PS3

N.O.V.A.: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance

ShooterAdventure

Overview

N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance is an action-adventure video game for the iPad and other Apple products made for Apple by Gameloft. It was released on December 17, 2009, for iOS, WebOS and is one of the games containing the Gameloft Live online gaming service. It was later released on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 on December 21, 2010, just five days after the release of N.O.V.A. 2.

N.O.V.A. is primarily a first-person shooter, with one on-rails driving segment. Its single player main story length averages approximately 4 hours. Throughout the game's twelve levels, players fight against alien enemies known as Xenos. The game takes major cues from sci-fi console shooters, such as the Halo and Metroid series. The player can use eight weapons that resemble futuristic versions of weapons found in one of Gameloft's previous works, Modern Combat: Sandstorm.

In the distant future, Earth is no longer able to sustain life, and humans live on artificial satellites called near-orbitals. To protect themselves, the near-orbitals jointly formed a military organization known as the Near Orbital Vanguard Alliance (NOVA).

The game was well received by critics and has a Metacritic score of 94/100 based on 9 reviews. Levi Buchanan of IGN awarded the game a 9.0/10, calling it "the best first-person shooter on the iPhone right now." Pocket Gamer gave the game a 9/10 and a "Gold Award". Pocket Gamer also awarded it Best Action/Arcade Game for iPhone in 2010. Slide to Play gave a perfect 4/4, saying "Fans of FPSes shouldn't let this one slip by.