iPhone 11
iOS 13.3.1
Why does the playable character (PC) have to run out from cover to return fire? If crouching behind a crate, he should be popping up and not running out. He should be leaning out from behind walls, not awkwardly running out from behind them. It feels janky and eats time, the way this is handled.
When returning fire, why doesn’t the aiming reticule correspond to the PC’s onscreen position? It seems to appear randomly. This makes it hard to aim in the time you have to return fire. The aiming reticule should be made to line up with the PC—as it does on every other cover based shooter.
Why are several NPC’s positioned so poorly? You can target them with the reticule, but the PC will be facing in a direction perpendicular to them. The PC needs to be facing what he’s firing at, otherwise it looks like bad game design.
Why are the settings for the analog sensitivity set up this way? You cannot set the sensitivity precisely when you’re using a circle on a bar, as the circle blocks your view of the bar. An easy fix would be to ditch the bar in favor of a numeric value system. This way the customer could know exactly how sensitive they’ve set the controls to be.
Why is there a time limit? Why is it so tight? Why does the PC only advance a few feet before having to take cover again? Each standoff can take nearly a minute. Then, when the PC advances, he only proceeds another dozen feet before having to take cover again. All the while, the timer’s counting down to game over.
Why is the ammo for the secondary weapon so limited? The Mauser and sterling can run dry quickly, and they don’t reload like the sidearm does. There are two ammo refills. But getting them is difficult as you have to shoot them, something there may not be time to do. The number of ammo drops needs increasing or the secondary weapons need to be given unlimited ammo—maybe some kind of timer.
Why are there no health power ups? Because of the way this game’s set up, you have to play aggressively. This means the PC will take quite a few hits. Yet, there are no health kits. If you manage to make it to the boss, before the timer runs out, your health will be running on fumes.
As is, British Gangsters is a cover based shooter where the PC has to slowly run into the open to return fire, the aiming reticule appears in random positions, the PC will fire at NPC’s he’s not facing towards, the analog sensitivity is hard to accurately set, there’s an extremely tight time limit, the scarcity of ammo renders the secondary weapons useless and the PC’s vitality is constantly dropping with no way to recover it.
There’s a good product here. But it’s buried under some highly questionable game design calls. If Plug in Digital addresses some of these issues, this could become a top flight, cover based shooter for mobile. As is, it’s simply not fun to play. And, that’s only thing a game, by definition, is required to be.