#STARFRONT COLLISION IOS FOR FREE#
#STARFRONT COLLISION IOS UPGRADE#

Important note: StarFront only works on the iPhone 4 or 3GS, and iPod Touches third-gen or above.Gameloft has finally released a gameplay trailer for their highly anticipated real time strategy title, Starfront: Collision. Or maybe you'll be so blown away by having a StarCraft experience on iPhone, you can totally overlook any fussiness. Perhaps you won't find them as cluttered. This is great for StarFront, because you can test out the controls without risk.

#STARFRONT COLLISION IOS FOR FREE#

StarFront also adopts Gameloft's new freemium model, so you can download the game for free and try out a sample mission before purchasing the entire game for $6.99. I cannot necessarily imagine it being done better, but if you have the option to play on the iPad, I urge you to hold out. But these issues stress the limitations of the iPhone in handling a full-scale RTS. Now, much of this will be solved (theoretically) when Gameloft brings this to the iPad, where I think StarFront rightfully belongs. Menus, when expanded, obscure almost the entire battlefield.

Pinch-selecting units is a little clumsy on the smaller screen. Even with the ability to shrink the minimap and the saved unit groups, there's too much happening on-screen. As much as I really like Gameloft's effort to give you great control over your forces, such as the ability to draw a rectangle over units and 'bind' them into a single fighting force which can then be assigned to one of three saved factions (the same StarCraft fan referenced above lamented the inability to un-bind units), StarFront on the iPhone is simply cluttered. But there are escorts and rescues, too, as well as resource and relic runs that require you to think defensively instead of purely offensively, and these are a good change of pace.īusy busy However, I have to circle back to the controls now. Many campaign missions are fairly straightforward, tasking you with asserting dominance over the map with brute force, clever strategy, or a combination of both. As for the missions themselves, they will not feel unfamiliar to any RTS fan. Of course, if you want to increase production, you have to sacrifice some workers to the cause. All you need to do to generate these resources is drop specific buildings on rich veins, such as the meteor craters loaded with Xenodium. There's so much happening with upgrades that I'm grateful Gameloft dialed back on the number of resources: Xenodium and Energy.

#STARFRONT COLLISION IOS UPGRADE#

You can upgrade individual units through tech and weapon boosts, increase production through application of worker units (however, workers are 'consumed' when doing so – they are not recycled, which gave a hardcore StarCraft fan in the office pause). Units span from basic infantry to airships, each with strengths and weaknesses, and every race has unique troops and vehicles. You don't just have a handful of unit types and building/tech upgrades – these number in the dozens. This means war Gameloft goes deep on customization. Not only are there three campaigns across three races (just like StarCraft), there is a serious resource management game-within-a-game, online PVP and free-for-all skirmishes, and a host of options that will make any fan of the genre seriously happy.

Whereas Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer for iOS cut corners and was decidedly watered down (but still playable), Gameloft delivers the real deal. Before drilling down a little more on the controls issue, let's go over what StarFront does right.

Starfront collision ios