‘Empty City 3D’ Review
Introduction/First time booting the application
Empty City 3D is a sandbox game where you drive a car off of jumps. But that is just the simple description. Imagine the game like StuntMania Pro, with the tricks and stunts, but with simpler graphics. When you boot the application, you are brought to the main screen, showing a billboard with the words Empty City 3D on it. There you have Play, Options, and OpenFeint. There are achievements in this game! The achievements are basically scoring lots of points in Time Attack mode, and finding all the Megajumps.
Sound
Honestly, the sounds of Empty City 3D are horrible.There is no ingame music, (but I’m sure you could easily play your own music) the sounds of the car engine repeat, and are not different. I am not a fan of having sounds on while play this game, as it is really just noise. It doesn’t add the experience.
Graphics
The graphics in Empty City 3D aren’t that great. This game was made with Unity, which means that it is 3D, but the graphics in this game are not that great. Yes, they are 3D, but there could be some tweaks. The car graphics are alright., but I somehow found that the draw distance of the game (your visibility) seems to take parts away of the graphics. It is often replaced by a blue background that moves with you. It may not be much, but it may annoy some people, while others may like it, as it improves the framerate.
Controls/Gameplay
Controls often make or break a game, let alone a racing or free roam game. Empty City 3D has the standard controls; A button to accelerate, one to brake, and tilt to steer. I often found that the controls would not respond, and I would have to press the button over and over again. And a quick note: If you are stopped, you can turn around to change direction, as the turning when you are driving isn’t very sensitive. This, too, would stop responding, and I would literally turn my device upside down to have it turn. This shows that the gameplay is ruined too. Since the controls are often unresponsive, the gameplay isn’t very good. You can sometimes go off a jump, perform a roll, and the controls would stop responding. Now you land upside down, which isn’t very helpful. Now you are trying to turn around, and the turning isn’t responding. How is this game fun? It isn’t, really.
Replayability/Summary
The replayability of Empty City 3D isn’t really that high; once you find all the Megajumps, and get a highscore on the time attack modes, there isn’t really much to do. But what can you expect from a $0.99 application? I think that the game is alright in graphics, but it has little to no replayability. If you want a sandbox environment, with lots of jumps, yet unresponsive controls, get Empty City 3D.