It’s a shooter that doesn’t let you shoot. A puzzle game without any blocks. It’s Split! by Aussie developer Touchy Interactive, and it’s surprisingly sharp.
The retro-styled iOS games has you controlling two soldier types who bust out of some kind of imprisonment. Red Dude and Blue Dude need to make their way through various levels of an enemy base, all of them heavily guarded, of course. But aside from the generic pew-pew guns, this twosome can wield the power of misdirection.
Split!‘s main mechanic involves you moving one primary coloured soldier gut into cover to draw attention and weapons fire from a white-masked enemy so that his partner can take them out from another position. As long as an enemy’s obsessed with trying to keep Red Dude or Blue Dude pinned town, the counterpart Dude can move freely within said enemy’s field of vision.
It might help to think of Split as the shrunken 2D Ikari Warriors-style baby of Army of Two and Gears of War. In those games, hiding behind cover and drawing enemy attention were the key mechanics, alongside trigger-happy shooting action. But, here, you’re creating your own stealth opportunities instead of aiming or managing ammo.
Things get complicated by roving patrols, doors that require tandem unlocking and other obstacles that crop up as you move along. Split! Manages to generate a unique tension all its own and makes you feel deadly and clever. Just like your therapist always says, you’re your own best ally. Split! proves the ol’ head-shrinker right.
Split! (0.99) [iTunes App Store]
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