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M.U.S.E., the highly anticipated over-the-shoulder shooter from Lab Rats Studio is available for download in the App Store as of this morning. This Unity-powered title rises above its competition with incredible graphics, solid cover-shooting controls, and a fast-paced scoring system that encourages action-packed destruction.
As with most games of this type, the plot line isn’t groundbreaking, but it does the job. You play as Sid Tripp, the rough and tough agent for M.U.S.E, a government organization. You will use an arsenal of weapons to hunt down and eliminate an army of cyborgs, controlled by an evil villain who wants to take over the world.
In the game, the left half of the screen is used to move (when holding a finger on the iPad) and the right half is used to aim and move the camera. It’s a good system that other shooters have used, and it’s well-implemented here.
There are buttons for rolling, crouching, and shooting (tap activated), which are well placed and easy to access. Health, weapons, and ammo are displayed at the top of the screen, and reloading weapons can be done by hitting the weapon bar.
Combat action is fast paced and fun, thanks to chained destructions and combo points that increase your score. When shooting, your target locks on to enemy units, which makes shooting much easier. You can turn this off in the options menu for more of a challenge.
Unlike most shooters, your health does not regenerate. Instead, there’s a syringe you can tap on the screen to restore some health and to increase movement. This is okay, but I prefer the faster pace of regeneration, especially since the syringe regenerates health anyways. Why make me hit a button when baseline health regeneration would accomplish the same goal?
During the game, you get plenty of weaponry, though you will need to crouch behind objects to avoid enemy fire and time your attacks. Crouching behind objects isn’t fool proof, so you’ll need to make use of the multidirectional rolls as well.
The game is linear and episode based. Between each level, you are able to upgrade your equipment and skills using credits. If levels aren’t earning you enough currency, you can use real cash to beef up your abilities.
With Game Center integration, you can rack up points and challenge your friends to beat your score and earn 20 in game achievements for Game Center points. M.U.S.E. supports iCloud saving so you can play it on multiple devices, and if you’re running iOS 5 you can use Airplay mirroring with your HDTV and Apple TV to play on the big screen.
We’re well into the holidays now, and most of you have some time off from work and school. If you’re looking for a good way to spend that time, M.U.S.E. likely won’t disappoint.

What I liked: I was appreciative that I could easily fast forward through cut scenes or skip them entirely. I’m an impatient gamer, so I’m glad that I could skip Sid’s not-so-unique story.
What I didn’t like: There weren’t enough checkpoints in the game to prevent me from having to unnecessarily replay content due to one errant dive or wrong maneuver. thought they were placed slightly too far apart, which led to some frustration. Grenades also seemed to have too wide of a blast radius.
To buy or not to buy: The RPG-style character enhancements and fast paced action make M.U.S.E. a game that you won’t want to miss.

• App Name: M.U.S.E.
• Version Reviewed: 1.0
• Category: Games
• Developer: Lab Rats Studio
• Price: $5.99
• Score:  
• via:Padgadget