Review – République
The iPad presents an interesting dilemma that République attempts to solve. How do you make a rich, immersive game that takes advantage of the powerful processors and big, beautiful screen, while not sacrificing playability? Most 3D games are abysmal on iOS thanks to the absence of physical controls, but this does something new.
You jump from camera to camera and direct the protagonist rather than controlling her, which turns out to be an elegant solution in a stealth-heavy game. The episodic structure also seems to be a worthwhile design decision, as they’ve made considerable improvements to the innovative interface.
It’s early days yet, and the story is still building credibility, but the performance capture and voice-acting are excellent, and the environments look good enough for a console game. For that reason, playing on an iPhone is not recommended.
★★★★☆
This review originally appeared in INSIDER Magazine with The Irish Independent.