Near Orbit Alliance: N.O.V.A Shooting

Primarily a first-person shooter, with one on-rails driving segment. Throughout the game's twelve levels, players fight alien enemies known as Xenos. The game takes major cues from sci-fi console shooters, such as the Halo and Metroid series.

The former soldier drafted back into service to protect Earth from the fury of the alien xenos. A vanished space station has reappeared outside of Earth's orbit and it threatens the orbital platforms humanity has been forced to live on following the collapse of our planet's environment. You must explore this station to find out what happened, which in turn leads you on a chase across the galaxy that invariably ends up with you kicking in xeno teeth on their own turf.

Wardin has plenty of firepower to choose from, all standard-issue shooter fare like assault rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles. Ammo is everywhere, but sometimes you must hack open a crate via a short puzzle to score the good stuff. In addition to normal weapons, Wardin also has special skills like the ability to freeze an enemy for just a few moments via an energy attack. The trade off, though, is shield strength.

Move via a responsive virtual stick, look by dragging a finger around the screen, and fire with a dedicated button. Things have been tightened up, such as movement sensitivity. The aim-assist feature is also quite useful when you first start playing NO.VA., as it snaps the crosshairs to the enemy you are looking at but without over-compensating. It's just a little nudge. It does not play the game for you but when you are trying to cross an open field with a dozen xenos on a rampage, getting a little "snap" is sometimes the difference between life and restarting from the last checkpoint.

Near Orbit Alliance: NO.VA Shooting is a run-and-gun first-person shooter at heart, but it uses big scripted moments and set pieces to create some high drama across 13 stages, such as dodging small meteors as you race across a space station exterior. However, my absolute favorite event in NO.VA is small