Rebel with a Cause

While Commander Shepard is taking on the Reaper threat head-on, there are many individual stories happening in the galaxy about the struggle and strife of the galaxy’s citizens, both within themselves and with outside threats. Mass Effect: Infiltrator explores one of those stories. You play as Randall Enzo, a Cerberus agent who will fulfill his masters’ wishes at any cost. As long as it’s non-human, Enzo has no remorse in taking it down, whether heartless Geth or Turian Raiders. He is a soldier through and through…until Cerberus goes too far and uses his best friend, Inali, in one of their twisted experiments. Now, pushed to the edge, Randall looks to take revenge the only way he knows how…by putting a bullet in his problems.

Fans of the Mass Effect universe will the see the immediate appeal of this game as you get to get behind an assault rifle and use some biotics to take on both familiar and new enemies specific to the game in a portable form for only seven dollars. The controls are a bit difficult to get used to at first as you obviously lack joysticks, but you will soon be mimicking the patterns of the console basis for this game as your left thumb moves you around and your right serves to aim, and remember this is easier, of course, on a larger iPad screen than a pint-sized iPhone.

You get plenty of practice to get used to this mechanic though no matter your iOS format as the game has an arcade on-rails shooter feeling as you move from area to area picking off your enemies one by one as they slowly march towards your position and you duck behind a conveniently placed piece of cover. This can get boring quickly and only the thought of enjoying a decently developed spin-off story in the Mass Effect universe will drive the more hardcore players forward in many cases as the casual Mass Effect fans may fall to the wayside.

Something else that might push people to finish this game though is the fact that Infiltrator can link to Mass Effect 3’s “Galaxy at War” feature. A cheap gimmick to help sell the game, I know, but if you’re determined to avoid the ME3 multiplayer for various reasons, this might be another way to help your galaxy readiness and for you to get the best ending if you’re willing to shell out more cash. I would have loved to have uploaded my specific Randall at the end of the game though instead of just the special Cerberus intel I collected. All in all though, Infiltrator looks and sounds great and is a solid purchase for diehard Mass Effect fans as it gives you about 4-5 hours worth of original content that might give fans flashbacks of Mass Effect 2 as you look at things again from the other side. Newcomers and casual fans of the series will likely want to steer clear though as this is definitely not the best way to experience the Mass Effect universe overall.

SUMMARY: An interesting spin-off to the main Mass Effect universe, only the most hardcore of fans will look past the repetitive on-rails game play and iffy controls.

  • THE GOOD: Unique adventure that ties in nicely with the Mass Effect universe
  • THE BAD: Repetitive on-rails game play, hit or miss touch controls
  • THE UGLY: Randall Enzo’s biotics infused face

SCORE: 7.5

Mass Effect: Infiltrator is exclusive to the iOS format.