Space Marshall is a neat action RPG on iOS where you play a space cowboy that goes after various criminals using guns and explosives. It's not entirely perfect, but I had a good time with it, especially since the mix of twin stick controls and touch screens doesn't always work. I could see this game work on other platforms as well, but it doesn't detract from the experience; A nice shooter with unlockable gear and replayability - perhaps a bit too much.
A twin stick shooter can be terrible on iOS, but SM does it fine; You move with a virtual joystick to the left of the screen and shoot using the right side. You can tap to switch between moving and sneaking and it happened a bit too much by mistake for me in order to avoid detection from snipers and other enemies - after all, you deal bonus damage if you hit unaware foes. To fire, you drag to aim and release to shoot. It's a bit rough, I wish there had been more options, like tapping to shoot, but this works. You have two weapons on you, a sidearm and a larger gun, and two kind of grenades.
For completing levels without dying and by killing 'high value targets' you get ranked, which allows you to pick level-exclusive rewards, from cosmetic hats to armor and new weapons with various stats and effects. In theory, this is a nice system, in practice, dying to a boss after a fifteen minutes level means you're denied one of the unlocks that might've been the item you really wanted, and redoing levels only to get more things is a bit annoying, the completitionist in me really wanted to redo levels enough times to get everything, but that got a bit tiresome. The range of weapons you get is okay, from shotguns to assault rifles to snipers, there's probably something in there that suits your play style.
Your character is tough enough and depending on the armor you select, you get more health or shields - shields recharge if they're not depleted - and various changes to your movement speed. To buff yourself very temporarily during levels, there are power-ups you can pick laying around. You also find 'useful clues', but I'm not sure what they're used for yet. Levels are fine, with a variety of enemies and bosses, with small puzzles and exploration that rewards you with more ammo and health. My main problem with the game is how slow you move, your character really struggles to get it going, even worse when you activate sneak mode by mistake, but the normal move speed is way too sluggish, I wish it had been twice as fast.
Space Marshall was good! It's kinda funny, the gameplay is solid for an iOS twin stick shooter and there seems to be enough content in there to play it for a good while!
