io is one of those games that gets you really excited to try it out, but then leaves you disappointed on so many levels. The concept is great, but the game never reaches its true potential.
The main character, Norton, must recapture the Nautilus space ship which has been taken over by robots. The story is presented with text only, which would be OK if the story was actually intriguing, but it never really grabs your attention or interest. So if there's no real story then the gameplay must make up for it, right? Nope! So, let's get into it.
Now, the graphics are actually not that bad. The characters are small, so you can't really notice much detail. But, the level design is actually pretty nice. Sound effects are descent, but there is no music at all. The gameplay is where this app goes horribly wrong. The lower left of the screen displays the directional pad. The four directional choices make moving around very choppy. A virtual thumb stick would have been a much better choice here. The lower right displays two large buttons, one to jump and one to switch between walk, run, and crouch. You shoot your weapon by touching the screen, but with the play area being so small, thus making the characters small, touching the screen to shoot makes it almost impossible to see what you are actually targeting. This becomes incredibly frustrating, especially when you are shooting at an enemy, only to be surprised that the enemy has moved and you are actually shooting at nothing! If you can manage to aim accurately, the only indication you have that you are hitting the target is a health meter that pops up. There are no sounds or animations that show you that the target is being hit. The whole targeting system needs to be rethought if this game has any chance of succeeding in the future.
Let's get back to movement. When you first start the game, you are in walking mode. Walking in io is the most horrible experience ever. Your walking speed is slower than a snail, and crouching is even slower. So, your only choice for movement without going insane is running, and because the game also has a stealth aspect to it, running does not let you hide from the robots very well. Now, with the movement in the left thumb, and the firing on screen, you wind up crossing thumbs when you need to move and shoot on the left side of the screen. This becomes very awkward. There is also a feature that allows you to move your character in and out of the screen, offering more depth to the game. There are times when your path is blocked and you need to move further into the screen to navigate around the obstacle. You also need to do this to hide in the shadows from the robots. This actually comes in handy when you don't want a fight.
So, when your movement and targeting fail you and you die, you'd like to think you would start at the last checkpoint, right? But, in io, you get to start back at the very beginning! There are no save points in this game. When you die, you have to start all over again.
io definitely has potential. I really wish this game played as well as the game's icon looks.The story is there, but just not told well. The weapons and level environments are there, but just not executed well. With movement and targeting fixed in this game, I could see it being very successful and popular. But, as it is now, I cannot recommend this app. There are just too many obstacles that make the game extremely difficult to play and almost impossible to enjoy.