Fractal Combat, one of the best arial combat games in the AppStore, and one that I was given the chance to review last month, has just had it’s first update to version 1.1 – and damn, is it a nice one!
Version 1.1 has these new features;
– New, more challenging, bosses
– Improved user interface
– Added “Free Flight” mode
– Improved buttons layout on iPad
– Reduced shaking of controls
– Energy is now pulled towards the player
– Fixed bug about 500 enemies down achievement
– New Icon
The new bosses look great, and add a bunch to the already hectic action filled gameplay. As for the new user interface, if you’ve had Fractal Combat for a while, the level select screen might take you by surprise at first, I know it did me. But once you look around, you’ll see how improved it is. You can now see your scores and rankings for each level in each planet. Just tap on the planet in the top left, and all the levels show up on the bottom of the screen, with a list going down the right side of the screen with the rankings and scores for each level. This is awesome for being able to go back and replay the levels that you want to try and get better scores on, or to find that one level that you don’t have 3 starson yet. There is no more scrolling, and the whole look of it is a lot more cleaned up and organized.
The Free Flight Mode is a great addition, letting you visit each of the planets, and gives you an opportunity to play around with different ship set-ups without worrying about enemies. Here, you can master the thruster engines, or get a grip on the rotor powered ships, which in my opinion, are a bit harder to handle. But it’s worth learning how to fly them, as they have quite a bit more defensive strength. Also added is reduced shaking of the controls. This is a huge improvement, as there’s no longer noticeable shaking when you’re holding your device. It makes the flight aspect of the game a whole lot smoother, and in turn improves the gameplay experience.
Now, you are also able to fly by energy pick-ups without worrying about needing to go through them in order to pick them up. You can now fly over, under or beside the energy and it’ll be picked up by your ship. This helps a lot with focusing on the action at hand instead of keeping your eyes on the energy balls and not the enemies. It’s an awesome addition to the game.
Bottom line. If you don’t have Fractal Combat, the price has gone down to $0.99 permanently, and it’s now even better than it was before, you need to buy this game. It’s going to end up in my top 5 favorites of 2011 list for sure. Especially with the next update brining more features, larger enemy bases, more game modes, more game context, new weapons, new ships, and new worlds. The developer is also taking suggestions through a contact page on his blog, which can be found here –
Fractal Combat Developers Blog – and is also a great place to stay up to speed with the new features being added to the game.
