annihilate enemy fortifications, or acting as a guardian keeping care over buildings so that they don’t become reduced to rubble.

Interleaved between gameplay is a loose story that would be mostly OK if it wasn’t for some horrific spelling errors (Eenmyes?) which are laughable at best. It’s this kind of small detail that can detract from the otherwise superb presentation; whilst the Datalus-5 and Imperial units look fantastic especially in motion, the surroundings leave a lot to be desired. The metal clad environments look cold, bland and boring; making Cydonia a place you’d rather not explore. Of course, you won’t be looking at the scenery for a long time without seeing some artificial life coming to blow you to pieces, but still we would have loved to have seen at least a level with some lush scenery in it.

Taken as a whole, 2360: Battle for Cydonia isn’t quite there yet. Some missions can have you wandering around aimlessly blowing enemy units up until you find that small piece of map that has the goods you need; to that end you’ll find yourself frustrated with the robot’s speed or map size. But as much as you’ll dislike the slow, calculated steps, you’ll love the easy to pick up touch controls. You’ll love the cracking sound effects and frantic onscreen action. You’ll especially love the save system and iPod music feature, because with the right soundtrack this game is just so good. We’re sure you’ll ultimately have a blast playing this but we would like to see our concerns ironed out before we’d give it a wholehearted recommendation.

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