By Brian Perry

You win some, you lose some, and sometimes its just a push. For fans of Bioware’s Mass Effect franchise, their new iPhone game Mass Effect: Galaxies definitely falls in the latter category. Unfortunately those not steeped in the lore wont get much out their latest adventure.

Galaxies is a game made of two parts, interactive story telling via animated comic book style drawings and dialog selection, and an odd mix of a contra style shooter mixed with one of the old labyrinth marble puzzles, each with their own ups and downs.

Where Galaxies excels is in the story telling, a hallmark of Bioware’s games. Working as a bridge story between Mass Effect, and it’s upcoming sequel Mass Effect 2, the game follows the story of Jacob Taylor, who will show up in Mass Effect 2 as a companion character, as he attempts to thwart a Batarian attack on the galactic capital “The Citadel”. The story is decently crafted in the Bioware style and is rich with the lore of the universe, letting experienced players slip right in and enjoy the extension. However for those not familiar with the series, allusions to races and locations can be easily missed as the 2 hour adventure doesn’t have time to enlighten the player on the intricacies.

For a game, Galaxies can easily be found lacking. The combat mode is uninspired and repetitive and seems more of an excuse to call it a game than an interactive storybook. utilizing an overhead view, the player tilts the iPhone from side to side to navigate Jacob around the map much like a Labyrinth Marbel puzzle. As you navigate him around the map, Jacob will automaticly fire at his designated target, automaticly picked by the computer but can be over ridden by tapping on a new target on the screen, whenever he has line of site. Keeping with the setting the player can also utilize one of 3 power attacks based on the biotic abilities from the original game. The combat is also where Bioware’s unfamiliarity with the iPhone hardware begins to show, watching a mobile app significantly lag on the newest model iPod Touch is disheartening to say the least.

In the end Mass Effect: Galaxies fares poorly as a stand alone product. Despite the beautiful animation, the decent if limited voice acting, and well crafted story it, it fails to be something any random gamer could realistically pick up and enjoy to the degree the developers were hoping. But for the franchise enthusiasts the cheap price tag is well worth the purchase if only to get a peek at what’s next in the Mass Effect universe.

Score: 6/10