C.H.A.O.S. Review – Flying helicopters for fun and profit (in your iPhone or iPad)

Our rating:

By: SkyJet Ltd

Version #: 3.0.3

Date Released: 2011-10-04

Developer: SkyJet Ltd

Price: 2.99

User Rating:

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C.H.A.O.S. is a combat helicopter simulator game that takes full advantage of the iPhone accelerometer, the beautiful display, and the powerful processor and graphics available for apps. It really gives you a very involved experience that will have you turning your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad all different sorts of ways while trying to navigate away from your enemies in battle. If you’re playing it in public, chances are you’ll get a few strange looks!

When you first start this game, it is very clear how large and developed that it is. This is one of the only games available that really makes you think you should be playing it on a dedicated gaming system. The layout is very similar to what you would see on an older gaming system flight simulator, and the graphics are absolutely stunning. Also similar to these types of games, C.H.A.O.S. has a ton of missions and training levels that you can play to develop your flying skills and master them before you go into battle. These lessons come in really handy, because also similar to older flight simulator games on gaming systems, the controls take getting used to and some might find them hard to master.

If you choose, you can work through all the various missions and the training levels before you begin to play multiplayer, but many of the solo levels are not too engaging and very long. However, once you start playing multiplayer, you might find yourself going back to the training levels to brush up on your control with computer enemies! Multiplayer is really where this game sets itself apart, and really where the fun begins. Similar to XBox Live, or the PS3 network, you have the opportunity to join games in progress and have a free for all against other players. You also have the chance to play team games, and both the death match and the team games are to win a certain amount of “money” at the end.

This incentive of money to buy different choppers (and even FIX your choppers from damage) keeps the game going, and gives you a good reason to compete. Also, once you start getting shot down by opponents, then you’ll find yourself really wanting to get much better! The game also has a very deep set of upgrades in the weapons department that you can purchase to make your experience better, which also really gives you a reason to win some multiplayer battles or play the missions.

The biggest weakness in this game is the control scheme. While it is very interesting, and gets you moving your iPhone around, it can be rather complicated. The accelerometer is used to tilt the helicopter forward, backward, and bank from side to side on a horizontal plane. The joystick controls at the bottom left are to move the helicopter up and down, and also rotate 360 degrees in a circle. They are not particularly intuitive controls, and some people will definitely find it frustrating. However, you are able to change your “view” and I found that once you took the cockpit view, the motion was much easier to control than in the third person view.

This game has a ton of potential, and it is worth the $2.99 that it charges. At the moment, it is still in the process of working some bugs out, and figuring out what things do and don’t work. Additionally, some translations to English are a bit off here and there, but you are able to understand everything for the most part. Without multiplayer, this game would be possibly questionable, but the multiplayer online experience is so similar to something like XBox Live or PS3 that it is well worth the purchase to experience that online competition.