IronFall: Invasion (Nintendo 3DS) Review

The shooter genre is one that is already oversaturated with great-to-mediocre titles. To be able to enter that arena and be successful, something unique is required to sell the game, or at least something that meets expectations in a positive way. Sadly, though, IronFall: Invasion does nothing to justify making that all important purchase.

The issue is that there truly isn't anything that makes this stand out from the pack of third-person shooters already out there, no matter how good it looks graphically on the humble 3DS. Everything is so extremely generic, from its story to its enemies and the missions included. For instance, the story starts with a weapon developer being captured by enemy forces and the hero of the tale must save him - nothing more, nothing less, and barely any character developent to engage players. It has been done a thousand times already, and done in a far better manner. There is truly nothing outstanding from start to finish. The gunplay is boring and offers nothing special and the enemies are just machines that sometimes have humanoid forms or are flying ship-like robots.

The saving grace, and only reason to even consider IronFall: Invasion, is its multiplayer. However, due to the aforementioned tedium of the gunplay and its painfully awkward control system (even after tweaking the options), there numerous titles better served to take gamers' money than this. However, if looking for a third-person shooter that looks stunning on the 3DS eShop, for some reason since the genre usually performs at its best on a big television screen, it might just be worth picking up the multiplayer package. Be sure to try the demo version available before purchase, though, since despite being one of only a few decent looking third-person shooters on the 3DS, care should definitely be taken before splashing the cash. It cannot be stressed enough that this is a poor man's third-person shooter and an overall weak experience in the genre that is currently already overflowing with far better titles than this.