Ironfall Invasion

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

Players: 1-6 Competitive (Local Wireless, Online)

.

Review:

Ironfall Invasion is an over-the-shoulder Third-Person Shooter released on Nintendo 3DS in 2015. This is a cover-based shooter that’s roughly comparable to games like the Gears of War franchise, and similarly has you fighting off aliens with a futuristic arsenal of weaponry. Players can get a “free” version of this game that acts as a demo of sorts, giving access to the first campaign level and a few multiplayer features, and they can separately unlock the rest of the campaign and/or multiplayer features for $10 each (though you should know that online lobbies are abandoned at this point, so the only use this will have now is for wireless local play with anyone else who bought the game).

The graphics in this game are pretty good for a Nintendo 3DS game, featuring somewhat detailed environments, mostly decent-looking character models (though stylistically chunky, much like Gears of War), and some nice effects in places. The one area where I’d say the visuals need improvement is that they are pretty generic and unmemorable. But on a technical level, this is pretty solid.

The sound, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. The music is fine although it is, again, pretty generic. However, the voice acting here is outright terrible. It’s stilted and keeps interrupting itself, and it kills any sort of dramatic tension the game’s (completely forgettable) story tries to set up.

At the very least, the core gameplay here is mostly solid. Players move their character using the analog stick, and aim using the touchscreen, but players who have the Circle Pad Pro or a New Nintendo 3DS can also opt to make use of the C-stick for aiming. It takes some getting used to doing this, but once you do, I tend to find this the preferable way to play.

Beyond this… well, there’s not much this game does to set itself apart from the countless shooters on the market. It’s not especially bad in any way, but neither does it distinguish itself in any way. In fact, the one remotely original thing it tries to do, its Gears of War-style cover system, is extremely clunky, and half the time you’re better off trading gunfire with enemies and then running around a corner to take a moment to heal. What seemed to want to be a somewhat tactical shooter ultimately works out to be a dumb, more actiony one.

However, as a dumb, actiony Third-Person Shooter, Ironfall Invasion is worth trying. It doesn’t do anything especially novel (other than existing on the Nintendo 3DS), its cover mechanic doesn’t work well and its voice acting is absurdly bad, but its core action gameplay is good, and its visuals are decent. At the very least, if you own a Nintendo 3DS, you should try out the “free” version of the game to see if you might want to spend money on the enhanced features.

tl;dr – Ironfall Invasion is a Third-Person Shooter with some similarities to the Gears of War series, with a similar cover mechanic. That mechanic works poorly here, the gameplay is a bit uninspired and repetitive, and the voice acting is absurdly bad, but the core gameplay mechanics are solid, the visuals are good, and overall this is a decent (if a bit dumb) shooter on Nintendo 3DS, well worth trying the free version to see if you might want to pay for the game’s full release.

Grade: C+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Johannes, Ilya Zverev, Connor Armstrong, Eli Goodman, Kristoffer Wulff, Stov, and Gabriel Coronado-Medina. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}