WP App Review : 2150 A.D.

2150 A.D. (Version 1.3)
Lumosoft
Free

2150 A.D. is an entertaining top down shooter where you are in control of a spacecraft, shooting down asteroids and various enemy ships. Featuring solid graphics, each stage is a "mission" where your goal is to gather a certain amount of crystals, avoid asteroids, or shoot down a certain number of enemies. Each mission ends when your fuel runs out. Currently, the map area for each stage is all the same and relatively small, the only differences being the number of asteroids and enemies appearing. Despite the somewhat repetitiveness of each stage, it is a nicely polished game with wonderful graphics and smooth game play and controls which can make it addicting.

During the progress of the game, the crystals you collect can be used to upgrade your ship; engine (speed), hull (defense), storage (number of crystals you can collect before needing to drop them off), and maintenance bay (ability to heal.) You're also able to research a variety of weapons which enables you to use them immediately.

The way the buttons are set up for firing your weapons is something that I particularly found a joy to use. Two circular buttons on the right-hand side are laid out vertically, as opposed to the usual horizontal placement. With this button configuration, you can easily and smoothly "swipe" upwards to fire both weapons at once while swiping to the left on each button enables weapon changes during your mission. Controls for the spacecraft's movement is your standard circular d-pad on the left and it responds very well and is not overly difficult to control.

Currently there are only 20 missions and if you rush through the game it can easily be "beaten" in 30 minutes to an hour. In terms of replay value, you can re-enter any mission as many times as you want to collect more crystals and fully upgrade your ship and unlock all weapons. However, there is currently a bug where after completing the last mission, if you try and go into the mission select menu, the game will crash out back to the home screen. I did contact the developer about this issue but they only replied stating that more missions would be released. Due to this particular crash I can't replay any missions to further upgrade my ship. So if you like to "grind" in video games, make sure you don't finish mission 20 or you won't be able to play.

Overall, the game is great in short bursts as the missions are relatively easy and the overall game is short in length. However, if the developer keeps adding more stages, upgrades, and weapons, it could turn out to be even better.

Pros : Clean graphics, solid controls with fun firing system
Cons : Too short, end game bug